Take your shot because you never know
A Hip-Hop Author in Search of a Publisher Finds One on the A Train
By DINITIA SMITH
It was a cold February night in 2003. Jacob Hoye, publishing director of MTV Books, was riding the A train home to Brooklyn when he saw a tall, bespectacled young man walking through the subway car selling books. Normally, Mr. Hoye said, he ignores such people, but this one had a charming delivery.
"I'm a young writer," he recalled the young man saying, "and I've just published my first novel, `A Hip-Hop Story.' It doesn't cost a thing to take a look. Just a glimpse? A glance? A peek? This is going to be the No. 1 book in the country. One year from now, No. 1 in the world. You see me here today. Tomorrow you see me on `Oprah.' "
The young man's name was Heru Ptah. Mr. Hoye bought the last copy he had on him, for $10. That night he read the 350-page novel, a fable of the music industry involving two battling rappers named Hannibal and Flawless, a corrupt record label, sex, violence and ambition. At 3:30 a.m., Mr. Hoye left a message on the answering machine at his boss's office: MTV had to buy it.
MTV did, in partnership with Pocket Books, giving him an advance in "the mid-five figures," Mr. Ptah said. Today the book is in its second printing, with about 25,000 copies in circulation. And a third printing is planned.
How Mr. Ptah, 23, came to write a novel that he says sold more than 10,000 copies on the streets and subways before it was republished in September by MTV is another story.
