Blackwildgirl’s 20 lessons learned about book publishing and marketing
Is 2025 the year you write the book you have been dreaming about? Do you have a book that you have written that is about to get published in 2025?
I hope these reflections about the lessons I learned about book publishing and marketing while publishing and promoting Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower and companion journal are helpful to aspiring and existing writers.
*Picture: Naomi Tutu, Bishop Tutu’s daughter with copies of Blackwildgirl and companion journal
I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination in this area. I am only sharing lessons I learned and a bit of wisdom that might help others on their journeys.
https://www.amazon.com/Blackwildgirl-Companion-Journal-Finding-Superpower/dp/1647427134
- It all starts with writing.
I started Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower in 2019. I took boxes with 45 years of journals to a retreat center in Nashville and spent 3 weeks transcribing journal entries to create a rough draft of the book. It took another almost 5 years before it hit the shelf on my publication date of April 2, 2024.
I have published 5 books, primarily with traditional academic publishers. Blackwildgirl is my first publication with a hybrid press- She Writes Press. Writing and publication is so important for academic success. Sharing the results of our scholarship and research to help influence and impact others. I was writing my dissertation was working full-time as a corporate lawyer at a law firm in Nashville. I received some of the best advice of my career on writing. The advice was to write for 30 minutes day. At the time, I thought it was ridiculous. How could I make progress with such a small amount of time?
But it worked, and it has worked for almost 30 years. I chose my most productive time, which for me is early in the morning. Some are night owls, and so that is the time they need to choose. When you come to your time and space (also important to know where you will be writing), you immediately start. So, let’s say, your time is 6:00 am. You arrive at your spot (hopefully inspirational and ready) and you begin to write. You write for 30 minutes, and then at 6:30 or so, you stop. You spend the next 10-15 minutes writing your plan for your 30 minutes slot the next day. What that means is that when you arrive at your time and location on Day 2, you are ready. You are not wasting time, wondering what to write about. You already know. You open your plan, and get to work. 30 minutes and then plan for day 3. You try to write 5-6 days a week. If there is a day when you have more time, (perhaps on a weekend) by all means, use that time. But that is the default, not the regular plan.
2. After writing, you must find a press.
My first book Critical Race Feminism and Education: A Social Justice model was on my dissertation which was called, “Where are the Black Girls?: The Marginalization of Black Girls in the Single-Sex School Debate in Detroit.
I finished my dissertation in 1997, and did not start converting my dissertation into a book until 2009. There is a lot of work to convert a dissertation to a book manuscript. So, once I had written the book (but similar for journal articles), I needed to find a press to publish it. That process typically involves sending “queries,” essentially inquiries to editorial contacts at a press that you think most aligns with your subject matter. This involves a great deal of research. For the academic realm, you are generally investigating university-associated presses and reading about their mission and area of focus. Sometimes a mentor will suggest a particular press.
For my first book, after receiving several denials (a routine experience in higher education), I was told that the challenge was my work was transdisciplinary – integrating law and sociology, and most presses focus on one discipline. She shared that she was going to be serving as an editor for a series (Post Colonial Studies in Education) with Palgrave Macmillan, and suggested that I send the query to that series. I was successful!
My second, third, and fourth books were published by Peter Lang. I met Rochelle Brock (blessings to her as an ancestor), who was an editor for a series on Black Studies and Critical Thinking series at an academic conference. Many presses are exhibitors at conferences, and that is a wonderful way to make contact and personal connections, sharing your “elevator speech,” and following up. Rochelle was very interested in my work and as co-editor of the series, supported the publication of three books, including a biography of my mother’s journey from picking cotton to becoming a full professor in the 1970s, when less than 1% of Black women were full professors.
I thought my fifth book, Blackwildgirl, would be also published with Peter Lang, however, they were experiencing challenges and colleagues suggested I find another press. After receiving denials from academic presses, a friend suggested I try to publish with a general/traditional presses and also to find an agent. Although I had written what I saw as an academic autoethnography, but the academic market was not receptive.
So, I revised the manuscript and moved the academic content to a journal article:
A Black Womanist Theomethaxis: Theory, Method, and Praxis for Revolutionary-Revelation Writing
Departures in Critical Qualitative Research (2023) 12 (3): 24–47.
https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2023.12.3.24
With the revised manuscript, I began to look for presses again. I wrote many queries and had many denials. Eventually, I found She Writes Press, a woman-owned press with a focus on women writers and memoirs. As a condition to publication, they recommended I work with an editor to refine the book before publication. I did and they offered me a contract. Finalizing a book often requires hiring an editor to really help refine and tighten the work. Sometimes, this is an unexpected, but necessary, expense.
