{"id":1181,"date":"2019-06-06T00:13:39","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T00:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tamika.tamikanewhouse.com\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2019-06-06T15:20:17","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T15:20:17","slug":"tamika-newhouse-interviewed-by-creators-for-the-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamikanewhouse.com\/tamika-newhouse-interviewed-by-creators-for-the-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamika Newhouse Interviewed by Creators for the Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Tamika Newhouse is a woman who wears many hats. Author, publisher, speaker, producer, and CEO to be exact. And she\u2019s had an interesting journey going from a teen mom to the author of 13 novels and the winner of 8 African American Literary Awards. She also started Delphine Publications which has published nearly 150 titles, launching the careers of numerous fellow writers. And in addition to writing and publishing, she now tours the country speaking about overcoming her teen pregnancy to fulfill her dreams, as well as teaching aspiring writers the publishing ropes and has even dipped her toes into the film production game. And all this with the ultimate goal of becoming a literary rockstar. Check out our interview with the very busy Ms. Newhouse and #GetFamiliar.<\/p>\n

How did you get into writing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Growing up I didn\u2019t have a lot of friends so writing was my escape. Being able to create lives and stories I could control was my own happiness because I couldn\u2019t control my own world. I wrote my first book when I was 12 but when I became a teen mom at 16 the realities of life set in and I had to go through the motions of real life and be responsible and put writing to the side.<\/p>\n

What made you get back into writing?<\/h3>\n

It wasn\u2019t until I launched my first company, on accident I might add, which was an online book group called AAMBC and it was just me posting and talking about books and that jump started my career in the book industry.<\/p>\n

What was the accident?<\/h3>\n

I was bored and living in a city where I didn\u2019t have any friends and I started a Myspace page to talk about the books I was reading and authors began to reach out to me and ask me if I could read their books and I had never heard of the majority of the writers that were reaching out to me. This was 2008 and back then we really only saw the same writers over and over mentioned in Black Expressions and Essence and getting their books adapted into movies and I only thought there were like 30 black writers and there are hundreds. And that became my mission because I was like them, I was a writer even though I hadn\u2019t been writing in years it was something at 12 I told myself I wanted to do so I gave them a chance and that became the mission of AAMBC to read unknown\/undiscovered authors and it just grew from there.<\/p>\n

Can you describe your writing process and has it evolved through the years?<\/h3>\n

The writing process when I was a child was pure imagination and pure escape so a lot of the things I wrote about I hadn\u2019t necessarily experienced. I hadn\u2019t experienced pain, joy, love or fear so I just imagined what the emotions would be about so I was experiencing those emotions as I was writing. So for me, I was like the writer and the reader at the same time so it was very enjoyable for me because my real life was boring. As I got older I started to experience those emotions and I really began to experience life so I began to pull from real-life experiences. So now as I create I\u2019m more of an emotionally driven writer and I can pull from my real emotions. And because I write in first person I really get to dive into the emotions and into their choices and why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing because I\u2019ve been there done that. I can really express my writing now.<\/p>\n

And how did you get into the business end and publishing?<\/h3>\n

It was exciting for me to see my dream coming true but it was even more exciting that I was the one who did it. Nobody came to me and told me my book was good and that they would publish it for me. I was seeing my dream come true because I put in the work and I was excited about that. And people witnessed my work and my passion and my consistency and they started asking me to publish their books. So I said okay because I know how to do it and in the beginning it worked because I\u2019m so hands on, I\u2019m always pushing people to be accountable, to be there best and think outside of their comfort zone so by 23 the company was making six figures annually so I quit my job, quit college and focused on the publishing company.<\/p>\n

I do public speaking because people wanna know how I do it and a lot of people don\u2019t understand how I did it with two small children. They want to know any secrets or tricks but there are none. When I do public speaking I talk about the characteristics you actually need to have to make your entrepuneral goals work.<\/p>\n

You write, publish, run an annual awards show, and do public speaking, how do you manage your time to do some many different things?<\/h3>\n

It all requires a lot of energy. Everything I do is because I want to see US collectively progess and continue to grow. It\u2019s all about assigning and delegating. I create organization. Organization and structure is the only way to make your entrepuneral goals work especially if you have a job outside of your business.<\/p>\n

Are there any specific messages or images you try to convey through your work as a female writer of color?<\/h3>\n

Society says women can\u2019t do certain things because we\u2019re supposed to aspire to be a wife, a home maker, this old way of thinking. And then when you do have a woman who is highly intelligent, independent, comfortable in her own skin it\u2019s frowned upon and I don\u2019t like that. Just like I have men characters that desire relationships as much or more than women. We\u2019re all human and we all desire the same things. For me there are no gender lines in my books.<\/p>\n

Of all of the things you\u2019re currently doing, which do you enjoy doing the most now and why?<\/h3>\n

I have been comfortable in my success for a while now and right now I\u2019m stepping into the film industry. We\u2019re shooting the biopic for the hip-hop group 8-Ball and MJG. I\u2019m an associate producer on the project and my marketing company is spearheading the marketing of it. I\u2019m enjoying stepping out of my comfort zone, learning and bettering myself.<\/p>\n

How do you feel technology has assisted in helping you make and distribute your own novels?<\/h3>\n

Technology was really great and a key in the beginning to get me where I am now because I was able to talk to people in a safe space and network but now it\u2019s switched. Now everyone is on social media, everyone is talking, everyone is pretending to be somebody and posting only what they want us to see. It\u2019s all about perception but the reality is the people we really need to merge ourselves with to where our books can get on those shelves and our movies can get picked up and get distribution, they\u2019re not sitting on social media, they\u2019re at events shaking hands and networking and if they are on social media they\u2019re posting about the events they\u2019re physically going to. They\u2019re not having serious business conversations in the DM\u2019s.<\/p>\n

So even though social media got me here, it\u2019s not what\u2019s gonna help me get further.<\/p>\n

Could you give us 5 writes or creatives that have influenced you?<\/h3>\n