LITERARY HOODSEGEMENT DOS:THE INTERVIEW
MARK ANTHONYDo you know what on Fire means? It means you are hot, blazing, sizzling, crackling like meat on a skillet, and it means that you are doing the shit hard.
Mark Anthony is definitely on fire and I got the opportunity to interview Queens’s finest author. Once again people this is i.b Concept magazine and it is I your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla. I told you from the jump that you were gonna get a huge dosage of LITERARY HOOD this issue and I delivered it as only I could. Most are way to pussy to say what they must but not I. I seldom nestle under the safety of the tortoise shell and neither does Mark Anthony.
Mark Anthony in addition to being the President and founder of Q-boro Books is also an author in his own right and began as such. He has two Essence bestselling books,
Paper Chasers and
Dogism and
Lady’s Night published by St. Martins Press is also in bookstores nation wide.
Mark and I have been jostling with our busy schedules, attempting to get this interview done since the i.b Concept’s promotional issue but to no avail. And it’s crazy because I stared out in the street fiction book circuit on tour with him and another well polished author Erick Gray the creator of Booty Call (he also has two books under Q-boro and another title soon to be release on St. Martin’s).
I don’t wanna bore you with the lesser details. Thus I decided to get right into it. Mark came to Brooklyn and scooped me up right on a fucking street corner where I was posted up, doing my usual, chatting to my dame on my cell and surveying the hood. So we hopped in his new truck, got some grub and a bit of alcohol and drove somewhere where we could get the talking done in solitude and silence. We stayed right in the truck, Mark turned down the music, I started drinking some Bacardi chased with Sunkist soda, pressed that record button on my digital recorder and then Mark blessed me with his honesty and it went like this:
B: This is a real comfortable situation. I don’t really have an overwhelming amount of questions, but alright, when I first met you, you had Dogism out. Who published that, you right? M: Yeah, I published that, on my own…
B: Before that it was Paper Chasers right? M: Yeah.
B: What was going on with that, I know that was published by Black Print. I’m trying to get interviews with all of you Black Print authors, the exclusive. I wanna know all about that shit. M: well here’s the thing. Like even before that I had Paper Chasers and Dogism before any of this Q-boro Books stuff happened. This was back in 99, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I met Carl Weber. Carl Weber used to have his bookstore. This was before he was even writing and I had my books, I was like yo how can I get my books out here. In fact I was looking for an editor, so he introduced me to his sister and she edited all the books.
All of the publishers were fronting on me so I was like I’m gonna do this on my own. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I had these wack books, black n white covers, this and that. I was paying way to much money to print them. I was paying 4 dollars a book so I wasn’t really making any money. I didn’t know anything about distribution or anything. I was making a little money but every bit of money I was making I was putting back into printing. And I wasn’t seeing any profits. So I kind of got discouraged and side tracked. So I stayed away from it a little bit, so me and Carl kind of lost touch and one day I went in the bookstore and saw Carl Weber’s books. And I saw all of his books in the bookstores and I was like yo he stuck with it and his shit it blowing up. Carl had got my number from somebody and called me and was like yo what up, I’m at black print and I want to do your books. Since I was just sitting on them I let Black Print do it and they published Paper Chasers and everything went down hill. There was a lot of stuff in my mind like don’t deal with them but I did it and was hit with all forms of bullshit. Like this guy Dexter who ran the company, he was arrogant, you could tell shit wasn’t gonna go right, but they gave me money.
B: They gave you money, advancement? M: yeah they gave me advancement but it wasn’t much something like 5000.
