Demetria Lucas‘ first claim to fame came from her uber-successful blog, A Belle In Brooklyn, which chronicled her dating adventures in New York City a la Sex and the City. After scoring a gig as the relationships editor at Essence, Lucas’ friends convinced her to write a book based on her blog. After all, she started her career editing romance novels for Harlequin and BET Books.
She ended up not only writing one book, but two, and is currently a life coach and one of the stars of Bravo’s reality show Blood, Sweat and Heels. In our latest So What Do You Do interview, Lucas talks about the moment she knew she had to write her first book, titled A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life:
I was fortunate to land a spot on Let’s Talk About Pep on VH1, which was another story about four black women dating in New York. I realized I had a really big platform and I should do something with it. That’s when I pitched my book. Coming from a book editor’s background, I knew that you could have a great story, but if you didn’t have a platform to sell it on, nobody was going to know about it. Simon & Schuster took it. After the book came out, I was all over social media and started doing my ‘Cocktails with Belle’ events because I wanted to meet my readers. I wasn’t really looking at it as a marketing strategy.
For more from Lucas, including her thoughts on being labeled the “black Carrie Bradshaw,” read: So What Do You Do, Demetria Lucas, Writer and Reality Show Star?