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This story was corrected on April 30, 2009

As an author and publisher, Toy Styles had become accustomed to selling her street-themed books from her home, on the Internet and even on the streets.

But after experiencing a sales boom late last year, she decided to open her own store, Cartel Café and Books in the Eastover Shopping Center in Oxon Hill, and with it she said she plans to bring street literature to the masses.

Styles has been a successful street fiction writer since 2005, when she published a set of novels, "A Hustler's Son" and "Black and Ugly," under Triple Crown Publications based in Columbus, Ohio. She soon turned to start her own publishing company, Cartel Publications, in January 2008 and opened her store in August of that year.

Styles said street fiction is popular — and profitable — literature about people willing to do anything to survive: the single mother who works five jobs to support her family, the young girl who falls in love with a thug or the drug dealer trying to put food on the table. The store carries an extensive collection of Cartel Publications books, including titles by its seven authors, as well as other African-American literature including classic works by Toni Morrison and Richard Wright.

Styles, who lives in Owings Mills, said despite skepticism when she opened the store, business has thrived.

"I didn't understand why nobody else put a book store in [Oxon Hill]," she said. "They told me it was risky, that black people didn't read. But I don't really listen — thank goodness."

Customer Inga Clark, 35, of Oxon Hill said she reads street literature with her three teenage daughters.

"[The store] is convenient," Clark said. "You can relate [to the books] whether you want to or not. It makes a lot more sense to me to read these books instead of a book about people who live in $1 million homes."

With titles such as "A Hustler's Son II" and "Pit Bulls and a Skirt," the store's collection caters to women, who make up the bulk of Styles' customers. She said the store's eccentric titles and covers are meant to draw the readers in and make Cartel books stand out. Most of the books are cranked out in a matter of weeks and feature heavy dialogue, she said.

"Our customers don't like books that are long and drawn out," Styles said.

Styles said street fiction is largely a still-underground phenomenon. In 2008, Cartel Publication sold about 100,000 street books between the store and its Web site, she said.

"The only reason people don't understand the market for street literature is because it's sold on the street without barcodes and only with cash," she said, referring to how she sold her books before opening the store.

Hoke Glover, an English professor at Bowie State University and founder of Karibu Books, a popular African-American literature retail chain that closed in 2008, said that street literature often plays on stereotypes, comparing it to "blaxploitation" films of the 1970s such as "Shaft" and "Foxy Brown."

"The marketing slant is that this is literature that keeps it real," he said. "It's a common part of the culture these days — there's a section of people who believe that keeping our literature real is always enticing to readers."

Styles said street literature isn't all violence. Most books, she said, have valuable life lessons showing readers that glamorizing thug and drug culture often leads to nowhere.

"A lot of people want to comment on street literature saying it's not real [literature], but it is — there's a real message in these books," she said.