My sixth book, Dear Higher Education is the most unique. It is letters to higher education from around the world. After engaging with a traditional university press, my co-editors and I were fortunate to learn about a digital, open access, on-line platform from the University of Minnesota Libraries. This format is perfect for the project, because it will be an ongoing project, with multiple series. The first series is available online and we are currently soliciting letters for a special election-related issue.
Sometimes, individuals choose to self-publish. I have not done that yet, but know that is another strategy for getting your precious work into the world.
Check out this very insightful post by Elona Washington about publishing:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/traditional-vs-hybrid-publishing-when-does-make-sense-elona-ibgpe
3. Audiobooks require another level of planning.
I decided that I wanted to do an audiobook for Blackwildgirl. That meant finding a studio and a sound engineer/technician. It also means spending several hours at a time reading your work aloud. It seems that it should be easy, but it is incredibly challenging to read out loud. Sometimes, you mouth says words that are not written, which I realized in the editing process. Sometimes, you run out of breath while reading a long sentence, and must repeat. Once you have your files, you can upload them to your favorite platform. Blackwildgirl is available on all audio platforms, through ACX (Amazon) and Findaway.
4. Read the contract.
When a press accepts your work for publication, they provide a contract. Without going into details, it is critically important that you read the contract, ask questions, try to get clarification. There is often very little room for negotiation of royalties and costs, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Discussion of book cover design and discretion with the design is also important.
5. Designing the Book Cover.
Your book needs a cover – a look that is representative, but also will help sell the book. Most of the time, the author only has a small amount of influence on the cover (review contract for this). For my first book, Critical Race Feminism, I felt it was important to have a black girl on the cover. The press was not convinced. After several conversations, and finally having a photographer take a picture of my daughter with law books, walking down the steps of a library, they finally agreed. For the cover for From Cotton Picking, I wanted to have a quilt that represented the layers and complexity of my mother’s life, since it is a biography about her life. They were willing to use a photo I shared for the cover of a quilt my grandmother made. For Blackwildgirl, several initial design suggestions did not resonate. Eventually, the press and I agreed on a cover with a photo of me in college as Balckwildgirl.
6. Choosing a title.
The title must be one that helps to sell your book, and also convey its content. It is not always easy to do. As academics, sometimes we try to do too much. But a clear and concise title and subtitle are important. Now, you are ready to let people know about your book.
7. You must learn the difference between publicity and marketing.
Publicity is about creating awareness about you as an author (and of course your book, secondarily). Marketing is about selling your book. I have never thought as much about marketing and publicity as I have with Blackwildgirl. Most academic presses actually do a fairly poor job of marketing and publicity in my experience. Marketing often means that when their spring, fall announcement goes out with other authors, yours will be one of them. It means that at some academic related conferences, your book will be on the table, with many others. Some presses engage in efforts to pre-sell your book to book stores and libraries. However, and this is the main point, for both academic and traditional books, most of the marketing and publicity must be done yourself. Yikes! And most authors are not marketing or publicity experts.
8. Generate Publicity.
Publicity is about increasing awareness about you as an author and trying to find venues for you to promote and talk about your work. Publicity typically happens 1-3 months before your book publication date. I hired an amazing publicist, Dawn Hardy, who previously worked in the book publishing industry. Leveraging her connections in the industry, she was able to connect me to different podcasts and platforms for interviews, as well as magazine editors who could write an article about the book. She created press releases about the book, and sent them to her contacts and connections.
I was also fortunate to have dear friends and colleagues who were willing to read and write reviews for Blackwildgirl:
Dawn’s role, however, was to help create awareness in the marketplace about me as an author and my work. Her job was not specifically to help me sell books. That’s marketing.
10. Promote your book through marketing.
Marketing is the work of selling your books to readers. This involves a significant amount of work and a long-game mindset. A few key elements:
- A website. I had created a website for my book on my mother’s life – From Cotton Picking to College Professsor — and I had been regularly blogging. It wasn’t hard to create a site, but it was a significant learning curve. I had to create a URL and work with WordPress to format and design a site. I had wanted to do as much as I could by myself, because my first website was designed by a friend, and I didn’t know how to make any changes. The website worked well, but randomly crashed a few months before the release of Blackwildgirl. I attended a webinar by Elona Washington, a Black woman book marketing expert, and her team agreed to redesign the website. They did a great job, but I ended up having to make some changes because the software was difficult for me to upload blogs. Again, the website management is important, because you do need a website presence. www.menahpratt.com
- Social Media presence. Effective marketing requires some social media presence. You have to decide what your primary platforms will be: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X. It is challenging to post to all the sites all the time. It is important to assess which platform might be most effective and which generation/audience are you trying to reach. A Facebook audience (typically older generation) is different that an Instagram/Tik Tok audience (typically younger) than LinkedIn (typically professional). While I thought I had a significant following on Facebook, LinkedIn became a surprisingly and unexpectedly effective platform. Several posts and articles generated a large following, and reposts:
A post on Antoinette Candia-Bailey, an African-American higher education administrator who was a victim of suicide, received sigificant attention:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7151421896528474112
It got 105 comments and more than 200 reposts.
