Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things
|
Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things |
About Me
Name::Sharon Cullars
From::
My Meez 
Recent Entries
Archives
Personal
Interesting Sites
RAINE'S BLUES 
Now available at Loose-Id Watch trailer for Raine's Blues
GOLD MOUNTAIN 
Available at Loose-Id
AGAIN
Need Flashplayer to view. Give time to load.
TOOL & BAD BOYS Short, Short Ebooks My Artwork
My Merchandise Freelance Projects
blog posts, articles, web content, resumes, copywriting, proofreading
Read my business guides at Work.com
Read my profile on Air Station Savannah's pivotal Katrina rescues
Read my article on the Fair Trade system
Credits |
Thursday, December 07, 2006 Jennifer Weiner comments on race in publishing Author Jennifer Weiner, whose books include GOOD IN BED, and IN HER SHOES (which was adapted into a movie starring Cameron Diaz), comments on the Wall Street Journal article on race in publishing (see prior post). Weiner who is quoted in the article, states that if her books "were marketed as Jewish-American fiction and plopped into the Jewish section of your local bookstore they might not sell as well as they have." This is the same observation that many black authors who decry the ghettoization have made in their own blogs. As interesting as Weiner's post are the responses, some of which bolster the argument that the race categorization works against black authors. One poster in particular states: "I have probably never been to the "african american" section of the bookstore...I guess the NOT FOR YOU section has kept me away. Now, I'm thinking I might peruse the section, as I am probably missing out on fabulous books." I think that comment sums up the gist of the controversy. Non-black potential buyers see the African-American section as off-limits, as though it is exclusively for black readers. And because of that, a black authored book may be losing a potential reader, a black author a potential autobuy fan. Sales are limited, and dreams of making the NY Times or USA bestseller lists, of movie deal options, of a self-sustaining career as a writer, remain just that, emphemeral little wisps of hope that dissolve almost before they are fully formed. I give Weiner kudos for even blogging about the matter. For too many nonblack writers and readers, racial marketing in publishing will remain a non-issue.
As an African American writer, if you have a work that is published by Strebor Books or Triple Crown Publications or a similar imprint, for better or worse you have already limited your audience to an urban (read African American) market. I cannot say if it is the intention of these publishing houses to market exclusively to African Americans, but it seems to be. (Zane at Strebor Books seems to be attempting to address that with current calls for submissions out for erotica anthologies featuring Asian and even homosexual characters, which at least shows she’s looking for a wide minority audience, not necessarily just an African American one). Even if you don’t write the books that tend to end up in the AA section of bookstores (like urban fiction), that is exactly where your book is going to go because that is where those books go, and more often than not those books end up being limited to the African American audience. And honestly, if you’re talking about a publisher that puts out a preponderance of those types of books, which often aren’t of the highest quality in terms of their writing and editing, you can find the reputation for your work suffering before it even gets out there, even if it isn’t of that nature. People will assume that if you’re being published through an organization that is known for urban fiction you can’t really write and it’s not really a good book anyway. Yeah I said it because I’ve seen it in the publishing industry a lot. They are perfectly content to let your ‘little black book’ make all the money it can in the ‘little black book section’ with the ‘little black book readers’, but that is where you’ll always be. Should it be that way? No, it shouldn’t. Does that mean you should pass on being published through this type of house? Not necessarily. But what it does mean is that you have to work that much harder on your own to find the wider audiences that might appreciate your work. But if you’re African-American, you can make it work to your advantage if you can promote and network as a black author and within your genre. But if you write in the urban fiction genre, you can’t do that as easily because race is part of what makes your genre what it is. You have to think of the publishing house as the equivalent of a distribution deal in the record business – they make sure your books get printed and get out there, and you have to make enough noise on your own so that you can reach whoever wants to read your story. As far at the bookstores go, I can certainly understand that they want to make it as easy as possible for their customers to locate the books they are looking for. But it takes a very finely tuned book retailer to understand the distinct difference between a black writer who writes black fiction with a primarily black audience in mind and a black writer who writes with a different mindset, and it may be asking too much for booksellers to make those distinctions. I personally would like bookstores to shelve books by genre, then by the author’s name. My current book is erotic fiction, but isn’t urban erotic fiction. I would hope my book would be shelved next to writers like Susie Bright and books like The Story of O. Labels: Publishing, Race
|
| Layout Design by Hajira | Thanks to:Getty Images • Blogspot • Blogskins • |
