Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Niccole Simmons. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Niccole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

My business first started in 2007 as an editing service when I realized that there was a significant need for editors specializing in the urban fiction genre. At that time, there were no or few services that specialized in that area.
As my client’s were all self-publishers, the inevitable questions of how to move forward with the self-publishing process always arose, leading us to start providing full self-publishing assistance options to our Authors, including distribution.
Inevitably when the ebook craze took over, we noticed that almost all of our paperback orders were from incarcerated readers. At that time we had to evolve again and we created a catalog specifically for our incarcerated readers to independent titles to choose titles from. When the incarcerated began receiving tablets, we partnered with a national inmate tablet provider to offer our self-published titles directly to the incarcerated reader, via the inmate tablet.

Niccole, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

While we specialize in services for the urban fiction self-publisher, we have also worked with the Big 5, and small and independent authors internationally. Part of our distribution collaboration also includes The Book Dragon who submits internationally self-published titles to us from all over the world.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Our fundamental goal has become protecting the American citizen’s constitutional right to read. So often, the incarcerated reader’s constitutional right is violated. Educating Sheriff, Wardens and others about this constitutional right and protecting the “Inmate’s Right to Read” which is in the Constitution’s Library Bill of Rights has become the focus of our work along with giving independent authors a platform so that eager readers can have access to their writing. In the past, access to independently published work has been a significant barrier for the incarcerated reader and we aim to help break that barrier for both the independent author and the incarcerated reader.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal and mission of the 21st Street Publishing Group is to facilitate access to independently published work to both mainstream and incarcerated readers, globally.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.21stStreet.Group
• Instagram: 21st_street_group
• Facebook: 21st Street Urban Editing & Publishing
• Linkedin: Niccole Simmons
• Twitter: @21spgroup