A recent post of an Amanda Gorman poem received more than 600 likes.
At this stage of my experience, I cannot pretend to understand the algorithm. I believe it is important to post meaningful content regularly and to try to post content, if possible, related to current events that have personal or professional meaning for you. And that brings me to my next advice.
11. You must have content.
One of my daughters’ friends, Brit Reed, who is extremely knowledgeable about social media kept telling me that I needed content. Content, Content, Content. She suggested I come to Philadelphia, and she could help create content for me – short videos about me talking about book, photos with me and the book, and short interviews. So I packed up some clothes and jewelry and headed to Philly for a long weekend content – photo shoot. She agreed to create content from the photos and videos and help post them for me. She is now starting a business of supporting authors, especially women, who want help with social media for promoting their works. I highly recommend her. I try to post regularly. I was once told that you need to show that you are an interesting persona/person! It isn’t about creating a persona, but being yourself. For example, I play piano, and every Sunday, I post a reel playing a short piano piece. I’m not always promoting the book, but I’m trying to engage, but more importantly share a gift with others.
- Reels and posts.
I had to learn the difference between reels and posts. I doesn’t sound complicated, but I realized at some point that reels were getting a significantly larger exposure. Brit initially thought I should be on TikTok, but we realized we couldn’t do them all, and since LinkedIn was generating more interest, she thought we should explore how to leverage LinkedIn more.
12. Learn how to leverage ads.
Leveraging social media platforms requires considering using ads. We tried some ads on Facebook and Instagram, and the initial analysis showed that the primary demographic was older White males! Not sure what that was about, we made some tweaks, but are still exploring this strategy, and also ads on LinkedIn.
13. Consider having swag and merchandise
Brit is a fashion diva and has worked in the fashion industry and had her own business selling hand-made leatherwork. She encouraged me to think about having swag and selling Blackwildgirl-related products – sweatshirts, t-shirts, mugs, etc. She agreed to help design them and create an online store through Shopify. We realized we could use Printify to upload designs and have customers place orders and have them shipped. www.blackwildgirl.com is the site. There is still work to be done but we have started.
14. Protect your brand with trademarks
I decided to trademark Blackwildgirl and Blackwildgoddess. Although it is not an expensive process, it isn’t a quick process, and you have to be able to show movement of material in the marketplace. Just another issue to consider.
15. Participate in promotional events
Events are significant opportunities to sell your books to readers. These events can occur at universities or local book stores. Events are tricky business. Most of the time, bookstores will let you know that although they are willing to provide the space, and will send out information about your event to their listserv, it is primarily your responsibility to get people there. There are so many events that compete for people’s attention, that you must accept that sometimes you will have a large audience and sometimes you will not. I have had events with only a few people, and we had a wonderful chat, and I have had events with very large audiences. Often it isn’t clear who is doing a flyer for your event, or if you are expected to create the flyer. You also have to make sure that your book (and companion journal) are ordered by the event folks in enough time to have them in place. Sometimes, they may not be there for your event. Virtual events are also an option, and again, the responsibility for promoting the event is yours and you may have many or a few.
A great event at the Free Black Women’s Library in Brooklyn had an awesome turnout, though I did not know anyone there!
Podcast are another wonderful way to continue to market your work. Again, you may have a great audience or maybe only a few. Not all podcasts are widely known.
16. Solicit Reviews.
When and if readers buy and read your book, you really need them to write the Amazon review. This helps promoting your book and creating awareness. Most folks do not, unfortunately. You often try to get pre-publication blurbs, but you also need post-publication reviews. I was able to solicit many pre-publicatoin reviews from well-known authors, but I have not been able to get many reviews on Amazon. I’m stll working on encouraging readers to post reviews.
17. Apply for Awards and Recognition.
There are many awards available for recognition for your book. As you have time, it is a good idea to apply for them. From Cotton Picking to College Professor was selected as a critic’s choice award by the American Education Studies Association. Blackwildgirl was a finalist in the inspirational non-fiction category for the 2024 International Book Awards. You just need to track deadlines and what is required. I had planned to submit for an award and then realized at the last minute, I needed to send 4 books to California and it was Friday afternoon, and they needed to reach by Monday. Whoops! So, pay attention to deadlines, how much is required to pay, and how many books might be needed.
