Kevin Benoit learned the power of voice early. Since age 12, he has helped others find and use their own. This Black History month, SBC highlights and explores the contributions of the 39-year-old self-starter who founded Parlé Magazine over two-decades ago, and, more recently, its arm nonprofit organization, Parlé Endeavors.
Benoit was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Originally named Kerven, his parents legally changed … Read the rest
Award-winning multi-hyphenate Keke Palmer is no stranger to opening up about her life. This week, she announced her new book, Master of Me (Flatiron Books, November 19, 2024), which is now available for pre-order.
“I can’t wait to go on this journey with y’all,” Palmer says via Instagram. “I’m covering so many topics from imposter-syndrome to co-parenting, to life not working out the way you thought it was in your … Read the rest
Happy Easter! SBC is closing International Women’s Month with the second edition of Author Dialogue. Our panelists, which centers romance, include (pictured left to right) veteran and multi-award-winning novelist Deborah Fletcher Mello (The Stallions; The Boudreaux Family); bestselling indie novelist Sheena Binkley (Love, Life, & Happiness); Wattpad stars and awardees Romi Moondi (24 Hours in Paris) Fallon DeMornay (Stiletto Sisterhood); … Read the rest
Once upon a time, adult and young adult novelist Suzanne Park swore by the technique of writing every day. Now, after five published books and counting, The Christmas Clash (October 4, Sourcebooks Fire) author has an evolved take. “The idea at the time was if you write every day, if you write a page a day—it doesn’t have to be every single day—just means five days out of the seven … Read the rest
As many of us know, the world has been mourning the loss of the late great Kobe Bryant. Award-winning novelist, writer, and former world-ranked squash player Ivy Claire Pochoda who collaborated with Bryant on their number one New York Times bestselling series Epoca shares her perspective on his passing while working on Book 2, The River of Sand (Granity Studios, December 15, 2020). “It’s been really hard, I mean, … Read the rest
Among the first things award-winning author and founding member of the The Brown Bookshelf Kelly Starling Lyons did when she knew she wanted to write children’s books was study the craft, especially after realizing her seasoned background in print journalism was a different style of writing compared to children’s literature. “Though I was trained as a feature writer, and, though I had written poetry for fun and other kinds of … Read the rest
When asked for advice about what authors should look for in agents, editors, and publishers, award-winning and Charming As A Verb (Balzer + Bray, October 13, 2020) author Ben Philippe, encourages finding industry professionals whose emails they are unafraid to receive. “I have friends who are also writers, they have that fear of their own editors and publishers,” he tells So Booking Cool. “They’re like ‘Oh, I made too … Read the rest
The advice Booki Vivat, author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling series, Frazzled, has for other authors and illustrators is to not discredit their creative work. “… Doodling, I totally dismissed it as not being creative,” she tells So Booking Cool. “I grew up writing fanfiction, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s not writing, that’s not really writing.’ But it is. And all of these things people … Read the rest
Voice is a common thread in So Booking Cool’s conversation with bestselling, critically acclaimed children’s book author, Lisa Moore Ramée. There’s the beloved ‘Shay’, Ramée’s debut protagonist from A Good Kind of Trouble (which has garnered renewed interest and now an Indie bestseller in paperback), whose voice has been praised and prompted whether it is important for Ramée to create resonant voices within her characters; there’s Ramée sharing the time … Read the rest
It’s no secret that publishing is full of collaboration, from the authors, agents, editors, and illustrators to the marketers, publicists, salespeople, reviewers, and influencers, etc. Then there are the professionals who help authors tell their stories by way of memoir: book collaborators. Multi-award-winning journalist, writer, and co-author, Jeannine Amber, who recently collaborated on I Tried to Change So You Don’t Have To: True Life Lessons (Hachette Go, June 23, … Read the rest
