Thoughts from Omar

An interesting discussion happened recently with the publication of my first book of poems; "Poetry For The Love of Black Women" that was first conceived and written in my college years at Howard University a lonnnnnggg time ago.

For Valentine's Day and Black History Month, I wanted to present this honest book of poetry from years ago through my "Ebook Nation," featuring a naked black woman, and not sexually naked but just comfortable in her skin.Basically, her nakedness represents the raw honesty of the poetry that I had
written. Not that every poem was of a naked woman, because it's not. However, the honesty of the poems were indeed naked. As they say, "It's the naked truth!"

Well, I quickly found out that few naked picture make women feel comfortable these days. Every naked photo is now shameful, sexual, ratchet or without taste or tact.

Wow! Really? So I went through a dozen pictures, going away from my original idea, and had to present an alternative cover design with clothes on that more women like. However, with clothes on, the new cover design does not represent the truth of the raw honesty in which I wrote the poetry. With clothes on, we all go back to a man telling women "what they want to hear" instead of presenting them with the naked truth.

Even imagery can be truth and falsehood, like wearing make-up verses lotion. But it's okay, I'm over it now. As an older man I have to continue to remind myself that, "You can't handle the truth!" ... Unless that truth is "what you want to hear" (smile).

So ultimately, my business manager told me that my naked poetry design was too much to post; too much raw Omar as usual. Nevertheless, if I were ever afraid to tell the truth, I would have never had the courage to become a bestselling writer in first place.

It takes a lot of courage to tell the truth! I tell aspiring writers that all the time. So as I read over my first volume of poems from years ago, I marvel at the candor and say, "Damn! I must have been out of my mind to write that!"

But I'm glad I did. But it and read it yourself to find out why... Whether you like it or not, the Truth is good medicine for all of us!

Time To Reconnect! New Blog New Year

It's been a lonnnnggg time since I've updated you guys on what's been going on lately. But so much has changed in the book-publishing world that I don't know where to start.

Actually, I'll start with this: the bookstores are closing down. I mean, really. In downtown DC, where there used to be 15-20 book stores in the 1990s, they are now down to 3-5, with most replaced by restaurants, cell phone companies and various service shops.

That's scary. So, the publishers don't have as many options now to push books, particularly with Wal-Mart and Target not really being interested in artistic content. Therefore, what he have now is more copycat books, where publishers and writers all chase what the public is already buying, instead of looking for the new hot trends to explore from new, talented and brave minds.

Enter the ebook market and aggressive marketing by Amazon.com. Ebooks are always available to order and at a lower sale price, where the author now makes the lion's share of the money instead of the publisher. And nooooo, I wasn't sold on the idea at first. I LOVE traditional books, even the smell of them, but once I tried out my "Corrupted" experiment back in 2011 and followed that up with "Insanity" in 2012, when the numbers started jumping into the thousands each month, I said, "Wait a minute, let me take this thing seriously!"

So, I came up with the "Ebook Nation" where I plan to publish a new title each month from my previous creative ideas to keep the love and versatility coming for the readers. I have ALWAYS had a wealth of ideas that mainstream publishers have not supported, including "The Traveler" series, my biggest new baby. Read more about it @ TheTravelerBooks.com

Ebooks have now given me a way to publish all of my ideas in a cost efficient and lightning fast platform. And when I say I have many ideas, I mean zombie stories, poetry, science fiction, crazy short stories, etc.

Consequently, I'm now forced to categorize it all at my Ebook Nation page to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into before you buy it (smile). So look out for something new every single month, including my long-awaited poetry book with a cover design that's too polarizing to post. So we're still researching an alternative ... If I agree to use it. Sometime, you just have to let it be what it is ... Or maybe not.

Anyway, one thing is for sure: now that I have so much new content coming out, we're also forced to improve the quality control of the editing, which is the hardest thing--outside of marketing money--to replace from the mainstream publishers. They have quality editors galore.

So bare with me on the irritating typos and such as I build the strongest team I can to create an even stronger and diverse Omar Tyree Incorporated reader base and experience, including stage plays, television shows and feature film.

Oh yeah, it's all in the works, I've just been in the lab mapping it all out to win. So stayed tuned. And check out those new ebooks...