Country bumpkins might assume that urban book publishers are located in cities rather than on lonely country roads. Their assumptions could be dangerously inaccurate. In reality urban book publishers are more likely to be publishing houses occupied in producing works of a special sort rather than simply being located in urban environments.
Works that fall into the genre tend to be set in cities and the less wealthy parts of cities. Typically works take the point of view of people who consider themselves to be disadvantaged by virtue of who they are and where they live.
In general writers in this genre tend to thumb their noses at cultural niceties such as manners and polite conventions. Taboos are sometimes flouted. Situations reflecting the realities of life in inner city communities that are decaying are realistically portrayed.
Urban fiction writers are sometimes called 'street writers'. They work for urban book publishers who produce works for readers who understand street life. That could be described as harsh, violent and vulgar by people who are used to other ways of living. However, for people who do live on or near to city streets the busy rhythm may seem familiar and attractive.
A publishing company can go beyond the production of books in the cause of social upliftment. It can engage in training, design and education to help a community change its attitude to social issues. Where a community might feel under represented or alienated from the mainstream it might be encouraged to review and understand where it differs from what is considered acceptable by the majority of national citizens.
In some cases communities that are regarded with distaste from afar are happy to take the benefits of being regarded as victims but unwilling to change the very things that horrify aspirant benefactors. In Africa there is a preponderance of oral cultures and very large discrepancies between the written word and actuality. A country may have the most advanced written constitution in the world that is in practice ignored by ruling politicians who carry on living according to tribal mores.
Urban book publishers may enjoy a similar sort of freedom. Texts may be published exhorting readers to change things, but that would actually would diminish the very causes that are grist to the publisher's own mill. This would be a serious dilemma were it not for the fact that publishers, like schools, reflect the qualities of the communities in which they operate.
Works that fall into the genre tend to be set in cities and the less wealthy parts of cities. Typically works take the point of view of people who consider themselves to be disadvantaged by virtue of who they are and where they live.
In general writers in this genre tend to thumb their noses at cultural niceties such as manners and polite conventions. Taboos are sometimes flouted. Situations reflecting the realities of life in inner city communities that are decaying are realistically portrayed.
Urban fiction writers are sometimes called 'street writers'. They work for urban book publishers who produce works for readers who understand street life. That could be described as harsh, violent and vulgar by people who are used to other ways of living. However, for people who do live on or near to city streets the busy rhythm may seem familiar and attractive.
A publishing company can go beyond the production of books in the cause of social upliftment. It can engage in training, design and education to help a community change its attitude to social issues. Where a community might feel under represented or alienated from the mainstream it might be encouraged to review and understand where it differs from what is considered acceptable by the majority of national citizens.
In some cases communities that are regarded with distaste from afar are happy to take the benefits of being regarded as victims but unwilling to change the very things that horrify aspirant benefactors. In Africa there is a preponderance of oral cultures and very large discrepancies between the written word and actuality. A country may have the most advanced written constitution in the world that is in practice ignored by ruling politicians who carry on living according to tribal mores.
Urban book publishers may enjoy a similar sort of freedom. Texts may be published exhorting readers to change things, but that would actually would diminish the very causes that are grist to the publisher's own mill. This would be a serious dilemma were it not for the fact that publishers, like schools, reflect the qualities of the communities in which they operate.
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Writers who want to be published may ask for help from urban book publishers. They can also connect to urban fiction writers who have already been published.
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