We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kj Dunn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kj below.

Alright, Kj thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Deciding to publish my work was an extreme risk. I’ve been a writer what feels like my entire life but I have never felt confident enough to publish my work for people to purchase. It’s a scary feeling because being a creative, your passionate and sensitive about your work. I didn’t know how my book would be received so I battled for the better part of a year before I finally made it available to the world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Kj Dunn. I am a mother, a minister, a mentor, author and a poet. I have a love/hate relationship with books…. really literature in general. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in a really good book. Especially when your mind takes you through each word and each scene plays out like a movie you can see. However, I hate cliff hangers that don’t give you the opportunity to see a clear ending but I love being able to finish a story my own way. I’ve been writing for majority of my life starting in elementary. It started out being something I was good at and quickly became my way of escape. I have spoken to conferences, hosted a book fair, spoken word and a number of magazine article features. When I wrote My Mother’s Daughter, I had a simple yet huge mission. I desired to open the eyes of my readers to the disconnect in the mother daughter relationship and start the conversation towards healing. Slowly but surely I see that happening the more my book is in the hands of more readers. I’m excited about what more the future holds.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is such a slippery slope. Being a “nobody” from Fort Worth, I didn’t have a lot of “followers.* Honestly, I still don’t. Marketing is huge for sales. The biggest marketing tool that has helped me is word of mouth. I wouldn’t put too much focus on who’s liking a post or sharing something, check your reels and your stories that’s where your viewers are. Create meaningful and memorable content. If you are able to, run some ads as often as possible to increase your foot traffic. It is a job in itself to promote you and your brand. It is tiresome and it will definitely try your patience lol. But keep at it and don’t quit. Your worth it!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I am a mother as well as a god mother and one thing that this role has taught me is that there are eyes watching me. They are the reason I go so hard in all of my endeavors. Whether they work out or not, whether I’m tired or amp’d up. I want to show them and all the people watching me that regardless of the outcome you give it what you got in each moment. The reward is in your ability to not give up. The reward is that you didn’t let yourself down. The sales, the viewers, the followers, the money , all of that is like the icing on the cake but it isn’t and should never be the driving force. When you focus on yourself and what you can control everything else falls into place.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/authorkjdunn
• Other: My Mother’s Daughter is also available on Walmart.com and Black Bookstore online

Image Credits
Ceddy collier