Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things
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Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things |
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Name::Sharon Cullars
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Saturday, April 22, 2006 Jim Crow Publishing  Another case of a publisher shooting itself in the foot. So Millenia Black is an African-American author who decided she didn't want to be marketed solely to a niche audience. Her first book was deliberately written without racial descriptives and still she found herself ghettoized on the African-American shelves of the bookstores. So, just like James Patterson, P. J. Parrish and Suzanne Brockmann, all white authors who have written cross-racially featuring black protagonists, Millenia thought to write a story peopled with only white characters. She tentatively entitled it THE GREAT BETRAYAL.Well, her publisher loved the book, told her it was a dynamic story. Except for one teensy, weensy change she had to make - she had to change all of her characters from white to Negro. I say Negro here because obviously that's how the publisher sees the market. Those Negros won't want to read about all white characters. And, of course, white readers won't want to read anything by a Negro (but how would they know; mayhap her last name, hmmm?). Never mind that the story is dynamic and well told. We just can't be having actual Negro authors crossing the line. Who does Millenia Black think she is - Suzanne Brockmann. Well, Millenia (who's had problems with racial marginalization before with a bookstore) is wondering what to do about this dicey situation. She really wants to broaden her audience and thought that reaching a wider audience was also an objective of her publisher. Alas, this is not so. Publishers seem to think that the melanin in your skin is the determining factor of your sales forecast. Even though there have been crossover successes among African-American writers to a mainstream audience (including Walter Moseley, Octavia Butler, Steven Barnes Tananarive Due - although they are not romance writers and that may make the difference), romance publishers let their prejudicial assumptions override their marketing common sense. If the book is as good as they say, and they doubt that a mainstream audience will buy into a black romance, then aren't they limiting their sales by forcing their writer to only write a black romance? Again, it doesn't make good marketing sense. Not even those with racial blinders on can't see this for what it is - good ole fashioned racism.
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