Comic Con is a celebration of just about everything your 7th grade teacher labeled a waste of time — comic books, video games, toys, movies — made culturally and monetarily valuable by the millions who flock to the event. Also in attendance this year was Gale Anne Hurd, filmmaking legend whose production credits include Terminator, The Incredible Hulk and, most recently, The Walking Dead. She may not have been mobbed by fans or sacked for autographs like a cast member, but she’s witnessed how the hit AMC series has developed an international cult following.

“I’m always completely shocked in the best possible sense that this show has taken on a life of its own, not only here in the U.S. but around the world,” she told Mediabistro. Her talent has lured even skittish, unlikely viewers (including this writer) into the weekly showdown between flesh-eating zombies and an ever-shifting band of post-apocalyptic survivors. That, and a resume that reads like a Comic Con-goers list of all-time favorites, earned her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Here she discusses the fine art of negotiation, film vs. television and a moratorium on slow dying gender roles.

Name: Gale Anne Hurd
Position: Chairman and producer
Resume: Joined New World Pictures as executive assistant to president Roger Corman. Ascended corporate ladder through various administrative positions, ultimately ending up as a one-person marketing department for the company. Negotiated her first production opportunity as Corman’s mentee. Formed her own production company, Pacific Western Productions, and produced blockbusters including Aliens, Armageddon and The Terminator, for which she was also screenwriter. Began producing AMC drama series The Walking Dead in 2010. Became governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and recording secretary for the Producers Guild of America. Awarded star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
Birthdate: October 25, 1955
Hometown: Los Angeles
Education: Graduated from Stanford University with BA in economics and communications, minor in political science; elected to Phi Beta Kappa
Marital status: Married to filmmaker Jonathan Hensleigh
Media idol: Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas
Favorite TV show: “Other than mine?” she laughs. “I’d have to say The Americans.”
Guilty pleasure: The Voice
Last book read: The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Homes
Twitter handle: @GunnerGale

Aliens. Terminator. Now The Walking Dead. You’re behind some of the most freakish and frightening productions in film and TV. So what are you afraid of in real life?
In real life, I’m claustrophobic. Small places and elevators really freak me out, so I walk up and down a lot of stairs.

You made a deal with legendary filmmaker Roger Corman that basically opened your own door to the industry. Tell us about that experience.
Roger was my mentor and he allowed me to make the kind of mistakes that, if I made them while working for someone else, I would not have survived. He was a very difficult taskmaster and threw me into marketing knowing I knew nothing about it, but he allowed me to make mistakes. For example, I wasn’t completely familiar with all of the lingo that people use to create key art for motion picture promotion — ad slicks, posters, one-sheets — and I would often get the layouts wrong because I didn’t know the terminology. We’d end up having to redo them. Even though I learned quickly, I still made mistakes. But I negotiated with him before I took the job. I told him I would do it for six months and at the end of that period, I wanted to work on the set of a production, which was a piece of experience that I hadn’t had working in the office. I’d worked in development, I’d worked in marketing, but I had yet to be on set. So it was good that I negotiated that in advance. And he lived up to his promises, even though I was far from a marketing maven.

Most people don’t feel comfortable laying out stipulations like that to their superiors. Why did you feel entitled to make your own rules? How can others follow suit?
I wasn’t given a choice. It was, “OK Gale, I want you to be the marketing department starting Monday.” (And this was a Friday). I had no training period, so the odds of my failing were pretty high, especially since I was taking the place of two people who had significant experience. I think you have to take some initiative and show that you have the potential to be a leader. I was about to take a position heading a department and negotiating with him proved that I had a degree of the skill set that I needed in that position. If you want to prove that you can take on more responsibility, take that responsibility and be willing to also take the consequences. I knew I wasn’t prepared and I had that conversation up front with Roger. And, if it didn’t work out, my fallback position was going to law school. I think it’s really important to have a fallback position.

How much of an obligation did you feel to the original comic book storyline?
Robert Kirkman, the creator of the comic book series, has been a partner and a fellow executive producer since the very beginning. We always wanted to follow the comic book to a certain extent, but never to the degree that fans would know exactly what was coming. So we’ve deviated from it: We’ve introduced new characters, killed off some who are still alive in the comic book, extended the life span of others. That’s a real tribute to Robert Kirkman being willing to change it up.

How do you invoke creativity to write and produce? Have you ever gone through a period when you were completely burnt out?
I do a lot more producing now than writing so I don’t interface as much with the blank page or the untouched computer screen. But at the same time, it’s important to make sure you’re on the same page with a show runner and the writing staff. Television is more of a team sport than feature films — you have a writer’s room and you collaborate with a number of people. That keeps things really fresh and interesting, and it’s much harder to burn out.

Does having experience on both sides inform one another and does it help you be more multifaceted in your delivery?
I think so. A lot of people have said that The Walking Dead feels like a mini-movie every week, and I think that that’s a nod to the fact that a lot of us who work on the show started out in features, so that’s our approach and vision for storytelling. I think that having to produce a show week in and week out has made me a better producer for features. You don’t have as firm a deadline for when you have to create something. With a TV series, every eight days you have to be in production on a new episode so you can’t not feed the machine. You have to keep the standards up. You have to have a lot figured out before production starts and you really have to have thought about 16 hours of character-driven storytelling. In a feature, it’s only two hours.

The Walking Dead is one of the most talked-about TV shows on social media. How does the show achieve such a large social presence and how do you think the industry will change as a result of second-screen viewing?
Well, I think that our show already had a following of people who are technologically advanced to begin with, the early adopters who were comfortable with a deeper dive into related media, whether that was finding out about the comic books and exploring them, participating in second-screening or watching the webisodes or the aftershow, The Talking Dead. People can experience the show 24/7. Now we’re going to be seeing a talk show after Breaking Bad called Talking Bad. I think you’re going to see a lot more of that and they’ll have their presences on the web, too. I think it’s really pioneered new ground on other shows.

What have you sacrificed to reach your level of success in this industry? And what have you sacrificed specifically as a woman?
I don’t think there’s any difference. I mean, as a woman I think we need to get beyond any old gender roles. I know a lot of women who are very prominent whose husbands have taken on child rearing and their relationships work very well. So I think we need to get past the idea that there are particular roles that women have to undertake. Obviously, my personal life takes a backseat. I was lucky that much of the time my daughter was growing up, production took place in Los Angeles. Now she’s in college and very few films and TV series shoot in Los Angeles anymore. It’s a shame. But my compromises weren’t as great then as they would be now.

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on Facebook.

Every day, Eunique Jones Gibson uses her lens to memorialize her clients — engaged couples, newlyweds, mommies and daddies in the afterglow of new parenthood — in the happiest, most love-drenched moments of their lives. It’s a rewarding use of her talent. So is the other side of her eponymous business, the simultaneously activistic and artistic “Because of Them, We Can” campaign. In it, she depicts kids as miniature versions of African-American heroes like civil rights leaders Fannie Lou Hamer and Frederick Douglass; each photo is flanked by a powerful quote from the individual being honored.

