And if you want help with distribution set up - we have a package where we will help you with the set up of your book so it's available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo and more. You will own the accounts so you have full access to everything always! My team will just help you with all the fine details and troubleshoot any set up issues.

Please let me know opinions and possible corrections that might be needed. My first historic figure is Lt. James Reese Europe, commander of a machine gun company, served in the Harlem Hell Fighters, created the Division band which was praised as the best in the American Expeditionary Forces, and was a famous composer. He was the first to influence Rag Time into Jazz, but his life was cut short before the popularity of Jazz really came to heart. Dedication Paragraphs I’m dedicating ‘Close to Our Hearts’ to my father, Joseph Clement for his guidance and support which helped me endure the hardships in my life. To my mother Ruth E. Clement for helping me understand the value of people of different races and the determination to resist the hatred of a group of people. I want to also thank Ms. Sallye Mae Daniels who was a second mother to me, she scolded me for skipping meals, kept a stern eye that kept me out of mischief, and proved that people can love one another regardless of their skin tone. I want to acknowledge William Marion Raines High School, its faculty, and alumni. I have found Raines to have been a stellar experience, the faculty worked hard to ensure that I had the skills to succeed, and the alumni before and after my graduation always accepted me and stood by my side. From my earliest memory of being crammed into a car with my siblings and seven basketball players A.C. Sanders, Lester Bean, Terry LeCount, and the masses, or members of the girls track team who ran with a twelve-year-old boy who accidentally entered a 2-mile run against senior high athletes. This girls team pushed me through the pain to make certain I finished a race that I started. Finally, I want to thank Mr. Rodney Hurst Sr. for feeding the teams I was part of and providing the spiritual guidance to us all. It is my overall experience, and the communal love demonstrated that made me and inspired this small contribution to history.

I'm in the early stages of creating a non-fiction book. My goal is to provide historical achievements by African Americans that usually get overlooked. My problem is the format which I want to use. I want to have several short chapters with several different figures. I don't want to write a biography on them, just their contribution to history, I want the motivate the audience into digging deeper on figures they may have never been exposed to. My question is, would the best format be more like a story or more like a history book because that will dictate what information I seek out and how i should form it. I've only written college essays, so I still don't understand how a book and an essay are different/same. Are citations written the same? The format written the same?

While you work on your book please keep in mind the fundamentals of success! It's easy to overcomplicate the journey and get drawn into shiny objects, but the basics are what have worked for decades. Check out this video to get all the details on what to avoid in 2025!

Happy New Year, everyone! To help kick off 2025 on a productive note, I'll be hosting live writing sprints on January 9, 2025. Join me starting at 12:00pm CST for two 25-minute writing/work sprints with a 5-minute break in between. The Zoom registration link is here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/-ShI7J9rTsOibXAVhCMNuQ I hope to see you there!