QBR The Black Book Review – Book Biz Column
January 2003; used with permission

Why "It’s Flowing Like Butter" at Amber Books
By Milca Esdaille

In 1998 Tony Rose burst into the economically challenging space of independent black book publishing by launching Amber Books. He came packing music industry marketing savvy and his special brand of "street smarts. He also arrived determined to build a thriving business. His niche, which he selected based on what he knew best, was self-help, how-to and celebrity profile books for the African American market. He was intent on capturing the imagination and wallets of the youth market, as well as of the average black person across the country. Unlike the traditional independent black publishers, Rose was and remains as committed to publishing books that have impact as he is to getting seriously paid.

"Amber is doing phenomenally well. Money’s flowing, flowing like butter," shares Rose. Like the owners of most privately held companies, he will not disclose specific sales figures, and because he’s such a marketing man one wonders how good things really are. One clue is the string of successful alliances with money-machines like Bookspans’ Black Expressions Book Club, top publisher Wiley & Sons, and youth magnets like Virgin Records Megastores. These parties seem eager to capture a slice of the sales revenues Amber Books generates. In exchange, they deliver marketing dollars and a broader market reach to Rose. Cutting win-win deals is one of the secrets to Rose’s success. He is also highly tuned into his target market, and how best to tap into it. He sleeps and breathes who they are, what they need (before they know they need it), and how to get it to them where they live. He’s the real key to Amber’s success–a natural businessman–or a hustler, as someone with his instincts would be called "round the way."

An Early Knack for Business

"I was a businessman before I was 8 years old. I was living in the worst "hood" in Boston, selling papers and running numbers for those folks in the neighborhood too scared or too old to come outside. I’d bring them groceries, too, and they paid me. After I got older, I would hang out and keep an eye out for the older folks that wanted to sit outside and catch a bit of sun. They would pay me–I guess it was protection money." While he honed his street smarts early on, it was when he moved to Hollywood, California in the 1970’s that received his " graduate" training in the music business. Persistence, talent and luck landed him a small gig with RCA Records, writing songs with his first music group. Eventually he started his own record company, and became a successful music producer and publisher. He found particular success with the hip-hop and urban music projects. Over the 20 years he spent in the music industry, Rose cut hundreds of deals with the likes of Sony, Atlantic and Virgin Records.

In 1998, Rose sold his record company and launched Amber Books. "For me the shift made so much sense; it was like coming home after making it. I loved writing and books. When I first got to LA in the ‘70’s I was a journalism student at UCLA. I tried my hand at writing, but it was tough, and I basically collected rejection letters. It was the music business where I got my big breaks. Once I had my fill of that world, creating Amber Books was a way for me to combine my deal making [skills], my love of books, my energy and desire to give back to the community."

Rose prides himself on publishing best-selling books that make a positive impact on the lives of his target audience. How-to and self-help titles are published by Amber Books, the original 1998 imprint. A sampling of Rose’s colorful and informative titles include, How to Get Rich When You Ain’t Got Nothing, The African American Guide to Hot, Exotic and Fun-Filled Places, Is Modeling for You? The Handbook & Guide for the Young Aspiring Black Model, and How to Play the Sports Recruiting Game and Get an Athletic Scholarship–The Handbook and Guide to Success for the African American High School Student/Athlete. The Amber/Wiley offerings, described as "Amber Books published by Wiley & Sons, Inc." are part of a standing four-book deal, with three books published to date and a fourth title slated for publication in 2003. Released titles include Pay Yourself First–The African American Guide to Financial Success and Security, and two beauty books by recognized industry expert Alfred Fornay–one targeting black teens and titled, Born Beautiful–The African American Teenager’s Complete Beauty Guide.

Busta Books, the celebrity bio imprint launched in 2000, features titles styled as unauthorized biographies of chart-busting pop and hip-hop stars like Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Dr. Dre and Eminem, while Colossus Books (2001) titles cover the lives of "world-renowned personalities and topics." Its first offering was Suge Knight–The Rise, Fall and Rise of Death Row Records. 2003 offerings under this imprint include the re-release of The House that Jack Built–My Life as a Trailblazer in Broadcasting & Entertainment, by Hal Jackson, the legendary founder of Inner City Broadcasting, the first black-owned radio broadcasting company in the country. Typical of Rose, the title was acquired after a series of deal-making sessions with original publisher HarperCollins.

Making Deals…Making a Difference

For those who know Rose, he makes the process of establishing and nurturing relationships, creating alliances and translating them into book sales seem as easy as selling the most popular bootleg CD’s. "He’s a real live wire," explains Wiley’s Carol Hall, "a people person, so I think everybody’s met Tony. Hasn’t everybody met Tony? He is networked not only among African American booksellers, but also among the African American media. He knows most of the key blacks in mainstream publications that are relevant to this business. He covers the waterfront, and is a lot closer to the grassroots in terms of identifying potential authors and keeping it real."