It’s the kind of visual imagery that sparks an immediate reaction and interest that a book or biopic sometimes cannot. “With this campaign, I wanted to show the innocence and potential of a child and also use elements like graphic design, topography, text and quotes to bring it all together so that it says something more,” Gibson explained of the series, which launched in February 2013. Here, the self-taught photographer discusses the gift of wordless expression and why photography remains an art of riches.

You’re a relative newbie to professional photography. What were you doing before you got into the field?

I was an online advertising account manager with Microsoft. It’s funny because Microsoft actually helped me purchase my first real camera. I had won bonus points for exceptional performance and cashed them in for a gift card to buy a camera. So I started delving into it more deeply while I kept my full-time job. After a while, it was like I had two full-time hustles because the business grew so much. I was like a weekend warrior. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I was shooting all day, every day. Then it was Friday, Saturday and Sunday and a weekday evening. Then I launched the campaign and it got to the point where it became uncomfortable to do both jobs. I was like ‘OK, I think I can do [photography] on a full-time basis, control my own time and be able to do what I’m passionate about.’ I’d say it took about four years.

What was your inspiration behind the “Because of Them, We Can” campaign?

My sons. I thought about how Chase, my 5-year-old, was born during President Obama’s election and then Amari, my youngest son, was born during his re-election. I thought about how many opportunities they have as a result, but I also thought about the progress that was made prior to President Obama and the people who paved the way for us to have the opportunity and freedom we enjoy today. It started coming to me [as], ‘Oh, because of him I can, because of her I can.’ From there, “Because of Them, We Can” evolved.

How did you decide which heroes and heroines to honor and how did you find the children to portray them in the shoot?

I already had a book of clients who have children and I knew I wanted to use some of them off the bat. Like I knew who my little Frederick Douglass was going to be because I took his newborn pictures and I saw how crazy his hair was and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’d be a great Frederick Douglass.’ In some instances, I reached out directly and contacted the parents. I, of course, didn’t know 28-plus little kids, so I put a casting call out on my Facebook fan page. I had tons of submissions and matched the kids up based on their looks. I emailed the parents a shoot date and we got them all done in one day.

I wanted to focus on people we’ve heard about — Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X — but I also wanted to recognize people who are doing things within their respective fields that are paving the way for others. That’s why I highlighted Spike Lee, who is a cultural architect and started a movement through film. I wanted to highlight current trailblazers like Kerry Washington. People questioned my decision to do that because they felt like she hadn’t done anything worthy of this campaign. But we can’t wait until a person is old or dead to pay attention to their work and look at their blueprint.

Some would say there’s a growing disconnect between young people and history. Is addressing this issue a goal of your series?

When Nelson Mandela died [shortly after actor Paul Walker died], a teacher reached out to me and told me that her high school students knew who Paul Walker was but they had no idea who Nelson Mandela was. They said, ‘Who is this Nelson Mandela guy? Why is it such a big deal that he died?’ I hope young people will Google to see who these individuals are. Who was Assata Shakur? Who was Mary McLeod Bethune? Who is Lonnie Johnson?

Having a marketing background, I think in terms of messages with my pictures. I hope parents and teachers will use them as a teaching tool. I also hope a campaign like this that promotes understanding [of black] history and highlights what people who looked like them have accomplished will create a sense of pride in kids. I think if they see the images and learn the stories behind the heroes — what they had to overcome, how they maybe fell down and got back up, how they worked hard to get to where they are — their bar of expectation will automatically go up for themselves.

Prior to this series, you created an “I Am Trayvon Martin” photo campaign. What were you trying to convey with that project?

The fact that it could’ve been any one of us. It was important to get everyone from kids to senior citizens to stand in a picture with a hood on [and a description of] their occupation so that you understood that if you just judged them based on the color of their skin or their hood, you would have missed out on who they really are or could be. I felt like there were so many people who were furious and wanted to express that, but didn’t have a positive outlet beyond marches and rallies. I encouraged other photographers to launch their own campaigns. I couldn’t photograph everyone across the country, but I could appeal to other photographers to offer a free photo shoot at their studio or their community so that they could also do their own spin on it. For me, those images were worth a thousand emotions and a thousand messages and a thousand thought-provoking questions.

Are you planning to continue the “Because of Them” series? How will you improve or expand it?

We’re having conversations with media partners to get the campaign across as many mediums as possible — television, radio, billboards, bus shelters. It started as a social media thing but we really want to expand it. We’re battling for the self-esteem of our young people. That’s what it’s all about. We have all sorts of issues, but can we collectively put our heads together and work to inundate kids with these messages? The campaign is also going to expand outside of African-American kids.

I look at the ways some of my Latino friends are treated and I am appalled at the stereotypes that are pinned to them. How do you help expand their conversation beyond immigration reform? How do you introduce a little Latino girl or boy to Carlos Slim or Richard Montañez or Celia Cruz or Sonia Sotomayor and have them look at these individuals in the same way that African-American kids are looking at [my] pictures? There’s so much that can and needs to be done and it all boils down to our children, their self-esteem and how they see themselves.

Eunique Jones Gibson’s Tips for Becoming a Photographer:

1. Shoot as much as you can.“You have to shoot to learn. Even when I had a full-time job, I would come home and practice. I’d grab my camera and take pictures of my husband’s action figures, focusing in and out. There’s always something you can shoot.”

2. Find your passion. “I had to try a number of things to figure out what I liked, from photographing models to shooting parties and events. I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I love ‘love.’ Whether it’s a story about people falling in love, families in love or kids who exude love, that’s what I identify with. I also love being able to share my passion for social justice. That’s a niche carved through trial and error, so try different things to figure out what speaks to you.”

3. Identify what makes you unique. “Why are you different from all other photographers? There are enough to go around, so you need to carve out your own space, whether it’s how you light subjects or the angles that you shoot from or the type of focus that you have. Partner with other photographers so you can shadow them, but home in on something that makes you different from anyone else.”

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on
Facebook.

If there were a show like Behind the Music for public relations professionals, Terrie Williams’ episode would have all the makings of a fan favorite: household-name celebrities, a powerful comeback and the inspiring story of a woman who realized she wasn’t answering her calling and then, just like that, did. While most people are nudged into providence by a parent, maybe a teacher or coach, jazz legend Miles Davis inadvertently became her prophet of professional destiny during her first career as a hospital social worker. “He told me I didn’t need to be working there. He saw that I had other gifts,” remembered Williams.

Building her eponymous public relations and communications firm from the ground up with Davis and then number one box office draw Eddie Murphy as her first two clients, she’s represented Hollywood and corporate American royalty from Prince to Time Warner. After going public with her experience with clinical depression, Williams has also become a celebrated evangelist for mental health care, using the skills she honed in her 25+ year career to create buzz around a hushed and under-discussed issue. Here, she talks leadership, people skills and how personal suffering can become a social contribution.

