Greenburgh Public Library Blog

Urban Fiction Author Spotlight: Vickie Stringer

Urban Fiction.The settings are gritty and the characters are tough, ready to survive by any means necessary. You may know the stories, but what about the authors who write them? What inspired them? Let's take a deeper look at the sixth of our six authors and offer you a peek inside their lives! ​

To read more about other Urban Fiction authors, check out our previous post about Teri Woods, Zane, Carl Weber, Eric Jerome Dickey​ and Kimberla Lawson Roby.

1. Vickie Stringer grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of a school teacher and electrical engineer for General Motors.
2. Vickie’s writing career did not start out the typical way. Her first novel, Let That Be The Reason,  was penned while she was in prison. Without a way to publish it, she sent her story to 26 publishers and received 26 rejections. Vickie’s solution to this dilemma would undoubtedly help hundreds of future Urban Fiction authors. With money from her family, she founded Triple Crown Publications. Vickie went from having no publisher to running a 1.8 million dollar company with 36 titles published by 25 different authors. 
3. Her first novel, Let That Be The Reason, is based on her life before becoming an author. She knew she wanted to turn her life around, not only for her but her young son, and writing was the way to do it. 
4. She helped fellow Urban Fiction author K’Wan Foye get his start. After reading Let That Be The Reason, K’Wan became inspired and emailed Triple Crown. A year after publishing, they had sold 80,000 copies before landing on the Barnes and Nobles bookshelves.
5. Vickie participated in the 2007 John Jay College of Criminal Justice study, “Facilitating Re-entry Venturing Beyond the Gates.” She was interviewed in the study to illustrate entrepreneurship as a way to re enter society after incarceration. 

To read more about Vickie Stringer, pick up one of her many novels, available at Greenburgh Public Library. Come in and visit the Urban Fiction section on the second floor! 

https://www.inc.com/magazine/20060501/qa-stringer.html

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20040719/29819-street-publisher-started-small-thinks-big.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/books/unorthodox-publisher-animates-hiphop-lit.html

https://www.ft.com/content/08785ece-86ee-11e5-9f8c-a8d619fa707c

https://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/from-prison-prayer-publishing-ceo-triple-crown-publications-talks-her-path-success-she-lovesand-8212-and-hatesand-8212-about-publishing-business-82974/2/