Shawn James Publishes Book About Teen Sitcom

Sept. 6, 2011 - PRLog -- September 2011– Writer Shawn James has published All about Nikki: The Fabulous First Season, A compilation of thirteen television scripts about a spoiled rich African-American teenager living in Beverly Hills.

“The concept for the show is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Meets Clueless.” James says. “Families who enjoy watching tween and teen sitcoms like True Jackson V.P., That’s So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Hanna Montana will enjoy reading the scripts for All About Nikki and seeing how a story for a Television episode is developed into script form before it’s shot.”

James says he wrote the book to get younger African-Americans excited about the craft of screenwriting and pursuing careers behind the camera. “Out of 14,000 members of the Writers Guild of America, less than two percent are African-American.” James says. “And out of those14,000 writers only 500 work in a given year. So maybe two or three African-American writers work regularly in Hollywood at any given time. So there’s a desperate need for more screenwriters of color.”

A free-lance writer for over fifteen years, and a screenwriter for five, Shawn James is the author of the novels Isis, The Cassandra Cookbook, The Temptation of John Haynes and the screenplay All About Marilyn. He is also a feature writer for the African-American online social media site Onixlink.com. Shawn’s mission as a writer and publisher of SJS DIRECT is to create positive stories about the African-American experience.

As a publisher, James created the SJS DIRECT imprint with the goal of diversifying the selection of literature available to African-American readers. “When it comes to African-American fiction, readers have very few categories to choose from on the bookstore shelf.” James says. “Sure customers can find urban and contemporary fiction, but very few publishers produce stories in genres like fantasy or science fiction.” James hopes that sales of All About Nikki will show that the African-American audience is eager to buy screenplay books and learn more about the craft of screenwriting.

For additional information regarding All About Nikki The Fabulous First Season, contact Shawn James by email at sjsdirectny@aol.com or his website shawnsjames.blogspot.com. Copies of All About Nikki- The Fabulous First Season (ISBN 978-0-615-50701-9) are available in paperback at online retailers such as amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or local neighborhood bookstores.

# # #

SJS DIRECT is an independent publisher that seeks to publish books which promote the positive stories about the African-American experience.