Name: Terrie Williams
Position: Public relations strategist, president of The Terrie Williams Agency, author and mental health advocate
Resume: Started professional life as a medical social worker at what is now Weill-Cornell Medical Center. Befriended jazz legend Miles Davis, who encouraged her to open her own business. Founded her public relations firm, The Terrie Williams Agency, in 1988. Represented luminaries, including Chris Rock, Rev. Al Sharpton, Janet Jackson, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and the late Johnnie Cochran, as well as HBO, Revlon and Essence magazine. Founded the Stay Strong Foundation which, though now dissolved, supported the personal well-being of young people. Leads workshops and seminars on PR and communications-related topics for corporations, universities and community organizations. Motivational speaker and advocate for mental health. Received many honors for both professional and civic work. First black woman to win the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award in Public Relations. Named one of Woman’s Day’s “50 Women on a Mission to Change the World.” Author of four best-selling books, including The Personal Touch, which is being updated in honor of its 20-year anniversary.
Birthdate: May 12, 1954
Hometown: Mount Vernon, NY
Education: BA in sociology and psychology from Brandeis University and MSW from Columbia University
Marital status: Single
Media mentor: Venerated publicist Chet Burger
Best career advice received: Honor everyone because it pays great dividends when you treat all people as human beings.
Last book read: The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly
Guilty pleasure: Strawberry Twizzlers and riding in a convertible with the top down and the music up
Twitter handle: @terriewilliams

Most publicists launching their own firms don’t pull in high-end clients off the break. What was your strategy to attract and retain that caliber of clientele when your agency was in its infancy?

You know what it is? I honor people. This might sound simplistic, but I know that everybody on the planet matters. I was at a birthday party and Eddie [Murphy] was there with his cousin and friend. I knew everybody wanted something from him. He’s an enormously talented superstar. People don’t pay attention to the people who are with him. When you don’t honor everybody, you lose out because it’s the person that you think doesn’t matter that the talent will ask, “What did you think about Terrie?” If you haven’t paid any attention to them, what do you think they’re going to say? I’m genuine, so it’s not calculated. I wasn’t trying to get in good with his cronies or whatever. I just knew that he was going to pay me but so much attention, so I just started talking with the two guys he was with. We were at the party for four or five hours but after that, Eddie was going to a comedy club to perform. Those two guys asked if my guest and I wanted to go. I know for a fact if I had been trying to cozy up to Eddie, I wouldn’t have gotten that invitation. I was grateful in terms of what I sent to them to say ‘thank you’ — notes and everything — and then I began to be invited to parties at Eddie’s home.

Then one day I heard that Eddie was looking for a PR person. He had never had one. I was kind of self-taught. I took two six or eight-week courses, but I didn’t major in it in college or grad school. I knew I was supposed to represent him. I just knew. So I wrote him a letter. I said, ‘You don’t really know me, but I’ve been to parties at your home and we met at Miles’ [Davis] birthday party. And this is who I am. I would love to represent you.’ I got a phone call maybe two weeks later and a voice said, ‘Eddie’s here. He wants to talk to you.’ He got on the phone and just said, ‘I would love to have you represent me.’ Just like that. I was in tears on the other end. I launched my business with him. Because Eddie was on board, Miles wanted me to represent him. So very early on, all eyes were on me like, ‘Who is this person? Who does she think she is?’

You’re also a licensed therapist, which, along with your career in public relations, is a unique combination of experience. How has that education enhanced your PR sensibilities?

It’s everything. It’s innate and it helps me to see people. When I meet you, I want to know who you really are, not the mask that you wear every day. People move through the world with their masks on, so they don’t often give you a chance to see them. We feel like we’ve got to have the upper hand and know everything and be perfect. I have my frailties, pain and challenges, so I know that you’re just like me. I don’t care who you are or what your position is. That’s one of the things that’s served me really well. I care about the person that’s underneath that mask.

What has been your greatest professional lesson and where were you when you learned it?

I think it’s listening to your inner voice because it always tells you what to do. Eddie’s management didn’t want me to represent him because I wasn’t traditional Hollywood. I’m a person of color and I was five minutes in the game. After a year perhaps, maybe two, I got a phone call that said ‘effective immediately, Eddie is going to have a new PR person in addition to you.’ I don’t remember her name, but I know she handled Tom Cruise and a bunch of other people. I knew what was going to unfold: Even though I’d been doing all of his press, this new person would be handling mainstream press and they would relegate me to black press.

I wasn’t going to take two steps backward, not after all of that time, so I sent Eddie a resignation letter. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was at the same time because I was being disrespected. About two months later, I saw him at his brother’s wedding and he said, ‘So how come you didn’t want to work with me?’ I explained what happened and Monday I got a phone call from the manager saying that person was no longer on board. It wasn’t about power play. I just I knew what was going to happen and I’m glad I listened to myself.

In an era when even advanced degrees sometimes aren’t advanced enough, do you think we’re too oversaturated with learning and underinvested in the actual doing?

That’s a good question. Yes, I do. The only way to work what you’ve learned is to practice. I think some people are running from things. Sometimes we’ll do anything to not feel pain or struggle. We self-medicate with a myriad of things to not deal with ourselves: food, work, promiscuity, gambling, unprotected sex, going to school. When are you going to break out? I think it’s important to be current, but not at the risk of having an unfulfilling life. That just means you’re running from something. A good therapist is always the answer. God and a good therapist have gotten me through time and time again.

What have you done as a leader to bring the best out of your people and make your agency even more effective?

The ability to attract, engage and hold onto talent should be a company’s number one concern, but it’s not enough to hire the right people. Think about the whole person. They have to be fulfilled as human beings and your job is to create that kind of atmosphere. It’s simple but it’s also kind of revolutionary because that’s not the way that people think. Keep your people engaged in what it is you’re doing by giving them the tools that they need to become what drives them internally. The employee wants to become the best version of him or herself. I’m a social worker to the core, so I can never not look at who you are as a person. What are your dreams, goals, aspirations? What is the pain in your life? What keeps you from being the very best that you can be? It can’t be impersonal. Yeah, I expect them to kick ass and produce. But the only way you’re going to come to our space whole and able to do that is to know that you’re cared about.

Mental health advocacy is a huge part of your personal and professional interests. What has been the most measureable reward of sharing your personal struggle with depression, particularly in the African-American community?

When I went public about my depression in an Essence magazine story, more than 10,000 people responded, which led me to write my book because people were saying, ‘Girl, my best friends and family members don’t know that I’m strong on the outside, dying on the inside.’ We’re all dealing with stuff and I just felt that it was important to speak to African-Americans, for whom therapy is a badge of shame. I don’t believe anyone is born bad, mad or evil.

