Without Vickie Stringer, street lit - or hip-hop lit, urban fiction, or whatever you want to call it - may not exist in its current format. Inc. Magazine profiles the ex-con enterpreneur and best-selling author who decided, after much rejection, to found her own publishing company, which led to sales of over 100,000 copies of her first book, LET THAT BE THE REASON, a fictionalized account of her life which included five years in jail for drug charges and time spent homeless on the streets of Columbus, Ohio.

As time went on, Stringer learned much about how to run a publishing company. "Small-time operations are a lot tougher to work with than the big companies, though, because they take a lot longer to pay. I've started weeding out low-level distributors who work on a consignment basis. Triple Crown is a bill-paying company, so I get real angry sometimes and feel like bringing out my gangsta background, but I don't act that way anymore. Becoming more professional has been one of my biggest challenges in building the company."

Stringer operates by signing unknown writers at a lower fee and then helping them move on to bigger publishing houses. "My advances range from $5,000 to $25,000 and the authors get a 10 percent royalty rate, which is about $1.50 per book. It's easier to work with writers when they're excited and don't have the ego."