ChaChanna Simpson is an editor, professional speaker, syndicated columnist with The Connecticut Post online (www.connpost.com) and author of her first book Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You. She has been featured in The Stamford Advocate, NewsTime180.com, Power 104.1fm’s radio show, What’s Good Hartford? and 89.5fm’s radio show, Black Prospectives, empowering twentysomethings with real, no holds barred advice on successfully transitioning into life after college. Her favorite quote is “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”-Beverly Sills

Her website, Twentity.com, is an Internet magazine dedicated to advising recent college grads on their next steps after graduation. This idea came to her when she walked into her own apartment for the first time and was hit with the realization that she was the one who was supposed to get the lights and cable turned on. “Don’t they come with the apartment?”

Realizing she wasn’t the only recent college grad who had no clue of how to do anything, she created Twentity.com, a website dedicated to providing answers to questions such as: how to find an apartment, what is life insurance and who do twentysomethings need it now, how to meet people after college and many more questions. The response was overwhelming and as a result of this need, ChaChanna recently began visiting college campuses working with students on “real world preparation” skills and successfully transitioning into the work world.

ChaChanna is a strong believer of helping out in the community and spends her “free time” volunteering at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, E-mentoring on www.icouldbe.org and preparing meals for St. Luke’s Lifeworks community center once a month. She has been known to say, “I believe that we are all on this planet for a purpose: to help others. I refuse to believe we are on this planet to just wander around and only care about ourselves. Yes, we are born alone but we don’t exist alone.”

A graduate of The College of New Rochelle, New York, this Norwalk, Connecticut resident is an active member of Give ‘N Take Network, Stamford Chamber of Commerce, The Urban Professionals Network and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

You can visit her website at www.twentity.com.

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Welcome to Beyond the Books, ChaChanna. Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published? Can you give us the title(s) of your book(s)?

Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You is my very first published book!

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

I never gave it a title. And it was never published because I was 14 when I wrote it and I was just doing to see if I actually had enough patience and dedication to see it through, start to finish. Until you asked me, I didn’t even remember it. Now, I have to go see if I can find it.

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

I went directly to a print-on-demand company. I wasn’t going to give anyone the option to reject me or take away all the rights to my work.

When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You was published in June 2008. Booklocker.com, a print-on-demand company, is the publisher. I chose them because they have integrity and don’t just accept anyone who submits a manuscript to be printed. Included in their price was an ISBN, original cover art and a listing with Ingram, the world’s largest book distributor. It is also a plus that I get to keep all the rights to my work, and I get a higher royalty than with a traditional publisher.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

I was and still am so excited! When I got the first copy I ran over to my mother’s house to show her. Then the next day I told everyone that I was a published author, people who I never usually speak to. A couple months before the book was published, I was saying I’m writing a book and it was great to finally say I wrote a book and you can buy it. To celebrate, I allowed myself to relax for a day and ate all the junk food I wanted. That was a good day.

What was the first thing you did as far as promotion when you were published for the first time?

I sent out an email to all my friends and my email list.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

No, I love the path I’ve chosen to get published. I didn’t have to pay a huge price upfront and I have total control.

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

No, not yet but I am working on it.

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

I would have to say having the courage to go out and promote my book. Besides doing this blog tour, I also have gotten some newspaper and radio attention. Yes, writing the book was a huge accomplishment but getting it out there so the public knows about it and buys it is another for me.

I also want to add that it is an amazing feeling when people you don’t know buy your book. My family and friends supported me and I truly appreciate their support but when someone I’ve never met buys my book it’s an unbelievable feeling. And they wanted me to sign the book! It’s like wow, they see the value of my book.

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

At times I’ve toyed with the idea of being a college professor.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

No, I wouldn’t give it up, at all. I believe I have combined my love for writing, teaching and helping college students and graduates with my book and my website.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

I see myself with a couple more books under my belt and living in NYC overlooking Central Park, the west side.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Yes, I have had plenty of people tell me that they want to write a book and ask me how do I did it. And to all those would-be authors, I want to say if you want to write a book, just start writing. You don’t have to write the whole book in one day. Commit to writing one sentence, paragraph or page a day. And after awhile you will have a manuscript. Take it one step at a time.

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LIFE AFTER COLLEGE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘08 will officially begin on August 4 and end on August 29. You can visit ChaChanna’s tour stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com in August to find out more about her and her book!

As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author with a recent release or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors’ blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available. The winner will be announced on our main blog at www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.wordpress.com on August 31!

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