B: Shit! That’s like standard or above standard now. It’s even lower. I know a nigga who got 500 dollars. M: Black Print was giving real good percentages. They were paying like 10% off of the cover price in royalties. But they gave you that little bit up front and weren’t paying you afterwards. Just to rope you in. So that experience with Black Print went bad. I knew the wording in their contract was really weak, like I read through it and I saw a couple of loopholes in it. So I handed them Dogism. And they sat on it, they had 45 days to respond and they didn’t. I got my lawyer involved and he said tell them they had 45 days to comply and since they didn’t they rejected the book. I was able to leave. And that’s how I got out of my contract. So I did Dogism on my own. And I was like I’m gonna do this 10x as better as them. And plus there are a lot of authors out there and I can give them a shot. And I was like if I do this I’m gonna be the guinea pig. I aint gonna take some one and see what I can do. So I was like if I do something I’m gonna go out and publish mine first. That’s what I did. And all the while I still been fighting with Black Print. And I won. I just got the rights back to Paper Chasers and they had to pay me my royalty money and my lawyer fees so now Paper Chasers is coming back out under Q-boro Books in December.
B: That’s what’s up. A throwback book; I want my rights back to my first book. I’m waiting for that because I’m like sort of fucked up in the game also because I know it wasn’t promoted properly nor is it getting the appropriate push. M: The bottom line is a book can sell forever. As long as you promote it and keep it out there.
B: It’s crazy because you need the right things, the right cover. There are so many aspects. You can have a terrible book and a great cover and it will sell. And you can have a great book and a terrible cover and not make a dime. When I first went on tour with you, we had the same publicist for a minute. I didn’t understand you at all. I knew about the Black Print situation but I didn’t know enough. I just got into it, people started telling me shit. My publisher Earl had something to do with it through Wahida Clark or whatever and I learned a lot about that situation through him. You might be the only one who got out of it in a positive way. I think a lot of other people really didn’t get out of it. M: Everybody was scared. So I was like yo a contract is an agreement and I aint no dummy, I can read a contract. I aint no lawyer but I can read a contract. It’s common sense. And when I sent my books the postage was always certified, I kept a good paper trail and kept my records. So when they got stuff, they couldn’t say they didn’t get it. Most of the authors were scared to fight Black Print. They didn’t want to get disrespected or blackballed.
I don’t know what most of the other authors are doing, people like Hope Clark. Wahida is in a different situation because she was locked up. Publishing with Black Print was like an abusive relationship, they would beat you up and then say sorry about that and say whatever it took to take you back. That’s how Dexter was. He would call you, say the check is in the mail and it would never come. He would say shit so you would relax and then the check would never come. But I tell everybody the best thing that happened to me is Black Print because now when I deal with people and walk into companies I’m prepared. I know about honest business and wise business now. I think that’s why Q-boro Books’ is blowing up. All you gotta do is the opposite of what Black Print did. I would have probably made the same mistakes that they did. Like they were supposed to pay everybody in 90 days and everybody knows you just can’t do that. Actually you cannot do it because you don’t even get your money in 90 days and they structured the contract like that and that’s wrong. And plus I know how stupid they are because Black Print was around before Triple Crown. They had Anthony white they had Erick gray.
B: They had Denise Campbell… M: Yeah, Kwan was almost gonna sign to them. They could have had the game locked down. So many other people would have sent them their books. But people started talking about how terrible they were through word of mouth. Like the
Lady’s Night book that I got could have been theirs, Anthony whites Ghetto Girl books those could have been their books, Wahida Clark's whole series could have been theirs now she is on another publishing label.