Life happens to you and it changes who you are. You don’t get help and that unresolved trauma starts to get to you. In the workplace or in your relationship, you might say something and the person you’re talking to goes completely off and you’re like, what did I do? What did I say? It was simply that you triggered something that happened to that person and they never dealt with it. You get that immediate reaction. In the workplace, it’s really important to keep that in mind because many times, it’s not personal. It doesn’t have a single thing to do with you, but it’s some unresolved pain. We all inherit unresolved pain, wounds, trauma and scars from our parents. Horrific things happen to people and they don’t get help, so if you say something that triggers it, I’m going off on you.

It seems like someone is always in the news for saying or doing something that generates shock, shame or public ridicule. As a student of both public relations and human behavior, what’s your advice for healing a career after one of these mess-ups?

I think the greatest thing that one can do is to speak your truth. Nothing can beat that. People can see through if you’re making up a PR spin. People understand that. I think when you are true to yourself and don’t make excuses, then you win.

You’re kicking off a lifestyle series based on your passion for self-care and philosophy of personal reinvention. What will that project look like and when will it launch?

I’ve been kind of doing it informally. I speak at a lot of colleges and corporations, and what I really do is simple. I will share parts of my story and others’ stories to get people to open up. It’s really amazing. My friends and family and staff knew I had anger issues. I was the last one to realize it. It came out in therapy. Somebody violates you in some way, your spirit or your body, and you have nowhere to go with it, but somebody’s going to get it.

So I ended up having to apologize to friends and staff people as well because there was something else that was really making me angry and I hadn’t dealt with it. The only reason I can stand up and say this to people is because I know I’m not the only one with anger issues. I had a meeting about a year ago. People started sharing and the tears started flowing. That doesn’t happen at corporations. You don’t let people see you sweat.

If you could have a 20-something Terrie Williams as your intern now, what would you tell her to do differently?

Listen to your freakin’ inner voice. You know in your gut what’s right but either fear sets in or something keeps you from listening. There are always other forces crowding the good sense you have. Follow your inner voice and be true to it. I know this is about media, but the underlying core is our shared humanity. It impacts how effective we are in particular roles. If you look at a lot of different media personalities, you wonder what drives them because of certain things that they say or do. Even though you don’t know what that person’s journey is, you know they have one and it colors everything about who they are. Assume there’s something you don’t know that had a profound impact on that person.

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on
Facebook.

Demetria Lucas spent the first half of her career as a journalist covering celebrities. Now she is one herself, and routine activities like going to the gym have become an adventure in the preservation of privacy. “Last week, this woman stopped in front of my car and mouthed ‘Demetria Lucas?'” she said. “I nodded, and she just smiled and waved, then walked on across the street. I didn’t think I’d be recognized, but apparently if you’re invited into someone’s living room every Sunday night, they know what you look like whether you’ve got on sweats or a dress.”

She’s adjusting to the reality of being a reality star, which includes run-ins with people feeling like they know you, even when you’re off the clock. Before she was part of the six-woman cast of Bravo’s Blood, Sweat and Heels, which chronicles the lives-in-progress of young, professional upstarts forging their careers in New York City, Lucas was far from unknown. Her blog, A Belle in Brooklyn, garnered a following of devotees and earned her critical accolades and a Black Weblog Award. Hers is the North Star of entrepreneurial journalism that many a writer wishes upon.

Adding certified life coach to her author-slash-editor-slash-columnist-slash-blogger-slash-TV personality repertoire, the once-quintessential single girl — who’s now a bride-to-be — has formalized the wisdom she’s dispensed to fans over the years in some 30,000 answered relationship questions. Here, the two-time author talks fortuitous opportunities, accidental marketing and being “the black Carrie Bradshaw.”

Name: Demetria Lucas
Position: Journalist, blogger, editor, author, columnist, life coach and reality show star
Resume: Interned at Vibe, then transitioned to Russell Simmons’ One World and Time Out New York. Edited romance novels for Harlequin and BET Books. Blogged about dating for Honeymag.com. Launched her personal blog, A Belle in Brooklyn, and was subsequently named one of “the Blogosphere’s Best” by Black Enterprise and “30 Black Bloggers You Should Know” by The Root. Former relationships editor and dating columnist for Essence. Contributed freelance articles to The New York Times, The Guardian, People and XXL as well as The Grio, XoJane, Clutch, Vibe Vixen and Uptown. Contributing editor for The Root. Author of A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life and Don’t Waste Your Pretty: The Go-to Guide for Making Smarter Decisions in Life & Love. Founded Coached By Belle, helping clients solve dating dilemmas and build healthy relationships. Most recently starred on Bravo’s Blood, Sweat and Heels.
Birthdate: July 9
Hometown: Mitchellville, Md.
Education: BA in English from University of Maryland College Park; master’s in journalism from New York University
Marital status: Engaged
Media mentors: Harriette Cole and Beverly Smith
Best career advice received: “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Last book read: Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
Guilty pleasure: Reality TV
Twitter handle: @abelleinbk

What was your original vision for your blog, A Belle in Brooklyn?
Sex and the City was still on the air, and black women who watched it took issue like, ‘This is New York City. There are amazing people of all colors here, including fabulous black women with great careers. Why isn’t there one on the show?’ I was looking for a site, a book, something that filled that gap. I complained to one of my writer friends about it and he said, ‘Well, you’re a writer. Why don’t you write it?’ That’s how A Belle in Brooklyn was born. I started doing it on MySpace and it quickly became popular. Then I went to a networking event and pitched the idea of writing about dating and relationships as a single black woman in Brooklyn to the editor of Honeymag.com. She loved it. The first piece I did for her site got around 4,000 visitors and she called me like, ‘Oh my God. We’ve struck gold.’

I wrote for Honey for three months or so before I got a call from a friend of a friend who worked at Essence. She said there was an opening for a relationship editor there and told me I had to apply for it. I’d only written for Essence once before that, so I was like, ‘Really? An editor at Essence? Am I ready? I don’t know.’ She was like, ‘Oh, no, the whole office reads your blog. We get in in the morning and are like, did you read Belle today?’ The thought of a whole office of women reading my stuff was crazy. When I turned in a bunch of clips from my blog and that landed me the job, I realized I was probably on to something. Belle was a brand before I realized it was one. I was just writing. The readers are the ones who told me, ‘You have to turn this into a book. It will sell.’

You mentioned Sex and the City. How do you like being labeled “the black Carrie Bradshaw?”

I have mixed feelings about it. When I was working for Essence, I had a column called ‘Dating Guide.’ In one of the more popular stories, I went on three blind dates — one arranged by my editor, one by my mother and one by my best friend. The one my mom set up was in D.C., so the Washington Post covered the story, and the headline was something like ‘Demetria Lucas is the Black Carrie Bradshaw.’ The name just kind of stuck. I can’t get away from it now, even if I wanted to. But I’m a real woman. I’m a real black woman. I don’t really like the equation to be a fill-in-the-lines white TV character. The thing that I do like, though, is that for all her flaws, Carrie was loved. People really liked her. She was that sort of urban girl next door with problems that people could relate to. So in that respect, I’m honored to claim that title.