18. Try to find community.
I have been blessed to be in community with other She Writes Press authors. Some of these authors have been amazing in graciously and selflessly sharing all their resources and knowledge on our monthly calls. I’ve learned so much about warehouse, distributors, sales reports, and so much more. In the middle of our launch, She Writes Press changed distributors from PGW to Simon and Schuster. Although there have been hiccups, the community space on calls and on social media has been reassuring. There are many amazing women writers in this community.
19. See yourself as an entrepreneur.
About 35 years ago, I was the owner of a frame shop and art gallery in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a start-up from the ground. I learned about ordering supplies, deciding on prices, marketing, advertising. It was so much work. I was pursuing a joint-degree program in law and sociology at Vanderbilt at the time. I was also teaching English at a men’s and women’s prisons. And, I was falling in love with my future husband, who wanted to own his own business. Always supporting his dreams and visions, I juggled frame shop ownership, law school, graduate program in sociology and teaching. Ultimately, the business did not survive, but I learned about the challenges of entrepreneurship. I had forgotten many of those lessons and pressures until this journey, but I have now learned new lessons about being an entrepreneur.
You have to walk a fine line between being humble and wallflowerish, overly self-effacing (I don’t want to have to promote my book, it is so awkward and embarrassing); and overly promoting your book (buy my book, please, please, buy my book, please please), and appearing obnoxious, self-centered with every post.
Yet, if you do not try to sell your product (your book), all your effort in writing the book will be for naught. This process is not for the faint of heart, but it is also important for women, in particular, to make sure our words, ideas, and thoughts get out of our bodies and throats and hearts and into the world.
This quote by bell hooks inspires me every day:
“No Black woman writer in this culture can write ‘too much’. Indeed, no woman writer can write ‘too much’ … No woman has ever written enough.”
– Remembered Rapture: The Writer At Work, 1999
20. Please, please buy my book.
I wanted to end by sharing a bit about my book, and why I hope you will take time to buy it and read it, because it might change your life, especially if you are a woman.
My book, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower is about my 45-year journey from Black girlhood to Black womanhood in America as a daughter of a Sierra Leonean nuclear physicist (my father, Dr. TAEC Pratt), and a granddaughter of formerly enslaved woman, Rosa Hubbard Thirkill, (Dr. Mildred Pratt). My father was born in Freetown Sierra Leone, and got his bachelor’s degree at Hampton University, and his PhD in Nuclear Physics from Carnegie Mellon in the 1960s. He met my mother, who had grown up in poverty, picking cotton, and went on to get 4 degrees (a bachelor’s from Jarvis Christian College, a master’s from Butler, another master’s from Indiana University, and a PhD in Social Work from University of Pittsburgh). My parents met in Pittsburgh and got married 3 months after meeting, and stayed married until my father died after 28 years of marriage at the age of 60. I often say that racism killed my father.
This book is about my relationship with my parents – these unique and highly educated Black parents in the 1960s. They raised me in particular ways to try to address the racism of America. Not only, though, is it about my relationship with my parents, it is more importantly about my relationship with myself, and all the parts of myself, including what I call my superpower.
The book is divided into acts, stages, and scenes, like a play. There are four acts (Seed, Roots, Weeds, and Branches) and 12 stages. Within each stage are scenes, and the stages end with a section called Wild Woman Wisdom and reflection questions. The reflection questions create the opportunity for the reader to begin to search within, reflect on their own lives, journeys, challenges, and relationships.
The companion journal includes the reflection questions and plenty of space for the reader to write about their own life, to draw, to color, to explore the common questions that relate to our common humanity: what/who is God? What happens when people die? Can we connect with our ancestors? What is our purpose in life? Why are we here? How can we manage grief and loss? How do we go on after a miscarriage? What does it mean to be a wife, a mother? What does it mean to fall in love? What does it mean to fall out of love and get divorced? How can we live revolutionary lives?
This book is primarily for women who I believe are often shushed, hushed, and quieted in the world, so that the spirits and power of men can continue to rule in unruly ways. Yet, it is time for women’s voices to become louder and to be heard and to make a difference in the world.
I hope that Blackwildgirl helps women, and those who want to understand, support, and honor women, find their voices and power in the world!
You can order Blackwildgirl and the companion journal, on Amazon and anywhere books are sold. You can listen to Blackwildgirl audio book and also get the ebook. If you read Blackwildgirl, please take time to write a review on Amazon for me!
I hope you will jump over to my Blackwildgirl store at Blackwildgirl.com and order some cool swag for yourself or other sister girlfriends and warriors:
Visit blackwildgirl.com to see all the different selections.
And, finally, if you care about higher education and social justice, please considering writing a letter to higher education for our new series project for the open-access online platform. Learn more at
Thank you.