Covering the waterfront is an understatement. You can find Rose in nail & hair salons pushing his beauty books, at Tower Records or Virgin Records Megastores ensuring his youth titles are well-placed, and at bookstores, libraries, book fairs, block parties and conferences. He pounds the ground and presses the flesh like a politician running for office. Rose, confirms, "The kids are buying CD’s, you go where they go. I go where the people are throughout America. Whenever I’m traveling to push my books and see Martin Luther King Highway, Drive, Street, Avenue or Place, I’m home."

In addition to his landmark co-publishing deal with Wiley, he’s licensed six of his book to Black Expressions Book Club, gaining access to their more than 300,000 active members. Carol Mackey, Editor-in-Chief of Black Expressions reports that "Tony’s titles, especially the beauty books (Amber/Wiley’s The African American Woman’s Guide to Successful Makeup and Skincare and, Born Beautiful–The African American Teenager’s Complete Beauty Guide) are doing extremely well. Pay Yourself First… [has also] sold very well. That’s a finance book, but it’s very accessible. It speaks to the needs of the ordinary person, emphasizing you don’t have to be rich to start focusing on your financial goals. It spoke to our audience, and they ate it up.

"He’s looked hard and asked," continues Mackey, "what does this market need? Let me supply it. He’s definitely a forward thinker. He’s got that edge, he knows marketing, and he knows PR."

"He’s publishing for the youth market," adds Wiley’s Carole Hall, "loving what they’re loving, giving them books they are authentically excited about. He is looking ahead through the eyes of the community itself. What does the community want to read about?"

Amber celebrity bios may be hot sellers, but many might ask, ‘Is this what our teens should be reading?’ Rose’s response is yes. He views these titles as generating the cash flow that empowers him to offer alternative titles that add significant value to the community, but he also sees the celebrity titles, and his other youth and adult-oriented books as a means of motivating an often neglected audience, one that might otherwise never crack a book. Amber/Wiley’s Born Beautiful–The African American Teenager’s Complete Beauty Guide has been nominated for the 2003 American Library Association’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers, so his theory holds up.

According to the National Institute for Literacy’s 1999 National Household Education Survey, 50% of the population aged 25 and older had not read a book in the past 6 months. Reluctant readers, adults as well as teens, are drawn to Amber’s offerings in large part because of the "pedestrian nature" of the subject matter covered.

"Rose’s books take the stuff of every day life," explains Hall, "books specifically written for our community. What is admirable is the extraordinary recognition–beyond what one might have imagined–that these books are receiving." The Tavis Smiley Foundation selected Ambers’ The African-American Teenager’s Guide to Personal Growth, Health, Safety, Sex and Survival to showcase in its Youth to Leaders (Y2L) program, launched in 2000 as an annual series of one-day conferences held in cities throughout the United States. According to Andrea Foggy-Paxton, who coordinates the events, "Each twelve-hour conference assembles approximately 100 African American youth, ages 13-18, and their parents, for a day of discussing issues, developing and presenting solutions and networking with their peers and community leaders, including Tavis Smiley. A parent orientation is held simultaneously to provide adults with information about the Y2L program, leadership and educational opportunities, financial literacy and parenting tips. Conference speakers have included Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Nick Cannon of The Nick Cannon Show, Isaiah Thomas and actor Blair Underwood.

"We selected Ambers’ comprehensive teen guide because we knew it would attract teens and their parents. This book is relevant to today's black teens and it’s a great tool for parents to engage their youth in conversations to help prepare them for adulthood…educators that saw the book were even more excited to see a quality publication that addresses issues for African American teens. All of the books that Tony Rose has shared with me are books that are informational and designed to address issues that we as African Americans face - everything from beauty to finances!"

Is the Fiction Market Ready for Rose?

What’s next for Amber Books? Consistent with his music-mogul leanings, Rose hints that there is something afoot involving Christina Aguilera and a potential marketing and distribution alliance with RCA records. Rose is also preparing to unveil a fiction imprint, "dedicated to bringing high caliber works that can proudly stand next to the work of such greats as Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan, or Richard Wright." Sounds terribly ambitious, but if he can read the fiction market tealeaves, cut the right deals and deliver, it will not surprise those who know him if he does just that.

Black Classic Press (BCP) publisher W. Paul Coates, has been an independent black publisher for 25 years, and remains committed to publishing rare and significant books for and about people of African decent. Of course, he too has met Rose. "Tony made a point to introduce himself to me a few years ago to acknowledge and congratulate me for the work BCP does. He also wanted to tell me about the work that he was doing. I liked his books because they dealt with everyday life issues, topics like beauty, pop culture, and were nothing like what our generation of publishers put out. He’s entering the marketplace distant from the arena of traditional black publishers, but he’s producing great looking books, and at the same time extending the possibilities that a black publishing company actually can do something like this. I clearly see him as someone who stands on the shoulders of the publishers who have gone before, and at the same time he’s using literally everything he has to get out great books and change things. For example, he can make the deals. The difference with the old-line publishers is that we never knew quite how to make deals. We came into this arena looking at it as a movement, not as a business. If we knew how to make deals, we would have made deals a long time ago. His stuff is new and cool. He’s already opened up new ground, is already successful. He is a trailblazer, and I look forward to him doing wonderfully great things."