Are there a plethora of tragic Carrie Bradshaws now in the forms of Being Mary Jane‘s Mary Jane Paul and Scandal‘s Olivia Pope?

Even though Sex and the City is still hugely popular years after it went off the air, I think Olivia Pope is trying to be Olivia Pope and Mary Jane is trying to be Mary Jane. One of the reasons I started my blog was it seemed when single, white women were featured going through relationships, there was more lightheartedness. There was more comedy. There was more adventure. There was more optimism. Even if they got kicked down by somebody one day, they were back up and at it in the next episode. With black women, it just seemed depressing. It seemed hard and heavy and negative. That’s the case for a lot of women, but there are also a lot of us who are just trying to figure it out.

When you prepared to write your first book, what kind of author did you want to become?

I knew the combination of my blog and being the relationship editor at Essence raised my profile. I was also fortunate to land a spot on Let’s Talk About Pep on VH1, which was another story about four black women dating in New York. I realized I had a really big platform and I should do something with it.

That’s when I pitched my book. Coming from a book editor’s background, I knew that you could have a great story, but if you didn’t have a platform to sell it on, nobody was going to know about it. Simon & Schuster took it. After the book came out, I was all over social media and started doing my ‘Cocktails with Belle’ events because I wanted to meet my readers. I wasn’t really looking at it as a marketing strategy.

Do you think Blood Sweat and Heels stayed true to its original vision and the real, off-camera personalities of the cast members?

No. The show was pitched to me as the professional lives of African-American women in New York City. Over time, it became professional and personal. My fiancé was not originally supposed to be on the show. That was a large discussion between us and producers and also my fiancé and myself. We didn’t want to be a public couple. He’s not in entertainment. He has no interest in being a part of this world. He has an interest in me. As for the cast, I do kind of cringe at some of the things that were done and said. We all — myself included — could’ve done better in the representation. What’s being shown on TV is not an authentic representation of how up-and-coming professional black women behave or how my friends and I behave. I would’ve liked to see a stronger emphasis on work. I know that the show’s not done yet and there’s stuff coming up. But I think we’ve got a lot of unnecessary drama.

Would you do it again?

I don’t know.

Being a journalist is one thing, being a reality star is another. How did your writing career prepare you for the TV spotlight?

I tend to write about controversial subjects. You take a hard stance on something that people are split down the middle about and argue to the death for your side. I’ve always gotten a lot of feedback, positive and negative. My physical appearance has been attacked. My relationship status has been attacked. Being a writer gave me thicker skin and got me used to being in debate.

Not angry, not arguing, but going back and forth respectfully. I absolutely love being challenged. All of that prepared me for reality TV. I don’t think I could’ve gone from a completely behind-the-scenes life to a very public life and been OK afterwards. The responses to being on TV can be brutal if you’re not prepared.

Do you dare venture out looking for comments?

I post 50 times a day on Twitter. I do a couple posts on Facebook every day. I’ve got 17,000 followers on Instagram. I interact with my readers. I respond to comments. So, yeah, I see what people are saying. I don’t read all the blogs and I don’t go into the comments section anymore. It’s just emotionally unhealthy. I still want to know how things are perceived, how people are responding to the show. It’s weird to be someone who’s written about pop culture and then become part of pop culture.

There’s constant back and forth about what a “real” feminist is. How did you find your voice as a woman and a writer without limiting yourself to being a woman writer?

I started off my career covering music as a freelancer almost exclusively for The Source, XXL, Vibe and The Ave, a great magazine that didn’t stay around long enough. It was like, ‘OK, go up to the Bronx to Styles P’s studio at midnight and interview him about getting out of jail.’ It didn’t dawn on me that I was supposed to be writing girl stuff. I just wanted to write the good stories everyone was talking about because I wanted the attention as the up-and-coming writer. Over the years, in talking about dating and relationships, I wanted to be an advocate for women. I think a lot of the advice that is given to us is very male-centric and less about us getting what we want out of relationships. We’re a partner in this too. We should be getting something as well, not just the privilege of saying we’re not single. So for me, it’s about representing what makes sense, not about being staunchly feminist.

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on
Facebook.

In the beginning, it was an idea that blossomed into a startup that exploded into a brand that became a legend among publications. Essence has enjoyed unparalleled longevity and relevance in its 44 years of service to a readership of devoted black women. At the helm of that success is Edward Lewis, the last of four men who, in 1968, conceptualized the idea of a magazine for a then-unserved audience. The development of it was part business genius, part tribute to the mothers, wives, sisters and friends who deserved to see their interests, aspirations and stylishness reflected in print. The first issue, published in 1970, launched with just 50,000 copies. It enjoys a circulation of more than 1 million today.

Lewis sold his baby to Time Inc. in 2005, a move that bothered and disappointed many an Essence devotee. “People were saying the voice was going to change. I said, ‘Look, the reason why they bought the magazine is because they want the voice,'” Lewis countered. “I would like to see Essence deal with a totality of what it is to be women and, at the same time, what it is to be black in America.” Now a senior adviser with Solera Capital, the company that purchased his other business brainchild, Latina, Lewis has chronicled his magazine-making journey in a new book, aptly titled The Man From Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women. Here, the media magnate talks about his early publishing days, the current state of black women’s magazines and how Essence was almost named… Sapphire.

Name: Edward Lewis
Position: Publisher and entrepreneur
Resume: Enlisted in 1965 in an executive training program at First National City Bank. Worked through the ranks as a financial analyst, on track to become a loan officer, when he attended a conference in 1968 on African-Americans in business. Met four other young men who introduced the concept of a fashion magazine for black women. Left banking gig six months later to co-found what would become Essence. Magazine grew from an initial 50,000 copies in 1970 to more than 1.2 million in circulation today. Served as president and publisher for three decades, growing its multiplatform communications and expanding brand to include consumer products and an annual music festival. Entered into joint venture to create Latina magazine, geared toward Hispanic women, in 1995. Named first black chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America (now the Association of Magazine Media) in 1997, representing more than 700 publications. Sold a portion of Essence to Time Inc. in 2000; the remainder, five years later. Joined private equity firm Solera Capital as a senior adviser. Inducted into Advertising Hall of Fame in 2014.
Birthday: May 15, 1940
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Education: Undergraduate degree and master’s in political science with concentration in international relations from University of New Mexico
Marital status: Married
Media mentor: Activist and journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Best career advice received: “Cash is king, queen, jack and everything else.”
Last book read: The Cross of Redemption by James Baldwin
Guilty pleasures: Anything chocolate and singing the blues.

Why is now the time for a book about the creation of and story behind Essence?
I’ve been thinking about a book for a number of years, even while I was still CEO of Essence. But I was too close in terms of the day-to-day running of the company. After I sold it, I thought it was an important story because I wanted black women to know that a group of men thought so much of them that we wanted to bring something into the world that would celebrate their beauty and intelligence. Other women’s magazines weren’t talking about black women and we wanted to fill the void in the marketplace.

