September 16, 2004 @ 5:35 pm

Book Talk: Relentless Aaron - Urban Fiction's Don

by: Lynne d. Johnson

When VIBE Magazine published “Write Thurr” in the 11th Anniversary Juice Is

So what's all this buzz going on about you? The buzz about me is that people are looking for truth. I went away to prison over six years ago and I had to decide what I was going to stand for and not fall for. I had the opportunity to see that I could create something. Being around thousands of men I would see so many characters. I started with songs. Then poems. Then stories. Then books. The first book took a year. On my website (relentlessaaron.com) I put out the 20th book first. I developed a practice. The writing saved my life, kept me out of trouble, kept me productive. Did you already have writing or publishing experience? I used to publish a magazine called The Superstar so I was familiar with the publishing process. That was the back story to my being an author and publisher. I knew some of the process-desktop publishing, printing, how to mold a product that the public wants. I never wrote professionally before, but as far as I can remember back I was always writing. Having gone to prison I was able to focus and fine tune what was in my mind. I think we are all writers. We are inspirations. Jill Scott on a CD, Michael Jordan on the court, and me in a book. We put down what inspires us and I embodied it in a book. How'd you end up being locked up? I was buried in debt. The first few years of a business are telling years. I was at a threshold. The magazine was beginning, and was becoming more visible. I had to make it or fold. My second child was conceived. Pressures, staff, business, phone bill, all of this on my shoulders. One incident with a check at a local bank afforded me an awareness that I ran with. A storm of dependency. Free money. I needed more, more, more. I ran with that. Not focused on purpose anymore. I was just focused on money. That's a problem with us today. Sex addiction. Drug addiction. Money is also an addiction. I milked it for what it was worth. I was not careful. I didn't focus on my craft and so I fell. It was a pretty big fall. I had a TV show and magazine. What gave you that entrepreneurial spirit? I grew up in Mount Vernon and New Rochelle. I did some college. From there I left to be an entrepreneur. It's in me from my father and his mother before him. I was always selling something. Got involved in real estate at 17. I ran into a friend who taught ins and outs of concert business in the 'hood. I was 18 when I got into that, doing hand-to-hand business with Russell booking groups-Run DMC, Jekyll and Hyde. Dealing with those moguls I did concerts and decided to go into the amateur talent field. I did concerts and talent competitions week after week that became a TV show and we had celebrities coming down for interviews. How do you go from that to prison? I had progression and digression. I just finished November 2003. I just came out after seven years. I wrote 30 books while in there. My latest books took 15 days to write. That's impossible. There is no way you could have that much material to write so many books. What was your inspiration? My inspiration is from past experiences and people I know. You are what you eat. If you meet someone you are inhaling the atoms that form them-energies of life, essence. They fill out in my books. My books are molded to sell. I didn't sit and say what would sell now. I focused on an idea and ran with it from one book to the next, one page to the next, one chapter to the next. I was still writing when it was time to go home. It was life or death. I said I could master this field. I read books. I read black authors and white authors. I read the best. And I developed discipline for writing. People don't have what I had. I had time to focus. The results are in front of you. In the last three months I published three novels. Push is the one that's out there now - people know more about my books and characters than me. They put responses on Amazon.com, Essence.com and I get prison letters and e-mail. There's an issue of bad grammar and poor editing with some of these books like yours. So many people writing who weren't trained to write or didn't go through certain formal channels. What do you have to say about that? I read a lot of these books too. There's paragraphs that are repeated. I've seen paragraphs repeated in paperbacks by established authors who have been published for a decade. If you look for the hole in the doughnut you will find it. A good writer doesn't necessarily have a good story and because you are a good storyteller doesn't necessarily mean you are good writer. But if it's only you looking at the books aren't there liable to be some errors? The first book I edited. Now I have editors. I did the desktop publishing. I typed the first book in prison. We didn't have a computer to type it, and we didn't have the Internet. I thought I could scan in the manuscript when I got home. I had to convert all of my long hand to manuscript. I got it so people could read and believe. Once you have passion and belief, things fall in place. People wanted to help me pursue my objective. I'm doing translations in Spanish. We are doing one book in a comic book series for young people. I could be the next billionaire author. Couldn't that happen faster if you got a deal? From some of the people in the industry who have looked me over, they say I have everything and I don't need the majors. Unless they go for seven figures they can't see me. I am discussing movies now. It's bananas right now. Financing is there. Money is there. Readers want every book I've written. What would I need from a big publisher that I am not doing on my own. I don't have excuses like other authors who are with majors. It's all on me. There are so many names for this type of fiction, what do you call your stories? I call mine urban fiction. Hardcore urban fiction has such a stigma on it. In some sense it's contemporary urban fiction. I do an inclusion of us into stories that are relevant. It's not just stories that are about us. It's reality. Somewhere between the bells and whistles there is a lesson. I am entertaining. There is politics and big money and you may even learn about real estate. So is anything autobiographical? Somehow, someway I am living vicariously through characters. Could be people I love or even people I hate. What can you tell others about publishing? Since I came home I wrote a book about doing this, so I know if I did it you can too. It's a how-to publishing book that shows people how I do it. It's not on the bestsellers list and I'm not anticipating that it will be. I'm not looking for Oprah. I want to be the Michael Jordan of this brand of business. Come on though, from your site promotion, what you do on the street, you really think you'll be that successful? We are almost at 20,000-with the first book that came out at the end of December, the beginning of January. It's in small bookstores and big ones. We have total distribution and preorders for the next two books sight unseen. The Barnes and Nobles of the world have not opened up to me yet. We are on their site. All sites want to sell all that's available. In terms of stores I feel it's a feather in a cap - that's the phone call when I know I'm someone. It's easy to get on the shelf but harder to get into the hands of readers. That's where it begins. Some people just want to get published. So how do you get your books into people's hands? Hard work got it into people's hands. Consistence. Discipline. Everyday grind. But it's no secret. I have my own theories. For aspiring authors they should follow the people who have laid the groundwork. There is Hollaway house, Triple Crown-first movers. They are pioneers. They have laid groundwork and opened doors so that I can bring my product to the plate. Do you have any haters? The idea of competition is another excuse. I have gotten rid of excuse-itis. Where there is a will there is a way. C'mon haters? That's just a term to - writers use - people use - it's just a term - it's meaningless now. What I learned from the Norman Vincent Peals of the world is that you focus on good energy and not the bad. If anyone can come and say anything to make you act and react you, then you are surrendering power. I'm focused. There's no hate. Not from me. I am happy people are writing books, making money, and staying out of trouble. 'Cuz there's a number out there waiting for them. Federal number, state number, whatever. What is this name of yours? Relentless is me. It speaks to my passion. My affirmations. My sticktuitiveness. It's all coming from my spirit.

Article tags: Book, Talk, Relentless, Aaron, Urban, Fiction's, Don 

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