Renee Daniel Flagler is a freelance writer who has served in marketing, promotions and events for more than ten years. Under the divisions of Aspicomm Media, Flagler has been able to marry the things she enjoys the most, marketing, events and writing, into one fulfilling personal career.

Flagler has treasured the art of writing since she was a young girl and in 2004 she took her love of creative writing seriously and self-published her first novel, Mountain High, Valley Low. She later released her sophomore novel, Miss-Guided, in the spring of 2006. Flagler’s third novel, In Her Mind, is set to be released in the fall of 2007 along with her first non-fiction title, Getting Down to Business.

Flagler is also the founder of The Self-Publishing Symposium, a business conference for self and independent publishers, The S’Indie Awards, which honors the works and accomplishments of self and independent publishers and the Divas of Literature Tour, a multi-city book tour in malls across America. Flagler is a recurring guest and one of the resident “Literary Leaders” for WBAI Radio’s weekly talk show, Off the Page.

She has been featured in Ebony Magazine, The New York Amsterdam News, Our Times, Caribbean Life, The Columbus Post, Booking Matters, Black Star News, and Mahogany Baby Magazine, as well as The Angie Le Mar Show on Choice FM, the UK’s leading Hip Hop and R&B station. She was also awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 Award by C&B Books Distribution.

Additionally, Flagler has been profiled in Literary Divas, The Top 100+ Most Admired African American Women in Literature, among literary greats such as Tony Morrison, Terry McMillan and Oprah Winfrey. Black Star News named Flagler as an honoree for accomplishments in business for their 10th Annual Awards Dinner.

In addition to being President and CEO of Aspicomm Media, Flagler is currently pursuing the launch of Futures by Design, a non-profit organization dedicated to mentoring at-risk teens by helping them realize their potential in effort to orchestrate the promise of brighter futures. The organization will also focus on empowering youth through exposure and literacy.

Flagler is a graduate of New School University with a Masters in Media Arts, as well as a graduate of St. John’s University with a Bachelor of Science in Communications. She is a member of the National Black MBA Association, National Association of Female Executives and Publishers Marketing Association.

Dyanne: Renee, you’re truly one busy lady.  I had the pleasure of interviewing you last year for AMAG on-line magazine. To say I’m super impressed with you is putting it mildly. Since so many writers are looking into the self publishing route I decided a follow up on you was necessary. You’ve done your homework and your yearly Diva Tour is so unique and well organized that I know many will find what you have to say helpful. I’m going to do your interview a bit differently.  I’m going to ask you all the questions right here and right now and then I’m going turn the floor over to you and just let you talk.

You just finished up with your Diva tour didn’t you? Tell us about yourself and the other Divas and how you all got started.

Renee: I’m the author of Mountain High, Valley Low, Miss-Guided and my latest work In Her Mind, which is just hitting stores now.  I own Aspicomm Media (Aspicomm.com), a publishing and events company. All of my books are published under Aspicomm Books and I am the creator of the Self-Publishing Symposium and the Divas of Literature Tour (divasofliterature.com).I’m also on of the resident Lit Leaders featured on the radio broadcast “Off The Page” on WBAI 99.5 here in NY.

The Divas of Literature Tour came about when I was trying to figure alternative ways to reach readers and promote my books outside of just doing the average book signings. I feel as though regular book signings are losing their luster and are often very lightly—promoted if at all Even the most well known authors have signings that are not always  well attended. I wanted to do something different, fun and savvy and the idea of doing the Divas of Literature was born.

I reached out to invite authors to participate via a selection process and here we are today. The concept really picked up steam. The tour is very heavily promoted through all media outlets, including online, in print, radio and even TV. Right now we are on CW 50 Detroit’s Web site. We’ve been on a number on internet radio shows and have a few upcoming radio broadcast interviews scheduled. Several media partners also help us spread the word and you will find our banner ads and write ups on many of their Web sites. Some of our partners include AALBC.com, MosaicBooks.com and Urban Literary Review. There is person or company that is responsible for all PR. Posters and postcards are printed up and we invite readers, book clubs and local media to join us onsite in each city.

This year we have Jackie Cristie, wife of NBA star, Doug Christi with their book ‘No Ordinary Love,’ TVV host, Abiola Abrams with her debut novel ‘Dare.’ Publisher and Author, Assuanta Collins with her two books, ‘Until the Next Time,’ and ‘Until the Next Time II,’   Dwan Abrams, Christian fiction novelist with her latest work, ‘Divorcing the Devil,’ and me. It’s truly a dynamic line-up as fare as I’m concerned. Each Diva comes to the table with a strong individual profile and collectively we make a great team. These women and all very dynamic, with beautiful personalities and being with them is loads of fun. There is a timely selection process and I’m glad these ladies made the cut.

The tour began on Saturday, July 26th in Philadelphia, and we will be in the following cities, Greensboro, NC, August 9th, Atlanta, GA August 16th, Southfield, MI, August 23rd and we finish up in NY on September 6th.

Dyanne: Renee now I want you to tell us about the self-publishing symposium. You have the floor.

Renee: ‘The Self-Publishing Symposium,’ started from my own personal quest for more information about finding out what to took to become a successful self-published author and independent publishing company. I found that there were many others with similar questions. I have a professional background in marketing and events and decided to coordinate the event myself. This was another idea that took off. Attendees were overwhelmed by the amount of insight and information they acquired by attending and the presenters were more than happy to share their lessons learned while offering useful and candid advice. Thankfully this year we just held the third annual symposium and according to the feedback from sponsors, attendees and speakers alike, this was the best one yet.

The fourth annual Self Publishing Symposium will be in March 2009. Visit www.aspicomm.com to keep abreast of speakers, dates and topics. We offer an Early Bird registration discount that everyone interested in attending should take advantage of.

Dyanne:  Renee, any last thought?

Renee: I just want to say how grateful I am to be blessed enough do something that I enjoy so much. I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to carve a space in this arena for myself. I’m just getting started. I have many more ideas, more books, more events etc. I plan to be here for a very long time.

In addition to simply being happy about being in this space, I’m ecstatic about the fact that I have been well received and my hard work and efforts are starting to become recognized, evidenced by several awards and acknowledgements that I’ve received in the past year. Most recently, I’ve been nominated to be honored at the ‘Unlock Your Dreams’ awards Dinner, hosted by Sheryl ‘Salt’ Wray for pursuing my dreams. I’ve received the ‘Excellence in Journalism’ award from the New York Association of Black Journalists (NYABJ) and was recognized by ‘Black Star News’ for ‘Excellence in Business’ for starting the ‘Self-Publishing Symposium.’ Each of these accolades completely took me by surprise.

Dyanne: Renee you were such an important part of RSJ 08 I hope I get to meet you in L.A. Please give the readers your contact info.       

Thank you Dyanne!  It was purely my pleasure. I love to see great ideas at work and will often try to do my part to see them prosper. God willing, you will see me in 2010.

Please visit me at www.reneedanielflagler.com and www.divasofliterature.com. My books are available wherever books are sold online and in stores. Also, you can check out my profiles on myspace, blackplanet.com and facebook.

For more information about the ‘Self-Publishing Symposium,’ visit www.aspicomm.com.