Yamina A. Collins: Blogger of Yaminatoday

“My book blog features published authors who discuss the stories behind their stories, be it craft, marketing, publishing. It’s an information blog. I receive 12,000 visitors and 130,000 hits per month to the site.”

Tell us why blogging?

I chose to start my book blog, Yaminatoday.com, for two main reasons: the first being that I needed a venue to get my name out there in the blogosphere as a writer, and blogs are an especially smart and practical way of doing this. Secondly, and I think, more importantly, I wanted to create a place where
readers and writers could come and learn a bit about the business, marketing and publishing aspect of the book industry. I wanted a place where the voice of other writers could be heard.

What types of books do you love?
Classics. That’s what I grew up on. I must admit that I have almost no interest in modern books. It’s nothing personal. I just never developed a taste for things like Harry Potter or Twilight, and especially not Street Lit. I got stuck on classics at a young age and never moved away from them. Some of my favorite books include The Bluest Eye, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Turn of the Screw, A Room with a View and The Great Gatsby. I also love theology, meaning both the bible and books about the bible.

What occupies your time when you’re not blogging?
Well, first off, I have a full-time job, so that takes up about 40 hours of my life per week. Sigh. I also love to travel, spend time with my friends, go the movies, watch debates between Christian apologists and atheists, study the bible with women, listen to good music, walk the streets of Manhattan, watch political shows and eat sugar. I also like to cry a lot. It’s very therapeutic. I suppose I should say I love to read, too, right? Well, that’s a given. Yes, I love to read.

If you had to be famous what would you want it to be for?
For doing something that furthers the good of poor people, sexually abused children, and black businesses. I also have this fantasy of becoming a well-informed Christian apologists. I love a good debate.

If you can, name a self-published, indie, and traditionally-published
author you blogged or read about this year who we should go check out right now.
I think Terri Giuliano Long’s story is pretty amazing. She is the indie author of “In Leah’s Wake,” and went from selling 16 books during the first 5 months her book’s release, to selling more than 100,000 copies of her book within a year. She hired a PR company at Novel Publicity and she really worked the marketing front. I got to hand it to that girl. She is my hero in terms of promotion and indie sales.

If your life was a romance novel, who would be your protagonist: a rich sugar daddy or a poor soul mate?
Neither. I would choose “financially responsible soul mate” – one who adores God and one who adores me. One who likes adventure, fun, and serving. A man who I cannot walk over either. I like intense masculinity in a fella, without the violence or the harshness. Ha ha ha. No, seriously.

How do you decide which books to review?
I don’t do book reviews at Yaminatoday.com. Instead, I invite published authors to share any aspect of their publishing journey that they see fit to share; it could be about craft, business, marketing, emotional struggles behind the creation of their book, etc. I am interested in their journey, not their destination point.

What’s the meaning behind the title Yaminatoday? What led you to it?
Meaning? Ha ha. Well, since my name is Yamina I think the title is pretty obvious. I don’t want to lie. Like I said, I initially wanted to have a blog that I could use to get my name out into the blogosphere as an indie author. Yamina.com was already taken. Rats! So I used Yaminatoday.com. Who knows. I might change it in the future.

What do you ultimately hope to accomplish with your blog?
I want my blog to become the Huffington post of the literary world, with a strong visual appeal. One of the things I would to have on the blog is a youtube literary show that aims to encourage more positive literature among the African-American community. Our children deserve to see themselves as heroes with unique voices, instead of thugs, and drug dealers and baby mama’s, etc.. I plan to have that up and running in less than a year. We’ll see how it goes.