Tell us about the developmental stage of the magazine and how focus groups helped your founding team.
The original title of the magazine was not Essence. It was going to be called Sapphire. Going through the civil rights movement, we blacks began to feel good about ourselves. We thought having a magazine called Sapphire translated to ‘You’re precious and you’re a jewel.’ We bounced the idea off some black women and they said, ‘You’ve lost your mind.’ That name, unbeknownst to us back then, was a put-down. The editor of the magazine, Ruth Ross, suggested Essence, and my former partners and I collectively said ‘yes.’

When Susan Taylor became editor-in-chief in 1981, she said, ‘We need to do some research on our market.’ And I said, ‘I want you to travel the country, listen to what black women have to say, bring that back and translate that into the magazine.’ Susan became an icon. People thought she started the magazine. She got a lot of ideas from traveling. When Essence started, we were in the midst of a recession and we’ve weathered three or four more in our 40+ years. When the country goes through a recession, our circulation grows. We obviously touch a nerve editorially that makes black women say, ‘OK, you’ve got some information that may be useful in our day-to-day lives.’ Focus groups were important to keep abreast of what was going on with black women and that translated into the magazine. You’ve got to stay on top of it.

What is the current rhetoric about black women in the media and how has Essence shaped that?
Black women are en vogue. Essence has been doing a Hollywood luncheon for the past five years, I think. Lupita Nyong’o was recently honored and what she talked about in terms of being a black woman was so moving. We have to continue to raise our voices. I think that women can be too quiet on some issues, like abortion choice and equal pay. They need to be raising the roof on matters like that and Essence needs to be talking about it as well.

Were you surprised about the backlash after Essence hired Ellianna Placas, its first white fashion director, in 2010?

When we started the business, we thought that all we would do is hire an entire black staff. Everything would be black. The reality hit us that a number of us were not working in magazines, so we had to look elsewhere so that we could learn and grow. If I could show you the first staff of Essence, you would see a smattering of whites. The art director was white. Our circulation director, who died last year, was white. He’s one of the unsung heroes who helped Essence be what it is today. I had a chief financial officer who was white and did a magnificent job. It has never exceeded more than 10 percent of the entire staff. So the issue about a fashion editor didn’t bother me because ultimately, the editor-in-chief makes the final decision about the fashion pages. If they had hired a white beauty editor that would’ve raised question marks for me because beauty is a whole different area with respect to how black women perceive themselves.

Jet magazine has folded its print copy and is going all digital. Do you think this was a good move?
One of my heroes outside my family is John Johnson, who started Ebony and Jet. The media landscape has changed with respect to how people get information. It’s very difficult. It’s one of the reasons why I made the decision to sell to Time Inc. when they approached me in 2000. I began to realize that what I call the four P’s — paper, printing, postage and people — are going to continue to increase in cost. Ebony has gone through some changes with respect to trying to find its editorial feet. In fact, on one level, they’re trying to make it look younger than what their audience is. We tried to make the Essence audience look younger and when we did, black women punished us. Our circulation went down and it took us a year to recover. Those are the pressures on Johnson Publishing and Jet.

How did you take what you learned at Essence and apply it to your work with Latina?

Christy Haubegger came to Essence‘s office in 1995 and told me this idea about a bilingual magazine for Hispanic women called Latina. She’d sent me her business plan and for someone who had not been in the business, it was one of the best I’d ever seen. So that intrigued me. I thought if Essence already had a circulation of over a million, I could help a magazine for Hispanic women. Together, we’d be an incredible marketing force. I also wanted to demonstrate that blacks and Latinos could work together. That’s important for both of our communities.

So we put money into Latina and got it off the ground. When I sold the first 49 percent of Essence to Time Inc., in 2000, they already had a magazine called People en Español so they weren’t interested in Latina. Molly Ashby, who founded a private equity firm called Solera Capital, had carved out four sectors that she wanted to invest in: media, retail, heath, food. She heard Christy Haubegger speak at a luncheon and decided to make the investment because of the potential of the market. She bought 75 percent of Latina in 2000 and when I sold the remaining 51 percent of Essence to Time, she bought the remaining 25 percent of Latina.

Other magazines for black women have come and gone. Did you ever feel in competition with them? Is there room for any more?
Oh, there’s always room. We wanted to see more black magazines because from our standpoint, more means the market is growing. It wasn’t about us saying we’re the only game in town and you should only deal with us. Our audience wanted us to do everything. That’s a hell of a burden to put on a magazine. We tried to respond and do a fashion magazine called Suede. If there’s something I regret, it’s that we weren’t able to put Suede on the marketplace because I think it would’ve had some legs if I had been willing to spend the time and money on it.

Magazines like Honey came on the scene at a time when advertising began to downturn. I don’t think editorially they struck a nerve with their audience. If you’ve got the right editorial, you’re going to get the circulation and then you’re going to get the advertising. I don’t know how much money all these other magazines had in order to sustain themselves. Magazines generate a tremendous amount of cash, which people haven’t realized. One of the reasons we became valuable to Time Inc. was because we were sitting on $40 million.

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on Facebook .

Most of us take for granted the multiculturalism that greets television viewers daily. There is the intelligence and talent of Tamron Hall, Jacque Reid, Soledad O’Brien and the mononymous Oprah, along with local news anchors and correspondents who color broadcast journalism. Those on the screen and we on the other side of it are beneficiaries of Belva Davis’ five decades of impassioned, award-winning work in the field.

She is the first African-American woman television reporter on the West Coast and, until her retirement in 2012, she hosted “This Week in Northern California” for 19 years. (Her final show featured personal friend and fellow phenom Maya Angelou.) To call her a pioneer would be accurate; to say we owe her a debt of gratitude would be an understatement.

A first-generation high school graduate and self-taught journalist who regularly interviewed luminaries and history makers — among them Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bill Clinton — she has had a special gift for tapping into the vulnerability of people at the center of news. “I think I’ve indulged myself to ask things that would interest me along with the customary questions,” Davis explained. “If you’re covering something that interests you, then you have a curiosity about it. If you’re really interested in it, you try to dig a little deeper.” Here, Davis, who at 81 has returned to her print roots as a freelancer and blogger, dishes on interviewing greats, threats from the Oakland police and the future of journalism.

