Racine's 21st Street Urban Editing & Publishing

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Link to Racine Journal-Times article, "'Street fiction' publishing firm to release novel".

Excerpt:  A company that edits urban street fiction for publication has also moved into publishing the genre itself.

In October 2008 Niccole Simmons, 34, of Racine, and her nephew, Bryant Jones, 33, of Waukegan, Ill., cofounded 21st Street Urban Editing.

"Bryant had written a book and was looking for an editor," Simmons said about the company's start. But he was having a hard time finding an editor who wouldn't clean up his intentional slang and misspellings.

Simmons, who started in human services, said urban street fiction is written the way the urban culture talks; it includes forms of words not considered acceptable in traditional fiction. For example, its readers like to see "ain't" left alone.

"It's like hip-hop," Simmons said. "It's like the difference between hip-hop and R and B (rhythm and blues)."