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KAREN HUNTER: Author/publisher promoting good works.
Launched in 2007, Karen Hunter Publishing, an imprint of Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, has released three books to date, including the recent “Love is a Two-Way Street,” the first novel by JL King. Hunter’s publishing company came out of her hopes and desire to find good literature, particularly from the African American community.
“I started writing books with celebrities and other noted people and personalities, and I started submitting proposals for books that I really wanted to work on and concentrate on; books that would inspire and motivate kids and adults,” she said. “I’m about empowering people. I would go out and do speaking engagements and I would say, ‘We should have a book about this and that.’”
Hunter said that she approached some of publishers she’d worked with in collaborating best sellers and books with celebs such as Queen Latifah, Al Sharpton, Donda West, Wendy Williams, and Cedric the Entertainer, in hopes of publishing books with empowering messages and ideas. However, the publishing houses kept turning her down.
“And then I saw the emergence of what we call ‘street lit’; graphic ghetto novels and all of these books that are, in my opinion, illiterate blather,” Hunter said. “I grew up in a time when there were real urban novels. It’s not the subject matter; it’s the quality and the level of the work. I don’t have a problem with writing about a pimp. I’ve written a book with a pimp. But if we’re going to put out books into the marketplace, and they are books by us – and by us I mean mostly African American -- then they should be literate – and they weren’t.”
Hunter was disappointed by the books in the marketplace, but was not discouraged. Out of her frustration, she decided to start my own publishing house.
“Simon & Schuster had the best deal for me, which provided me with complete control of my own company. I watched what happened to Judith Regan. When she pissed people off, they fired her – from Regan Books. That can’t happen, so I wanted to make sure I had control and ownership of my own product and company.”
Hunter signed a deal in January 2007 and released the first book, ‘Why Black Men Love White Women,’ by Rajen Persaud, in October of that year.
“If you’re going to do something, you should do it right, you should do it large, and you should do it significantly,” Hunter said about deciding to launch her company. “I never wanted to creep into a space and just hang out there. I didn’t have to do this for a living. I was doing pretty well as a collaborator working with some of the biggest names in the industry. I could retire on that. This is about legacy and this is about reclaiming our voice, our history and it’s about having some control over the images out there.”
Hunter’s hopes and aspirations may appear to be a selfish move. After all, the author herself was motivated by the fact that there wasn’t satisfactory literature in the marketplace and she herself was finding it difficult to get her own proposals published. However, Karen Hunter Publishing is actually more about incubating, encouraging, and publishing other talented writers.
“It’s more like a movement,” she described. “If you’re given a vision to do something, you don’t do it nine to five; it encompasses your entire being. It’s who you are. What I’ve been asked to do is important. Throughout history, the person that controls words is the person that can control and move a whole nation, so I understand the value of that and I’m not taking that lightly. It’s very important that we do it right.”
Quite passionate about the development of talent in the community, Hunter said her venture has a nobler intention than perhaps some others.
“I’m not interested in taken the route of a Bob Johnson who started BET, which was really geared towards exploitation of a particular community with the hopes of making a lot of money,” she jabbed. “To me it’s about building up a particular community and out of that possibly building up the entire nation and then the world.”
Nevertheless, the route Hunter is taking is the one less traveled. Even getting published by Karen Hunter is a different process. Traditionally, authors find an agent who submits their work to publishers.
“For me, I’m looking, I’m searching. As a matter of fact, we’re going to have a contest in September. I believe in our community there’s a J.K. Rowling, there’s a John Grisham, there’s a Stephen King,” Hunter explained. “I think with the energy that we come to table with, there are going to be some dynamic writers out there that I’m going to look for.”
Additionally, Hunter is developing (up and coming) authors. She told EUR’s Lee Bailey that she currently has a few authors that she’s had her eye on and is bringing into her fold.
“Back in the day you had Gwendolyn Brooks and James Baldwin; all these folks would hang out and exchange ideas and motivate and catapult each other to success,” she compared. “Today we have a few hacks scrambling over a few dollars; trying to be seen and trying to get money. I want to make sure we have some great writers coming out of our community. We shouldn’t have mediocre product out there.”
Hunter is making it her business to put masterpieces in the marketplace by publishing and cultivating good works. For more on current and upcoming projects, check the company website at www.karenhunterpublishing.com and stay tuned for EUR’s Part 2.
“I don’t know what the future of black publishing is, but the future of Karen Hunter Publishing is unlimited. We are in the midst of doing some things that have never been done before and I’m excited about it.”
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