Name: Belva Davis
Position: Author and broadcast journalist
Resume: Started career as a stringer for Jet magazine and later contributed to the Sun Reporter and Bay Area Independent. Edited the Sun Reporter from 1961 to 1968. Became an on-air interviewer for an AM radio station in San Francisco and disc jockey for a neighboring R&B station. In 1963, made television debut covering a black beauty pageant. Made history as the first female African-American television journalist on the West Coast when she was hired by KPIX in 1966. Worked there for 30 years and became an anchorwoman in 1970. Hosted “This Week in Northern California” for more than 19 years. Covered the Berkeley riots, the Black Panthers movement, the Jonestown massacre and the AIDS and crack epidemics. Also fielded politics, race and gender. Honored with seven Emmys, the inaugural Jefferson-Lincoln Award for Journalists by the Panetta Institute and three honorary doctorates. Published Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism in 2010. Retired in 2012 but continues to freelance and blog on issues related to the black community.
Birthdate: October 13, 1932
Hometown: Monroe, La.
Education: Berkeley High School
Marital status: Married to Bill Moore, the first black man to work as a cameraman at a major TV station
Media mentors: “There was no person I have to thank more than Louis Freeman, who was the news director at KDIA, the black radio station where I worked, and Edith Austin, who was editor of the black newspaper, where I also worked. As time went on and I tried to bring about some equity, I became a unionist and a man named Bill Hillman was my mentor. I could use the union to do what I couldn’t do as an individual and Bill facilitated that.”
Best career advice received: “You can’t do anything well that you don’t believe in.”
Last book read: Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou
Guilty pleasure: Cruises
Twitter handle: @BelvaDavis

The West Coast has a unique cultural and ethnic dynamic. Do you think that region was more receptive to a black woman television reporter when you made your on-air debut?

I would say so, though I don’t know about all of California because I got into the business before anybody [of color] was hired in Los Angeles. You would think that would be natural, but it wasn’t. We were in the land of rebellion here in Northern California. I had the Berkeley riots, the Black Panthers, all of the leading protest-changing people in this area. You could find support because everybody had a cause and that made it easier to get unusual things done. Because of segregation, I had to work for black or minority media. I’d built up a relationship with my community, so they agreed that I should be moving forward. My first week at KPIX, a CBS affiliate, the local Links chapter came down to wish me well, all 20 or so of them. They stopped in the lobby, talked to the station manager and said they were there to support me, and if there was any problem at all, notify them. Can you imagine that?

You weren’t college educated, so everything you learned about journalism, you learned in the doing. How did that enhance your skill set and how did it challenge you professionally?
I worked hard. The information that I’d dig up was probably fresher than if I were recalling something I’d learned in school four years before. Every day was finals for me. With each interview and field of knowledge, I had to really research and prepare. I gave my best effort because I didn’t feel I had the same background knowledge as people who’d gone to college. But we were all learning the tricks of the trade because we were new to the business of news gathering.

I started in print, writing stories for Jet. That copy was sent to their Chicago headquarters and, of course, they rewrote everything. The deal was that on Mondays, we had to go over everything I did and they’d tell me what I did right and wrong. I was paid $5 a week for that. Louis [Freeman] would also let me go out with him when he was covering stories that were coming of age as the civil rights movement grew. I’d sit in as he was doing interviews with some of the leaders who needed us back then, including Martin Luther King, Jr. They’d come to the station, and I’d listen to how he handled it.

I’m not a college graduate, but this year I was asked to be the commencement speaker for San Francisco State University, which is the school I applied to, got accepted into and couldn’t afford to go to. I went back this year in cap and gown. God is good.

Who was your first major, most memorable interview?
Many people stood out for the wrong reasons. I interviewed Jim Jones, who was someone I never wanted to talk to, and I had a poor interview with W.E.B. Dubois because I was young and didn’t know the significance of his importance. As time went on, I was interviewing Muhammad Ali one day and in the presence of Malcolm X the next. I did one of many interviews with Huey Newton in Cuba. Celebrities were open to me because I’d been on radio. I just pulled out some files the other day: interviews with Ella [Fitzgerald], Nancy [Wilson] and Lena [Horne]. Fragments of them will go into my archives, which I’m working on now. But I think it was my first interview with then-Governor Reagan because it was unusual that I got past the Republican barricade. That was because of a co-worker and mentor named Roland Post, who became my co-anchor on a political talk show.

We’ve heard accounts about sexism that coincided with the civil rights movement. What was your experience in the colorless, womanless field of journalism at that moment in history?
I worked my way through. I never complained about it. I came in with ideas and I think my assignment editor began to understand what kind of things I thought were important. I knew women in both struggles, black and white, the background people and the coffee-bringers. Of course, they rebelled. That’s why I became such good friends with Aileen Hernandez, the second president of NOW [National Organization of Women], and Gloria Steinem back in the early days of the women’s movement. I really worked with those women in getting their stories out.

I understand that during the first decade of your career, you never turned down a story and agreed to do whatever the editors assigned you. What was your reporting strategy?

My world had been limited, both by choice and by circumstance, to revolve totally around the black community. I knew that there were other worlds and if I was going to be on television, I had to learn about all kinds of people. So I cultivated stories about Native Americans, Hispanics and Asians. I even talked the station into launching a half-hour program about minorities. It was the first of its kind on primetime out here. I convinced them to add in some rotating co-anchors from the other groups. We’d get stories from all of those communities and did very well. It was on maybe three or four years.

I did walk off of one story, though. It was silly anyway. I was sent to cover a society fashion show and, as I often did, I carried part of the camera gear. I came in with the photographer and this woman started screaming at me. ‘Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you! Get backstage!’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ You can imagine what was next. She thought I was the ironing woman. I called my editor and said, ‘I can’t even pretend to do this story.’ I was also pursuing another story for a long time that I had to walk away from because it was dangerous for my family. There were threats to my children. I was doing a story about racial profiling and it made the Oakland police mad. The series was called “Stopped for Questioning.” We could put that title on a lot of stories today too, right?

Of radio, print and television, which has allowed you to do your best storytelling?

Radio was the most fun, but I’d say television because you’ve got visual, sound, and you’re writing your scripts. That’s a combination of all of it. It truly is a wonderful way to earn a living. I did a series on Native Americans called “Nothing Left But Pride.” It was over the course of a number of months, doing all of these stories on the state of Native Americans in the Northern California region, traveling up to the Oregon border. They were at the bottom of the ladder in terms of exposure because their numbers are so small. That’s when I got one of my better interviews — Robert Kennedy. He flew with me on a helicopter up to an Indian reservation. Cameras weren’t rolling. We just talked for two hours. It was a wonderful exchange.

You’ve pioneered for all women, particularly women of color. What are your expectations for these journalists now that there are broader platforms and opportunities?

I used to always answer, ‘Work as hard as I did,’ but I realize you have to work harder. Black women have made progress since I started [in journalism], but you can’t go into it wanting to be a movie star. You can get by and make a living. But if you only prepare yourself to do the minute and 30 seconds they give you to do a story and didn’t get the background so that it could be the best that could possibly happen, it would be difficult to contribute to journalistic knowledge. I see in so many young women an obligation to broaden the storyline. That means there’s still a lot of good journalism out there.

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on Facebook.

Producing a book is quite possibly the hallmark accomplishment in a writer’s career. You string words into sentences, those sentences are weaved into paragraphs and those paragraphs become pages of (hopefully) scintillating thought poured out from your creative stores and drizzled across the canvas of a blank document. It’s magical.

