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Karen
E. Quinones Miller
--Born and raised in Harlem,
Karen dropped out of school at the age of 13. At age 22, Karen
joined the Navy, and after spending five years in the military,
Karen married, had a child, and divorced -- all within a
two-year period.
She moved to Philadelphia at
age 29, and got a secretarial job with The Philadelphia Daily
News but, after three years of complaining about media
coverage of people of color, she enrolled at Temple University
and began work as a correspondent for The Philadelphia New
Observer -- a weekly African American newspaper. Karen
graduated magna cum laude from Temple with a B.A. in journalism,
confirming her belief that the only thing she missed by skipping
high school was the senior prom.
In 1994, Karen started her
first permanent job at The Virginian-Pilot Norfolk, Va.
Less than a year later she left to join the staff at The
Philadelphia Inquirer. She has also worked as a correspondent
for People Magazine.
Karen wrote "Satin
Doll" in 1999, and after many unsuccessful attempts at
finding a publisher, she decided to publish it herself. With the
support of her brother, Joe Quinones, and her daughter, Camille,
she started with an initial printing of 3,000 copies most of
which were housed in her living room. (There wasn't enough room
for the couch and the books, so the couch wound up on the front
porch, and was later stolen.)
She and Camille posted flyers
all over Philadelphia promoting "Satin Doll," and
physically visited dozens of bookstores in the area to convince
them to carry her novel. A self-published book is
considered successful if it sells 5,000 copies in a year, and
wildly successful if it sells 10,000 copies in a year. Karen
sold her initial run of 3,000 copies in six weeks, and
ultimately sold 24,000 copies nationwide in a period of eight
months. Satin Doll wound up on the Essence Bestseller’s
List for two months.
The same publishers who had
rejected her in 1999 were beating down her door in February 2000
trying to purchase the rights to "Satin Doll." Karen
obtained a literary agent, and a publishing auction was held, on
June 7th. Simon & Schuster won the bidding war -- six
figures for "Satin Doll" and a then unnamed second
novel.
In October 2000, Oshun
Publishing Company, Inc., the company Karen created to publish Satin
Doll, published Yo Yo Love, by a 23-year-old Temple
University named Daaaimah S. Poole. Yo Yo Love went on to
become an Essence Bestseller, and Kensington Publishing
Company purchased the rights in 2001.
Satin Doll was released
in hardcover by Simon & Schuster in July 2001, and once
again hit the Essence Bestseller’s List.
Her second book, "I'm Telling" was published by
Simon & Schuster in July 2002, and also landed on the Essence
Bestseller’s List. Her third novel, “Using What You Got,”
will be published by Simon & Schuster in July 2003.
Karen is presently working on
a coffee-table book entitled “I’ve Seen Rivers,” which
will profile thirty-five African-American elders who have
surpassed the age of 100. She is also working on a fourth novel,
"Timing The Moon," and a biography on Harlem gangster,
Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson.
Karen currently lives in Philadelphia with her
daughter Camille.
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