Vickie Stringer

Vickie Stringer

Story: Amira Kidd
Photo: Aarmaan

A good story is like a tasty dish. It follows a recipe with a few ingredients that all blend together. The end result is a creation that keeps the reader begging for more. Interesting stories contain a plot that thickens and sets up a sequence of events. And let’s not forget the theme, which usually makes a statement about life or the human character. In fact in some stories, it is the most important part.

Vickie Stringer’s story is one to savor. So cleanse your pallet and get ready to feast as we talk about her glitzy turned gritty past, her healing transformation from author to publisher, the street marketing campaign that launched her career, and how she is giving back now.

The plot is juicy: It is a story that tells about a drug dealer’s girlfriend who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle funded by drugs and crime. An urban princess whose fairy tale abruptly came to an end when her streetwise prince charming denied he was the father of her child and left her alone to fend for herself.

Depressed, angry and needing to survive, Stringer became a hustler and started her own escort service that eventually led to a more lucrative game, one of dealing drugs. At its peak, her interstate cocaine and heroine trafficking operation transferred about $6 million worth of drugs a month from New York City to Columbus. Stringer’s operation was just about to come to an end.

Her addiction was money and greed soon led to her downfall. Stringer eventually pled guilty to money laundering and conspiring to traffic drugs and spent seven years in prison. Fortunately for Stringer, this was not the denouement or the end of the story. While incarcerated Stringer received her “literary” education by reading over 1500 books. Inspired by the writings of authors such as Donald Goines, she began to write her own story. These writings led to her first Essence Best-Selling Book, Let That Be the Reason.

After her release from prison, she found it was no easy feat trying to get her story published. She was rejected by 26 different publishers in all. Now the average person might just chalk it up to fate and decide to let it go, but not the woman who has been referred to as a “marketing guru.” This is when her savvy hustler instincts kicked in when needed.

Stringer used her charm and worked her people skills to develop a relationship with a printer who was willing to work with someone with no money. She tapped into her creative side and wrote letters to 25 family and friends asking them to invest $100 in her dream to self-publish her own book and raise the $2,500 needed. Then, she marketed directly to her target audience at hair salons, and car washes, literally selling books out of the trunk of her car. Her marketing ingenuity and sheer determination led to a $50,000 publishing deal and her book being sold in major bookstores like Barnes and Noble.

Upon being published, Stringer was soon receiving letters from other aspiring authors asking her to help them publish their books. But Stringer considered herself an author and not a publisher. Here she was faced with the choice of using her $50,000 for a new BMW or to help someone else whose books would compete with hers. What would the overriding theme of her story be? Stringer is honest about having wrestled with this decision before she agreed to extend her help and believes that this was the major ingredient in her recipe for success. Stringer has this quote by Charles H. Spurgeon written on her wall: “Walk with God and you cannot mistake the road. You have infallible wisdom to direct you, permanent love to comfort you, and external power to defend you.”

Stringer believes by being unselfish, God has rewarded her and she is committed to helping others. As she says, “The reward has been starting writing careers that would have otherwise gone overlooked were it not for TCP being a doorway for the novice author. The legacy that I now leave for my children is that of beating the odds that were against me.” In 2004, she created The Valen Foundation, a non-profit organization that reunites families that are separated by incarceration. Last year Stringer was named the Entrepreneur of the Year and was honored with Ball State University’s Ascent Award which recognizes dauntless entrepreneurial drive.

Today, her seven-year-old company has grown from the trunk of her car to a successful independent publishing house that was able to penetrate an extremely competitive industry with more than 53 titles and over 32 authors. She has even gone global and signed with an international Japanese publisher to have her book, Let That Be the Reason, and 10 other Triple Crown titles translated into Japanese. Not only has Stringer sold over one million books but,she also works as an agent and has brokered over a million dollars in book deals. She is also the best-selling author of four other titles: Imagine This, Dirty Red, How To Succeed in the Publishing Game and Still Dirty, her current bestseller. Not too bad.

Stringer states, “Triple Crown Publications has always been the blueprint for publishing in this genre. And while it is the sincerest form of flattery, those who have come after have saturated the market, and now I am constantly looking for new ways to grow and adapt to the marketplace. You know, no one thought that this was a lasting genre, so I am so excited to see where it will be five, ten years down the road.” Her current marketing strategy includes developing her newly launched film division called Triple Crown Films that will promote several novels straight to DVD. She is providing an opportunity for first-time directors and screenwriters to have a chance to create their work. In addition, she is focusing on staying connected with her customers via her web site featuring Triple Crown TV (a reality show about the staff ). Stringer had one last comment to add, “The one thing that has led to Triple Crown’s success would be the hard work I put into branding the company. People buy the books because we have established that TCP puts out a high quality product, and our fans trust us. Brand loyalty has kept a very steady fan base, and we are always very appreciative.”

How will this urban street story end? Stringer once posed the question on her blog by asking whether or not she should sell Triple Crown Publications and enjoy some much-deserved time sitting on a beach drinking margaritas. The overwhelming response was…NO! Her fans cannot imagine this hip-hop fairy tale coming to an end…they are impatiently waiting for the next delicious sequel.