LOS ANGELES – Coined the Roots of her family, Monice Mitchell Simms – an award-winning filmmaker, Columbia College graduate, and former Chicago Tribune freelancer and Hyde Park Herald reporter – quit her job to pen Address: House of Corrections, her first novel in a trilogy inspired by her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. One year later with her finished manuscript in hand, Mitchell Simms serendipitously landed a determined literary agent. Then, the ‘no’s’ started rolling in.
“We always knew it was going to be a hard sell. My novel is based in 1940/50s Detroit and focuses on a young woman who travels from south to north, grows up on the North End in Detroit and ends up walking the long road to redemption,” said Mitchell Simms, who runs the film company, Flower Girl Productions in Los Angeles. “The true underlying story, though, examines the complicated and often times challenging connections between mothers and daughters. That’s the stuff of literature – which is exactly what publishers were afraid to gamble on from an unknown author.”
Motivated by rejection and the declining publishing industry, Mitchell Simms decided to publish Address: House of Corrections through her imprint, flower girl publishing, and produce it as a dramatic audio book and audio mini serial for the Internet.
On sale since March 2010, Mitchell Simms has successfully been implementing an avant-garde marketing and distribution strategy using Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to promote and sell directly to a global audience of readers and listeners.
Address: House of Corrections, the mini-series, is scheduled to begin broadcasting in December 2010. Readers will be able to download the series in written and audio form from Itunes.com, Audible.com, Podcast.com and the novel’s blog site, www.addresshouseofcorrections.com. Readers will also be able to continue purchasing hard or e-book copies of the entire novel from Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com
“We’re fortunate to live in this great time of technology and I’m so excited about the possibilities of Address: House of Corrections – the novel, audio book, Web serial and soon, stage play and movie,” said Mitchell Simms, a journalist for 20 years.
“But truth is, this model isn’t really new. Independent musicians have been successfully using these tools for years. We’re simply pulling together all of the technological resources and taking everything one step further to hopefully turn the stagnant publishing industry on its head and empower authors to take their careers into their own hands.”
A self-proclaimed “artistpreneur,” Mitchell Simms’ is embarking on a national book tour this October with stops in Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.
On Saturday, Oct. 30th, she will be participating in the 2010 Authors Showcase panel discussion in Chicago, then signing Address: House of Correction at The Carter G. Woodson Library at 9:30am. Mitchell Simms will also be conducting a “Living By My Pen: Book to Screen Mini-workshop” from 2 to 3pm.