SUGAR

A fast-paced, juicy peek behind the curtain of the glamorous magazine scene in the late 1990s. A riveting debut novel, equal parts THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and THE OTHER BLACK GIRL.

It's 1999 in New York City, where 20-something Nikki Rose is a rising star at fashion magazine StyleList. But as the only Black editor on staff, Nikki's never had it easy. Determined to find a place for young Black women in the magazine world, Nikki hustles her way into a job as Editor-in-Chief at Sugar, a floundering hip hop music and lifestyle publication with untapped potential and finds herself in an entirely new world of wealth, decadence, and debauchery. Soon, Nikki must deal with a whole new set of responsibilities and challenges as she fights to save Sugar, including facing off with its vindictive former leader, winning over her skeptical staff, learning to navigate the urban music industry while staving off its influential bad boys and power playersand perhaps the most difficult, evading the Alonzo Griffin: her very married, very powerful ex-boyfriend, former boss, publishing powerhouse, and well-known womanizer, who is on a mission to take Nikki (and Sugar) down. As Nikki struggles to make her way in the media and music industries during one of the most dynamic eras in pop culture history, she needs to game the system to win. But what happens when winning means sacrificing everything you hold dear? Amy DuBois Barnett garnered national acclaim for her roles as the editor-in-chief of Ebony, Teen People (where she made history as the first Black woman to run a major mainstream magazine in the country), and Honey Magazine, and as deputy editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. An award-winning media executive, author, and television commentator, Barnett has held senior leadership roles at Paramount, Hearst, Disney, and Time Inc, and has also successfully grown several independently owned media brands. Barnett is the author of the NAACP Image Award-nominated non-fiction book, Get Yours: How to Have Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More (Doubleday/Broadway Books). Her short fiction won an award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation and has appeared in several journals and anthologies. Barnett has a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her seventeen-year-old music producer son, Max.