There are other gratifying achievements, but mostly they lack the wow factor of offhandedly telling people at nightclubs, on first dates and during class reunions that you just finished a novel or a memoir or a sci-fi thriller. You’re an author. You rock by default. If you want to actually get people to read it and even shake out a few coins as a reward for your hard wordsmithing, you have to start early — before your manuscript is finished, before you shop for a publisher and certainly before you practice your barely legible book-signing signature.

Part of that preparation means getting familiar with the spotlight. “A lot of people are strong in their material and know their topic, but they aren’t comfortable sharing that in a public way, whether it’s on radio or television, in print or online,” said Regina Brooks, lead agent and president of Serendipity Literacy Agency in New York City. “The first important thing is to make sure that you are psychologically prepared to expose yourself.”

That might look like therapy for some, a public speaking course for others, but readying for the floodlights of noticeability is an essential step one. Cultivating a following, increasing your visibility and branding yourself in a niche — as a relationship expert, as a young adult novelist, as a parenting blogger-turned-author — are steps two, three and four. Here are tips from three publishing industry insiders on building a platform in anticipation of your completed masterpiece.

Create a social media fraternity.

When Susan Schneider co-authored The Alpha Woman Meets Her Match with Dr. Sonya Rhodes, she was intentional about aligning with folks on Twitter and Facebook who had similar topical interests. “I read and read and read the websites that were relevant to us — Slate, Salon, Jezebel, The Hairpin, The Frisky — and kept up with the writers and what they were writing about. I’d follow them, comment on their articles, message them and offer to send our book for review. I used everything I could think of,” she said of her tactical engagement, which also included contacting authors of similar titles.

Rather than obsessing over the numbers associated with a social media account, Brooks agrees that the focus should be on communing with existing and potential readers. “You can buy Twitter and Facebook followers. They have algorithms out there. Now, are those people reading your blog? Are they replying to your tweets? Are they really engaged with you and the topic? Probably not,” she warned. In short, concentrate on quality, not quantity. High numbers may initially impress — and kind of make you feel like the popular kid in the cafeteria — but publishers and agents prefer the development of an actual audience to the smoke and mirrors of a manufactured one.

Sharpen your public communication skills.

We, the people, run into them way too often — folks who really don’t know what they’re talking about, but deliver their nonsense so authoritatively and convincingly, we almost believe them. That’s the sign of having great communication skills and you’re going to need those. “Some people are excellent on radio, but get fidgety and uncomfortable on television. Not everybody is going to have an opportunity to try to figure it out on the fly,” said Brooks. “Practice by filming yourself. See what feels right for you. You might say ‘OK, you know what? TV — and that includes YouTube or Vimeo — is probably not my thing right now.’ Find out which format you work best in.”

Do the same for radio by compiling a list of questions, asking people in your inner circle to pretend to interview you and taping yourself to prepare. Put together some talking points for your preferred medium and siphon your thoughts and expertise down to bite-sized chunks. “Organize some highlights and pare them down even more so you can make points about the material when you need them. Write a list of things you might want to blog about too — on your own blog or as a guest blogger — that will encourage your readership to want to pick up your book,” she added.

Get yourself a strong supporting cast.

“The one piece of advice that I always pass on: get a publicist for your first book. You can learn from him or her the first time and then maybe you won’t need that person the second time,” shared Christina Katz, author of Get Known Before the Book Deal and trainer for writers aspiring to push their careers into next-level prosperity. She had an in-house publicist for her first book, she said, but by her second, that luxury had gone the way of bigger budgets. Still, the learning experience had an indelible effect on two subsequent books.

Schneider had been twice published prior to the release of her latest project. But they were products of the pre-Internet era, which obviously changed everything from pace to communication, so she leaned on the expertise of her network. “We wanted to go as far as we could with promotion, so we had a great team at William Morrow, which is now an imprint of HarperCollins. They went after TV and radio shows,” she said. “We also hired a freelance PR consultant who helped us do a great deal of blogging for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. We were cranking out blogs as fast as we could do them.” The connections and combined experience of a writer’s village are invaluable.

Hit the ground running with an agent.

In addition to helping would-be authors perfect their strongest proposals before they submit them to any publisher, a valuable agent is a writer’s advocate and a champion for their personal brand. “The book is no longer just the book. You look at the book as content, and you want somebody who can take the concept and monetize it,” advised Brooks, herself an author of You Should Really Write a Book: How to Write, Sell and Market Your Memoir.

Depending on the size and type of publisher you’re trying to court, you may not need an agent, but a good one in your corner will be able to stretch your content into more opportunities. “You want someone who’s not just going to look at your print and eBook rights, but someone who’s going to leverage those rights for your financial gain,” Brooks added. “You want an agent to be able to sell your foreign rights and your first serial rights and expand those into webisodes or television.” See? Sometimes it’s nice to have a co-investor in the mission to build and broaden your platform.

Consider micropublishing your book idea.

Even journalists and bloggers with publishing credentials and valuable experience need some help making the transition to authorship, said Katz. It takes training to get to the marathon of writing that becomes book form. “Very few people are actually prepared to write a book,” Katz explained. “Before they start talking about platform and thinking about writing, I have to get them ready.” The process, she added, walks aspiring authors through increasingly meatier writing-for-publication assignments, starting with short pieces, building up into a niche and then adding even more experience writing in that specialty. She then suggests micropublishing, a short book printed electronically, as the next step.

Katz said, “If you told me, ‘I have a great idea for a book,’ I would ask you, ‘Why wouldn’t you self-publish a short version of your bigger idea as a way of making your mark and test-marketing it?’ You might say, ‘I don’t want to tap into that until I’m really ready to go for it in a big way.'” But, Katz warned, “You’re not going to be able to impress an agent or a publisher unless you have an established platform and you can show you understand these types of skills. So what better way to do it than to actually do it?” Micropublishing may seem like you’re ruining the big reveal with a premature sneak peek, but it may be what writers need to pique publishers’ interest.

Get some initial feedback from your peers.

You should absolutely force your manuscript upon family and friends and ask for their sincere feedback, which naturally is their cue to shower you with endless ego-boosting compliments and positive affirmations. Alternatively, the online space offers up platforms to get unbiased reaction to your work to see if it’s good (or not). One to try: wattpad.com which, at 25 million subscribers, claims to be the world’s largest community of readers and writers.

“People post a portion of their manuscript or the whole thing and get feedback,” Brooks explained. “It’s a great way to get readership prior to publication or even prior to getting an agent. I think the harder genre to find a platform is in fiction. You need discoverability and you have to show an agent or a publisher that once your book is published, people will discover it because they have already discovered you.” She and fellow agents look to that site and others like it to see whose manuscript or material has the panache to resonate with an audience. “In fact, we just signed someone up who had a million people read her material,” she said. “It definitely made us look at this person with eager eyes.”

Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on

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