Soul Sisters Inspirational Books Empower African-american Women And Spread Hope

In bookstores, schools and auditoriums around the country, crowds of well-heeled, well-coiffed African-American women come bearing flowers, cards and gifts.

They wait in long lines for autographs, to take a picture, or to share a few words. They leave with a gleam in the eye of the newly converted, ready to spread the gospel to all who will listen.

The women inspiring this devotion are African-American inspirational authors - the newly anointed celebrities of the book-publishing world.

Authors such as Essence magazine editor-in-chief Susan Taylor, Iyanla Vanzant and Julia Boyd have a tremendous following among African-American women, whom they say, unapologetically, their work is targeting. And black women are responding to the books because of the emphasis the works place on self-empowerment, as well as empowerment through the support of other women.

``There're a lot of challenges - be it on the job or at home or in your family life or relationships,'' says Taylor devotee Kellee Fearon, who came out to see Taylor when she was in Philadelphia.

``People such as Susan Taylor and other inspirational authors are very motivating for us and remind us that we can go to each other and to God for what we need,'' Fearon said.

It's a phenomenon not unlike the response to the film ``Waiting to Exhale,'' based on Terry McMillan's best-selling novel. Women are attending the film with their girlfriends, mothers, sisters and daughters - the same way that many of these books are purchased for and shared with other African-American women.

And the books are selling. Taylor, whose first book, ``In the Spirit,'' was an outgrowth of her popular monthly column, was one of the genre's first successes. Her book eventually sold over 350,000 copies.

Her second, ``Lessons In Living,'' is already in its second printing, after an initial run of 100,000 books.

Her readership base was no doubt helped by her enormous Essence following, but Taylor's success has helped boost the careers of other authors as well.

Vanzant (``The Value in the Valley,'' ``Acts of Faith,'') and Julia Boyd (``Girlfriend to Girlfriend,'' ``In the Company of My Sisters'') have tapped into a national trend that shows no signs of abating.

And the success of fiction books like McMillan's ``Waiting to Exhale,'' Bebe Moore Campbell's ``Brothers and Sisters'' and Connie Briscoe's ``Sisters and Lovers'' has made the African-American woman a desirable demographic for publishers.