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

Nikesha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is my forthcoming book, Mardi Gras Indians (LSU Press, October 5). I left my television news career after 11 years in 2019 to pursue writing full time. To sustain myself while I wrote my novels and prepared a one-woman show I freelanced for several publications. One of my freelance pieces for The Bitter Southerner caught the attention of the LSU Press acquisitions agent. She sent me a cold email asking if I’d be in interested in writing a book for their series of books on Louisiana culture. Because I’m an unagented, independent author and publisher I jumped at the chance to be traditionally published. I submitted the proposal in April of 2020 during the initial wave of the COVID-19 global pandemic. In July, I traveled to New Orleans to do research and interviews. Over the course of 2020 and 2021 I wrote and revised this book, even during my pregnancy with my daughter, and now it’s finally coming out. One of the great things about this experience is that my whole family got involved to help me. Aunts, cousins, my mom and dad because they are all from New Orleans. I also got to switch from the creative writing of my novels to really expanding my journalism skills to delve into narrative nonfiction. This project is both a passion project and much needed “validation” after all my toil as an indie writer. While I’m still working on that traditional deal with my work-in-progress, this project keeps reminding me that I indeed can do it.

Nikesha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Who am I? I am Nikesha Elise Williams; journalist, author, two-time Emmy award-winning producer, producer and host of Black & Published podcast and founder of NEW Reads Publications. But to keep it simple, I hustle words. Yours. Mine. Ours. Lol.

While my initial career out of college was as a television producer I have always loved writing. I have always wanted to be a writer. I was always writing be it a passion project where I wrote letters to the President everyday for a year, a blog, or a short-story that later became the basis for my debut novel; words were and are always flowing.

However, it was my debut novel, Four Women, that really forced me to decide if writing was how I wanted to make my life. I started the novel in 2013. In 2014, I lost the manuscript when I was seven chapters from the end and had to start over. It was then that I asked myself, was I willing to do it again? Was I willing to put in the work to realize this dream and become this thing that I said I wanted as a child? My answer was a resolute, “Yes.”

Through the rewrite of that novel, looking for agents, signing with agents, being dropped by agents, forming my company and going indie . . . that has gotten me here today. As an author, I offer readers story about the experiences of African-American women; their identities to the world around them and the people who love them as well as their humanity.

To prospective authors, I offer a route to publication.

As a podcaster, I offer a platform to discuss the work but also the journey. Writing is solitary but publishing does not happen in a vacuum.

I am most proud of being a conduit. A conduit for my characters to make it to the page. A conduit for my authors to connect with readers. A conduit for people I interview to tell their stories. The saying goes “you have to serve before you can lead.” While my own work as an author and writer is very much in service to myself, everything else is for others and my goal is to continue to lift as I climb. As I move forward in my journey I want to take everyone I’m connected to with me.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m actually going through this pivot point now. As I mentioned, I left my television career in 2019 to write full time. While that move did help me to grow my name as a writer and journalist — I mean I got a whole book out of it — freelancing is a hustle that can become untenable. Because of that, I have returned to the workforce. I now work as the Co-Editor of Word Force, a project of Narrative Initiative. It’s an organization focused on helping social justice groups tell their story and spread their message. The position, fully remote, provides me with the stability I need to chase down my creative ideas and write freely without worrying whether it will feed me. The best part is that my new team is fully aware of everything else I do and supports that work understanding that while I may be their employee I am and will always be so much more.

Pivoting as a creative entrepreneur is not a bad thing, however you have to be up front about what you need and what you want. I am incredibly grateful to have landed where I did in my new position, however it also fuels me that much more to push harder on my creative pursuits.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s not so much a lesson as it is a way of thinking and doing business. It has to deal with everyone’s favorite subject; money.

Being mostly a team of one has been hard. Being indie even harder. I’m too eager to say yes to opportunities without carefully considering my value or my worth. I’ve learned the hard way to ask for more, demand my worth, and make sure there is infrastructure and people in place who can advocate for me when I can’t advocate for myself.

In 2019, before I left television, I was approached by a friend about publishing a book for a gospel artist. Too eager and too pressed I spoke to the musician’s manager and said yes without a contract in place or even a deposit on the work. Taking a project from raw manuscript to book in two weeks time for an appearance at a popular music festival should have been impossible. It was. I did it anyway. And I still haven’t been paid. Outstanding invoice balance: $2, 100.69.

I have moved on but I haven’t forgotten. This experience taught me to have contracts signed before I do anything, to have an attorney always on standby, to make sure a deposit is paid, and to ask for more.

It still feels weird sometimes, but if I don’t I only hurt myself.

As a working creative, I get asked some version of “How much do you charge for . . .?”

I always have to take a few days, confer with myself, my mom, other writers to answer the question, “How much do I cost?” Because I know I’m going to show up in excellence and overdeliver for whatever is asked for, but to know you overdeliver and have been underpaid is a bitter pill to swallow.

Not doing that anymore. Period.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.newwrites.com www.newreadspub.com blackpublished.buzzsprout.com
• Instagram: @nikesha_good @newreadspub @blkandpublished
• Facebook: facebook.com/NikeshaEliseWilliams
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikesha-williams-38a891169/
• Twitter: @Nikesha_Elise @BLKandPublished

Image Credits
Photos in yellow shirt: Toni Smailagíc Four Women and Beyond Bourbon street cover design: Gisette Gomez Mardi Gras Indian cover: LSU Press NEW Reads Publications design: Norvin Leeper Black & Published Podcast Logo Design: Gisette Gomez