I recently had the pleasure of providing feedback to my publisher about the kind of cover that I wanted for my debut book, When They Tell You To Be Good, and learned so much through the process that I made a video about it.
For any aspiring writer or author, this is a big moment that you dream and I’m so glad to have the space to document it in various ways. More than anything, I’m grateful to be leaving one chapter of my writing career (where I’ve fought so far to be seen) to this current phase, where I have a team of people working with me to bring my writing into the world. The dissonance between these two phases of my writing life is both jarring and exciting.
In this video below, I break down the process of discussing what kind of cover I wanted with Tin House, how we worked through feedback, and what my honest reaction is:
To preorder When They Tell You To Be Good, you can check out: Tin House | Bookshop | Amazon
“Examining a tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, When They Tell You to Be Good is a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves to be more than what America envisions for the oppressed and Shakur compels readers to take a closer, deeper look at the political world of young, Black, queer, and radical millennials today.” - Tin House