Carl Weber

New York Times and #1 Essence® bestselling novelist, is the author of Something On the Side, The First Lady, So You Call Yourself A Man, The Preacher's Son, Player Haters, Baby Momma Drama, Married Men, Lookin’ For Luv and the novella "Easy Street" written with La Jill Hunt for the collection he edited, A Dollar and A Dream. He is also author of the New York Times bestselling "he said, she said" novel, She Ain’t The One, written with Mary B. Morrison.

Despite his success, Carl Weber says that the path which led him to writing was rocky. "I am a life-long reader and wanted to write, but I wasn’t the best English student," Weber admits. When he realized the growing importance of African-American fiction to readers and publishers, he couldn’t resist putting pen to paper. "I wanted to write a book about ordinary people who have crazy things happen in their lives," Weber says. His work stood out, receiving immediate positive response from readers.

"Once you get one under your belt, once you get that first break, life is easier," says Weber, whose first novel, Lookin’ For Luv, a relationship story written from the rarely heard male perspective, was published in 2000. Weber drew upon personal experience and added "a little more spice" to the mix for his next novel, Married Men, and then moved away from his comfort zone with Baby Momma Drama, which he wrote from a woman’s perspective.

In addition to his writing, Weber is the founder and publisher of Urban Books and in 2005, he was named Blackboard’s Publisher of the Year. He is the owner of the Urban Knowledge chain of bookstores and a past recipient of Blackboard’s Bookseller of the Year award.

Weber graduated from Virginia State University and holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Virginia. He lives in Long Island, New York with his family.