Jayne Allen's Blog
January 23, 2019
What It Felt Like to Be Selected for Kirkus Magazine's December 15th, 2018 Print Edition!
I felt like shouting it from the rooftops and telling anyone that would listen (so sorry to my seatmates on flights over the Holidays), but I wanted everyone to know -- Black Girls Must Die Exhausted: a Novel For Grownups was selected by Kirkus Magazine editors as a featured new release in their year end "Best of 2018" print magazine edition!
THIS IS HUGE!
My mission has been to bring diversity to fiction by carefully carving a lane as a writer and challenging my indie publisher, Quality Black Books, to match the quality, creativity and positioning of the major publishers. This means that as a team, we had to set the bar even higher, bringing not only a unique and quality story to life, but wrapping it in a lush, beautiful creative cover and putting it up against the major publishers releases.
Part of that process was to submit to Kirkus Reviews for their professional and critical review of the manuscript before we published. Because of timing, we had to move forward with the publishing date even before the review was finalized and received. If you're not familiar with Kirkus (I had no idea how incredibly influential they were until recently), they are pretty much the gold standard of book reviews for the entire industry. Usually publishers submit up to a year prior to publication. A favorable Kirkus review can sometimes be the entire foundation of a book's marketing campaign!
So, imagine how I and the team at Quality Black Books celebrated when we learned that Kirkus selected their review of Black Girls for feature in not only a print edition of the magazine, but the last edition of 2018, their December 15th "Best of 2018" edition. I cried, I shouted, I clapped, I jumped for joy. I was so happy to know that all of the love and work and positive vision that we set for "Black Girls" would be recognized at the highest levels of the publishing industry.
If you receive the print edition of Kirkus Reviews magazine, we're right there on the first page of the Indie Fiction section on page 173. If you haven't had a chance to read the entire review, you can also find it online here: Kirkus Review for "Black Girls Must Die Exhausted"
More later!
xo, Jayne
THIS IS HUGE!
My mission has been to bring diversity to fiction by carefully carving a lane as a writer and challenging my indie publisher, Quality Black Books, to match the quality, creativity and positioning of the major publishers. This means that as a team, we had to set the bar even higher, bringing not only a unique and quality story to life, but wrapping it in a lush, beautiful creative cover and putting it up against the major publishers releases.
Part of that process was to submit to Kirkus Reviews for their professional and critical review of the manuscript before we published. Because of timing, we had to move forward with the publishing date even before the review was finalized and received. If you're not familiar with Kirkus (I had no idea how incredibly influential they were until recently), they are pretty much the gold standard of book reviews for the entire industry. Usually publishers submit up to a year prior to publication. A favorable Kirkus review can sometimes be the entire foundation of a book's marketing campaign!
So, imagine how I and the team at Quality Black Books celebrated when we learned that Kirkus selected their review of Black Girls for feature in not only a print edition of the magazine, but the last edition of 2018, their December 15th "Best of 2018" edition. I cried, I shouted, I clapped, I jumped for joy. I was so happy to know that all of the love and work and positive vision that we set for "Black Girls" would be recognized at the highest levels of the publishing industry.
If you receive the print edition of Kirkus Reviews magazine, we're right there on the first page of the Indie Fiction section on page 173. If you haven't had a chance to read the entire review, you can also find it online here: Kirkus Review for "Black Girls Must Die Exhausted"
More later!
xo, Jayne
January 17, 2019
Hello!
Well, hello there! It's now been a few quick months since the release of my debut novel Black Girls Must Die Exhausted and I think it's about time that I started a blog!
I'm so excited about all of the building momentum and wonderful developments around the book that I can't wait to share with you. And, I'm also looking forward to breaking down the "behind the scenes" background that went into writing, producing and publishing Black Girls.
I was involved in every step, from of course the writing, to a very specific vision for the cover design, to the tweaking of fonts, language for book descriptions, everything. I believe that every book is an actual piece of art that you get to immerse yourself in. And so every little detail mattered to me to the utmost!
As a little bit of trivia, the cover designer for Black Girls is a Somali artist, and a female business owner situated in Somalia. I was so happy and proud to be able to support this sister in her business and to make her a part of the Black Girls journey. She said that she was drawn to the project from the title, as her own sister had recently passed away - and she knew from reading the book description that it would be an uplifting story and one that she could participate in honor of her sister. Amazing, right? And she did such an incredible job - I couldn't be happier with how the cover came out. I love displaying my physical copies of Black Girls right on my bookshelf in my home and the gorgeous mix of lush verdant colors always make me smile when they catch my eye.
So much to say, but I'm going to keep this first post short. Make sure to follow me here as I plan for regular updates. I'm going to cover topics from the book, provide discussion questions (and try to avoid spoilers), and give tips for other aspiring writers. Also, feel free to ask me questions about the book as I'm happy to answer them and chat about any of the related topics!
Be back soon!
xo, Jayne
