Pocket Launches Karen Hunter Imprint  

By Felicia Pride -- Publishers Weekly, 10/8/2007 7:11:00 AM

This month, bestselling author and collaborator Karen Hunter is joining with Pocket books to launch her own imprint, Karen Hunter Publishing. Hunter, best known for co-writing Karrine Steffans's bestselling tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Video Vixen, said that the new imprint will focus on publishing titles that are entertaining and inspiring and, more than likely, also controversial. After talks with other publishers, Hunter settled with Pocket Books based on the extensive experience of its executive vice president and publisher, Louise Burke. Said Burke, "Karen is very talented and ambitious, so I jumped at the chance to work with her on this endeavor."

The imprint's inaugural title, Why Black Men Love White Women by Rajen Persaud, a standup comic, will be released tomorrow. Hunter repackaged the originally self-published title, and it's her hope that the book will spark debate and shed light on the complexities of interracial dating and marriage. Hunter is joined by her partner, Charles Suitt, who will act as president of Karen Hunter Publishing. Suitt hails from the music business and is manager of the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa. Hunter said the imprint will look to execute unusual marketing plans for their titles. To promote Why Black Men Love White Women, Persaud will embark on a 12-city comedy tour that headlines actor and comedian Tommy Davidson.

Hunter estimated that the imprint will publish about 15 books a year, but the exact number as not yet been determined. Other upcoming titles from the imprint include Faith Under Fire, a memoir by LaJoyce Brookshire, a woman who unknowingly married a man with full-blown AIDS, and Seven Figures, a fictional series by On the Down Low author J.L. King that follows powerful men who hide their sexuality. (Hunter was co-writer of On The Down Low.) The imprint will also publish celebrity tell-alls and a new book by radio personality Wendy Williams. "This won't be just a celebrity-driven imprint," Hunter insisted. "The first two titles we release will be a test to prove that we won't have to always have a celebrity attached to a book to get a message out."

Hunter doesn't have any further plans to write for the imprint. She wants to concentrate on cultivating new authors. "My goal is to make stars out of the authors who I discover," she said.