On today’s edition of “Tamron Hall,” award-winning actor Eriq La Salle joined the show to discuss his new novel “Laws of Annihilation” and detailed his journey to success in this new chapter of his career and the challenges he’s faced along the way. Also, Tamron’s former colleague and friend Jenna Wolfe opened up about her decision to get multiple preventative surgeries following her mother’s diagnosis and battle with breast cancer. And five-time Grammy nominated gospel singer Jekalyn Carr performs “I Believe God” for the Tam Fam.
Eriq La Salle on being a crime writer of color and his message for the publishing community:
“Look at someone like Octavia Butler, an African American woman who did sci-fi. So can you imagine the type of – so you know we are in a minority of African American authors. I’m in this group called Crime Writers of Color and so it’s a support thing, but there’s a huge audience for it. The publishing world really needs to wake up because the funny thing is, you know, you get out here, you try to sell these books, they don’t want it, they don’t want you, and then all of a sudden when you finally get it done everybody wants to take credit.”
La Salle on the challenges he faced when starting his professional writing career:
“Here’s the thing, people think that, oh, well if you have any…type of celebrity, that is automatically going to guarantee you a certain success. So you know you’re an author. We were out there hustling. Sometimes that works against you because they feel, well, this is just going to be one of those fluff – it’s a vanity project. I was turned down multiple times by each publishing house.”
