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Nearly 20 years ago, Edmond's Crystal Perkins set out to publish her first novel, but she never sought out an East Coast publisher.
An academic adviser at Langston University, she was trying to generate cash to help several students pay their tuition bills.
Having spent some of her early years in Detroit, she had some story ideas. She knew they were good ones, too. But she wasn't about to offer her first manuscript to the so-called "New York" publishers, only to be rejected.
"Imagine, if I had let others tell me I don't have what it takes!" she said.
Instead, she learned how to self-publish the book, and she has been helping others do the same since then.
"I don't write to give my revenue away. I like to be