B: They really lost their integrity to. I can’t see them pulling out of it either. You know what's crazy though you got crooks like Culture Plus Distribution who haven’t lost theirs and people are still doing business with them and fucking with them. Because you would really have to do bad to get blackballed because there are so many dumb niggas in this industry? And I'm glad you talked about Black Print’s demise because I was gonna ask you about the whole Black Print shit and I asked a few other authors and they were scared to say shit. I didn’t even have my tape recorder on me. You spoke a lot and I would like to thank you for that. The hardest crook, criminal and thug fresh out of jail who just wrote a book get pussy when you ask them a question and don’t wanna say shit. Some of these street authors and urban writers are punks. But then again you are a big person to me right now. Your company got like over 10 titles out and I see your shit everywhere so you should be confident and not scared to say shit. If anyone wanted to interview me about me dilemma I would talk, because yo sometimes I feel like I’m signed to Black Print. M: It’s like this, if you tell the truth. It doesn’t matter if you are thug or not. If I’m telling facts about how Black Print did people, what can they say? If you tell the facts about how Culture Plus don’t be paying people and how they be treating people…
B: Bounced checks; and yo that cat who owns the joint aint really hospitable. He treats certain authors like they don’t exist and treat others like something else, but most don’t get paid. Mark, one author was like, “Yo, he’s cool and he won’t jerk me.” Yo Mark, that person came right back to me saying, “You were right.” A dishonest person is gonna be dishonest regardless of who or what. M: Bounced checks, that’s bad. Just don’t use them. The bottom line is no entity can stop me, the major distributors or whatever. If they don’t wanna take my books somebody else will.
B: I met you when you were doing your street grind. You were doing Dogism and Paper Chasers and when I met you, you told me to always handle my street grind and you taught me a lot and I remember all the shit you told me. About staying focused and staying away from the book groupies. Remember that time that girl waited in Borders for a half hour for me to come while you and Kwan were doing a signing. Shit is crazy. But she was cool but some of them damn near stalk you. M: See the thing is like this I tell everybody when I started Q-boro I started it with 400 dollars and a credit card. I didn’t have money but what I did have was the ability to make money. So all the money I made I flipped over into other stuff. It was my book. I owned it. I printed it and went out on the streets and sold it. I printed 15000 copies and if you sell them quick the minimum you can make is 90,000. And I was like I don’t care. Other authors were like, oh look Mark it out on the street selling books. I didn’t care because I knew it was temporary. I knew where I was going and I was making money…
Shit people, the interview went on for like 45 minutes. This was by far one of the best and most informative interviews I’ve ever conducted and I’ve done many an interview with authors and other celebrity types. Mark Anthony made it easy for me. Just as easily as he makes money selling books. Q-boro Books has a wide array of titles and they are even doing other genres, something most black publishers are frightened of. Them pussies!
I got a lot of respect for this Dude and I wish him the best of luck and I don’t believe in it. Neither does Mark Anthony. He knows his accomplishments were achieved through wit, business savvy, determination and quality product. I commend the nigga. You are gonna be hearing a lot from him.
People pick up Mark’s latest
Lady’s Night published by St. Martin’s press and its everywhere you can get your hands on a book. Q-boro Books are available everywhere and in i.b Concept’s next
Words of Art section (not this issue’s but the following) I will display a few of the Q-boro Books and give you a smidgen of insight on each and you will get a one liner from each of the authors.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, what do I have line up for the next installment of LITERARY HOOD. Can your friendly neighborhood author Brandon McCalla top this issue? We shall see.
I usually give you the line up but some of these authors don’t comply or think they are on Oprah Winfrey’s book clubs bestseller list. So they are sloppy with their shit. But now that i.b Concept is in full swing I get dozens of phone calls and emails about “Yo, what about that interview.” Now I’m feeling a bit arrogant myself. Now maybe you should send me a gift basket or I’ll call you when I get off of my own high horse. The altitude is making me a bit woozy due to the lack of oxygen. Make sure you put an oxygen tank in the basket, in the middle of all that fruit and those wedges of cheese.
Holla at me at
brandonmccalla89@yahoo.com and let me know shit. Hate or otherwise I’m local and always in the damn building. What building you ask? Naw, I aint gonna tell you that. I got enough stalkers.
Holla at Mark Anthony at
www.qborobooks.com UNO
HERE IS QUEENS FINEST Q-BORObooks FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT AND AN AUTHOR OF urban fiction REKNOWN MARK ANTHONY AND BELOW HIM IS THE INTERVIEW WE CONDUCTED FOR my LITERARY HOOD column in i.b Conncept Magazine.
