A Love Letter to Black Authors
We deserve something that's built for us, by us, with the only intention to preserve everything about us. That is what we have built here with Blackstack, word by word.
This newsletter is very intentional, and the best way for me to get the information out to everyone about the writing spaces, publishing pathways, and ways to enhance the reader experience overall. There is also the link for open submissions, magazine order shipping updates, and the link to our first Book Club introduction during the Salon this Sunday!
Every time I mention that Blackstack is a nonprofit indie publishing house, their response confirms that I have not talked about the mission of Blackstack enough. And now with celebrities actively engaging in our work, I want to make sure it’s clear that this name is so much more than a Substack publication hub.
As this community expanded, the mission of this space became clearer. If my gift of curation was bringing us together in profound ways, then my path has been laid out for me. We need our own publishing house that operates solely to preserve the Black experience through our words. It’s our job to rewrite the false narrative they call history and document with the intention of preservation.
Y’all ask me all the time how you can support me with this work, and I haven’t had an answer for you until some recent major life changes took place. If you want to read more about that, you know I wrote about it. So, a few ideas I have been sitting on for the last year are ready to be brought to the community. This is not a cry for help, but a request from you to help me continue putting the love and nurture that is required to keep us active another year.
Blackstack’s Intentions for 2026
Let’s talk about the intentions for Blackstack in year two. Can you believe Juneteenth 2024? This whole publication was just an idea I took action on?
The main intention for Blackstack in year two is sustainability. Many Black-owned organizations that are doing great work for the community often have to close their doors because of budget cuts, either by the government or sponsors/donors, after political shifts. I don’t want this for us; the magazine fundraiser and the growth of this community overall are proof that we are able to self-fund our own publishing house to properly preserve our stories and history. Here are a few ways I envision us doing this with the capacity I have to labor in love.
Supporting the Craft
One thing I noticed this year, working with many Black authors, is our desire to fully commit to our writing practice. This is why I am consistent with hosting our monthly community writing Salon to ensure we have at minimum two hours a month dedicated to strengthening our craft in community with people that look like us.
I want to offer more intimate community-centered spaces for us to commit to our craft while sharpening our pen. My intention for 2026 is to close the paid subscription option for the Substack platform and build a true writing community through the ecosystem that has been created. The commitment is $1 per month for the year, and we to meet on Zoom on the second Wednesday of every month from 6-7:30 pm PT.
It’s called the $1 Writing Club!
Supporting the Publishing Process
All year, I’ve been hosting beta programs to see how I can support Black authors in the publishing process as a one-woman operation for now, and this lingering idea is manifesting. The Residency, Fellowship, and Full Publishing experience provides a new way of publishing that focuses on Black author ownership; our creativity, intellectual property, rights, money, and truly building our own ecosystem.
Blackstack Author Fellowship: We meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to work on our manuscripts in community. Once a month, we dedicate a week to focusing on at least one grant application to support with funding book project. Hands-on developmental editorial feedback from me and peer feedback as beta readers throughout the process. All fellowship members are eligible for print publication through Blackstack. The fellowship is for the entire year, so you are free to join anytime. We are currently in session.
Blackstack Self-Publishing Residency: This is a three-month cohort (only four sessions for the year) for authors who have a manuscript ready for the final edit but may not be able to pay thousands of dollars to hire an editor, book cover designer, and other publishing costs. During this residency, you will get the support you need to self-publish your book, whether you want to use a third-party or Blackstack. We will start the first cohort of the year in January, meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays bi-weekly.
Full Publishing Experience: Now, this is the traditional publishing experience, but with me holding your hand along the way. I will provide support with the development and structure of your manuscript, final editing, typesetting, book cover design, ISBN/LCCN, book placement, distribution, and your rollout. The first step here is scheduling a manuscript assessment call for us to get a game plan in place based on your goals.
Zine Studio: Because the focus is always community accessibility, a more affordable publishing option is the Zine Studio $25 per month, automatically added to the Blackstack website for others to purchase.
Supporting the Reading Experience
Supporting the reading experience is how the entire Blackstack ecosystem comes together full circle. We go from operating as a space to gather and write, to publishing those words, right into the hands of the readers those words were intended for, Black readers.
I envision the collectors serving as the replacement for any big brand sponsorship through the Zine Collector, Magazine Collector, and Book Collector. Everything will be written by Blackstack community members, allowing us to collect each other’s words beyond the messy Substack saved feature. Think Snail Mail but with literary!
Zine Collector: That Zine Studio membership mentioned earlier, these are the collectors who will receive those zines each month.
Magazine Collector: The magazine collector is a second-tiered sponsorship opportunity that also receives zines but custom mini-magazines every month, created exclusively for this collector tier.
Book Collector: This is the premium sponsorship tier, not monthly but annually. Each month, you will still receive zines and magazines, but as books are being prepared to be published through Blackstack each quarter, these collectors will receive an Advanced Review Copy. A full circle ecosystem that I am going to teach you how to create for your book through all the publishing paths.
Blackstack Book Club Study: Introducing Blackstack Book Club, we aren’t just reading in this book club, it’s more of a Black liberation study hall with real conversations with the Authors who wrote the books we study. We are kickstarting this Sunday with a conversation with Gary F. Green II, PhD, author of Playing the Game: Embodied Brilliance Beyond the Moral Limits of Race in Sport, followed by some writing prompts inspired by the book. We will be reading this book for the first Blackstack Book Club Study for January and February, so order your copy now so you can join us for our first Author Q&A in January!
Purchase Book Here: https://www.greenideasconsulting.com/book
RSVP For Author Q&A Event: Date is Subject to Change https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/lGj7EK1BTiygCPYfUcrFyA
Mark Calendar for Author Talk LIVE this SUNDAY:
2025 Blackstack Magazine Orders Shipping Update
I’ve been hard on myself this year for my timeline with the Blackstack Magazine Issue One for 2025, but the more I learn about the game of publishing, I realize I’m actually running circles around the traditional process. Yes, publishing is a white man’s sport. We can talk about it whenever, just ask a question, I got you!
When you decide to go through the traditional publishing route, you can expect a 12 to 24-month process. And this is working with a team, so I gave myself grace with the publication of the magazine, our first one, because I not only brought an idea to life, but I also read all 60+ Black authors submissions, curated them into our first ever literary magazine, raised enough money to set up an in-house (literally) print publishing house, but also hand binding and packaging all 80+ preorder copies myself.
And the magazine launched on February 1st, 2025, so before February 1st, 2026, I promise you will have your copies. Then we can really say we are shitting on the traditional publishing industry!
Open Submissions for 2026
Now, for the open submissions, I don’t have much carrying on. I designed a simple system for you and me to make sure I get you published for 2026, both here online and in print.
I highly recommend doing your submission on your desktop to have the best experience. Here’s the link: https://www.theblackstack.org/open-submissions
Wow, this was so much, and I’ve been holding it in all year, and Spirit has been LOUD in my ear that now is the time. So, this tells me this isn’t about me pushing through my fear, but this is a needed space within our community. And you know what, that makes it a lot easier for me to hit this publish button today.
Thank you, all 16k of you! I literally could not do this without each of you!
Here’s to another year of preserving everything Black, intentionally!
xoxo, Jacquie
This is beautiful, but also, it produces a sustainable product for the Black community.
There is a lot going on and I love it!! I’ll be thinking of which one to sign up for. I have always been wanting to be more in the writing and book community and these options are the perfect ways to get into them. Thank you for your hard work!