Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Allen.
So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am an Atlanta raised Author who has some acting in my current life and background. I started out with humble beginning by barely graduating from high school. With having 9-5 store clerk jobs in the city throughout high school and college, I ended up in rehab for an accusation of drug abuse by the doctors in 2013. After that experience of having to be “in-patient” in the medical rehab center in North Atlanta, the doctor said that college was no longer an option and I had to do my time in their institution. Finishing this experience after a month in it landed me in a College Park halfway home, then my friend came and picked me up and my life was completely recycled. A year later, I decided to fully become a published author and I would later take other project offers. When 2014 came around, I published my first book with the former book publisher “Tate Publishing”. The book they published was called “My Mind: The Journey through Love and the Rest”. Since 2015, I have been blessed enough to be able to have people come and be involved in what I was doing. Furthermore, I got an indie movie co-star role. Lastly, I now have published multiple aspiring authors and wrote a memoir for an upcoming hip-hop Atlanta native artist: “Meat Da Man” called “Potentially Everlasting” which was about his trip to California and how he lived through troubled times there for a year. Now, currently, I am working on my next novel, and finishing this movie.
Has it been a smooth road?
I mostly have been smooth but there were some bumps along my journey. I had a few struggles since becoming a published author and actor. My first struggle was finding out how to live my new life, meaning that I came from a “loose cannon” college student with rough edges to a “respected” author. I know a lot of people and some of them had illegal backgrounds. So, after about a year and a half, I was a full viewed author, I worked in a bookstore for two years but that was my next struggle because I was an author who had books in the two stores that I worked for prior to me working there. Then, people around noticed that and co-workers would always approach me about me being an author. Also, my family and friends would constantly ask about the next book I was writing. Then, as always, enemies and antagonist would also try to destroy my work and my image as an author on social media and in public. Love and admiration is one thing but mocking and copying is another. After I published that first book which was a collection of personal poems and letters, I started seeing social media poets publish books after me and as whole the dominated, while my publisher went out of business in 2016 due to some outside printing company suing them. After they went completely out of business, my book was out of print even though certain stores had the last copies and my real readers and fans had their copies too. So overall, my book went out of print in 2016 until I was prompted my last bookstore manager to get the book back in print this year (2019). So, she and I looked for the book on the Barnes and Noble Database as it was still listed with them and is now still. We found who Tate Publishing had given the book’s manuscript to as I never unfortunately transferred files with them but I still had the rights as the author to it. Ultimately, I contacted its current publisher and they put the book back in distribution and is now also currently available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble site and stores. My successes were good, but actually, my struggles were the ones that made more of a better gain in this story.
Tell us about your company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
My company is an entertainment and book publishing group. Since I founded it in 2015, we have grown from just working with books to coming into film with more people in the film industry connecting with the business. So now, we specialize in books and film. I also have experience and schooling as well. I went to college and was a creative writing major but while I was in college, I had taken film classes. My actual experience in film consists of being an extra when I was a pre-teen in the old show called “Savannah” and now, I am co-starring in a movie being released soon called “A Mil Wit A Key” as it is also on IMDB. My credentials as an author and literary leader consist of speaking engagements for book expos, publishing books and being a literary agent to aspiring authors. I am most proud of the support I got from outside sources as they successfully connected with us and added to our movement. What sets me apart from the rest is that I am both acting and writing as most do one or the other.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, I do feel Atlanta is a good city for my business, being a native of Atlanta myself and knowing our community needs more books and literature influence. It depends on what an artist is trying to do and be successful, I feel Atlanta is like Langston Hughes’s old poem called “Harlem” where people during the Harlem Renaissance wanted to migrate to New York for art but unfortunately, this is never the case. All kinds of “creatives” come to Atlanta to become famous now but end up still in the same position and complaining about our traffic. If you are specifically a music artist and/or an actor, then I would recommend Atlanta but other types of arts, like book writing, should be sought after in other states like New York due to that’s where that community and publishers are more prevalent. That’s just an example. Lastly, I do feel that Atlanta good grow in other genres of art, but the roads and traffic regulations were the hardest to come by even being from Atlanta. Atlanta can’t hold its large influx of people now so renovating travel within the city will help us hold all our incomers.
Contact Info:
- Email: aaronallen65@gmail.com
- Instagram: iamaaronallen
- Facebook: Aaron Publishedauthor Allen
- Twitter: aaronallen65
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