PSA: An Author’s Warning About Triple Crown Publications

Author T. Styles has a warning for all potential authors. Photo Courtesy of http://authortstyles.blogspot.com/

Spending late nights and early mornings writing, researching and checking emails seems to bring on interesting finds. I took a moment to check my inbox and found a video message heeding a warning about an independent publishing company.  At first I thought this was the run of the mill type of thing where an unsuspecting author cries foul over lack of professionalism over their editor, publisher, etc. While it is unfortunate, it’s almost a common thing for potential authors who are seeking an outlet for their work to be easily taken by the industry if they aren’t careful. However, this message or warning seems heavier than the usual cry of “I didn’t get paid.”

D.C. native and urban fiction author T. Styles has posted a video message in which she alleges that she has been taken for a frustrating ride by Vicki Stringer, founder and owner of Triple Crown Publications. Styles begins her message with a disclaimer of sort to unsuspecting authors, especially the newbies who are looking to strike that first time deal. She tells her listeners to do their research to come up with their own conclusions on whether or not they feel comfortable in moving forward with Triple Crown Publications.

The message is a 41 minutes/13 seconds airing of grievances in which Styles accuses Stringer of a year’s worth of lack of payment, bouncing numerous checks and using her likeness and name without her authorization. Perhaps the biggest issue, in which caused the IRS to be involved in Styles’ finances, is the questionable way Stringer files her company’s 1099.

“This is the part that is really sad.Vicki embellishes 1099s. This is so awful because you could find yourself getting into a lot of trouble with the IRS.” says Styles.

Styles alleges that Stringer reported to the IRS that she paid Styles $36,974. Styles claims she didn’t receive nearly half this amount and thankfully she was able to show proof through bank statements and cancelled checks to the IRS to have her finances cleared.

Throughout the video, Styles flashes proof of paperwork that shows Stringer dissolved Triple Crown Publications on June 14, 2010 as registered in the state of Ohio and is now operating as Triple Crown Productions. Styles shows proof of letters still written on “Publications” letterhead after it had dissolved and that in one correspondence Stringer tells Styles that a Nevada address was her corporate headquarters. Styles found out the “corporate headquarters”  is a small registrar office run by an elderly couple that only took in mail (sans packages) for Stringer. Styles also found that a few other companies were using the exact same address as their corporate headquarters.

Going a step further, Styles also found a post on the Ohio Craigslist in which a former employee of Triple Crown Publications vents about their frustrations against Stringer; including a warning to authors not to submit their manuscripts to the company because Stringer “will throw them in the trash for no reason.” The Craigslist posting also encourages people to search “Triple Crown Publications employee complaints” in which a link to a page of grievances against Stringer should surface.

Of course I did my own search and did find a page via iRipOff.com, in which former employees do complain about Stringer’s business practices, including one person admitting they had no clue how to handle the tax application Quickbooks and alerted Stringer, but Stringer seemed dismissive about it. There are also postings of email correspondence between Stringer an a former employee as the former employee claimed they were fired by Stringer without cause, but Stringer masked it as a resignation.

Vicki Stringer: author and owner of Triple Crown Publications/Productions

Triple Crown Publications is known for turning out a catalog of  successful street lit authors and their book titles that include Shannon Holmes (B’More Careful), Nikki Turner (A Hustler’s Wife) and K’Wan (Road Dawgz). Books published under the company have been praised and appeared on best seller and reader’s lists, with Stringer and the company featured in Essence, Black Enterprise, Newsweek and The New York Times. Even recently, Stringer was one of three authors named with her company in an Atlanta Post article “8 Urban Fiction Authors Who Overcame Prison and Forged Careers.”  In it, the former “Cocaine Queen” of Columbus, Ohio is hailed as the “Queen of hip-hop literature,” having turned her talent for writing into gold after forming her company as a result of receiving 26 rejections from other publication companies.

With a background in modeling and holding down jobs with the U.S. Supreme Court and Blue Cross Blue Shield, Styles joined Triple Crown Publications in late 2005, turning out three books for the company. In a 2006 interview with the Urban Book Source, Styles recalls what prompted her to pen her first novel, A Hustler’s Son, and to join Triple Crown Publications;

“I’m a publisher shopper. If there’s a publishing company I want to work with, I look at their current selection of books and attempt to offer them something they don’t already have. This was my frame of thinking when I approached Triple Crown Publications. Triple Crown to me was the “Bad Boy” of urban literature and I quickly learned from bookstores that their titles moved.”

Styles has since parted ways with the company and has formed her own, Cartel Publications, which she launched in 2008. It also seems that since posting her video Styles has received support in the form of others sharing their “horror” in dealing with Stringer.

@AuthorTStyles: Wow! Have a lot of calls 2 return. I’m humbled & saddened that people are joining this fight but that so many authors have been impacted.

@AuthorTStyles: The emails that are coming are scary. It doesn’t look like Trickie Vickie is paying anybody. OMG! This company is officially a SCAM!!

It will be interesting to see if and how Stringer responds.

Tagged: african-american, african-american lit, Cocaine Queen, creative writing, Street literature, T. Styles, Triple Crown Productions, Triple Crown Publications, Vicki Stringer, Washington DC, writing

Posted in: regular, video