“Black consumers spent more than $300 million on books last year, according to Ken Smikle, publisher of Black Issues Book Review….”
“In October, Ms. Aldred [AKA Millenia Black] filed a lawsuit against her publisher…. She alleges that her editor asked her to change the characters in her newly published second novel… from white to black or race-neutral. In an attempt to lure black readers, the proposed cover art featured an African American couple, the suit adds.”
“…Ms Aldred says the publisher eventually backed down—the final cover features an unmade bed—but she still sued, alleging racial discrimination.”
“Penguin says it is contesting the allegations, saying…that “our commitment to writers from all backgrounds is evident in the quality and diversity of our [publishing] list.”
The article is filled with quotes from other American authors whose enthnicity is African. Tananarive Due, who writes supernatural suspense tales, says, “Frankly, I am glad my books were launched as they were. The African-American readership has been my rock….” Another writer, Brandon Massey, has found the support of the African American reader “crucial,” though “worries he is being shortchanged by being shelved in African American departments.”
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I’d link up to The Wall Street Journal article so you could read it yourself, but a link won’t work. You’d have to be a subscriber to read the paper online. Sorry.
Lynne
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Wow. I don’t know if I can wallow in these murky waters. Truth is, I started commenting after reading half of the responses to M.Black’s allegations, but something told me to halt and go back and read this conversation again. Having done that (note my use of an absolute phrase, which is more representative of white academe than black vocational environments), I’m still completely baffled by this topic and how it’s escalated to total pointlessness. If M.Black wants to sue an independent bookseller for how he/she does business, let her do so. I, too, would be insulted to open a letter that said hello, are you black? That’s pretty crude, regardless of the race of the writer. But based on that sole letter, I can’t make a statement about the entire publishing industry.
As a black woman who’s worked in publishing for nearly 3 decades–starting in the late 70s when there were few women not to mention black people–I’d advise M.Black to control her writing to the extent that she can and screw the rest. She doesn’t have to change her characters’ race if she doesn’t want to; she doesn’t have to approve a cover that depicts black people on the cover if she doesn’t want to; she doesn’t have to publish with NAL or any other company if she doesn’t care to. She has more control than she thinks over her own product–and I’ve worked in almost every area of publishing that you can name–from copyeditor to acquiring editor to marketing manager and even bookseller.
These days it’s all about money and how to reach the author’s “targeted readership.” If I write a book about a fat female professor who falls in love with another fat female professor, no doubt it’ll be shelved in both chick lit and lesbian lit. Smart marketing also places it in the diet &health section, where some of my readers also might hang out, as well as in women’s studies. As the author, I’m going to suggest as many markets as possible to find the readers for whom I wrote that book.
I want as much exposure as possible, ultimately. If those fat ladies were black, well, sure….
Only the dumbest, most non-progressive publishers and booksellers on the planet don’t take advantage of cross-marketing to sell books. And you, the author, must educate them if they are indeed that dense (or quick! find another publisher).
Black history month was the source of this marketing event in publishing that brings out as many black authors as possible in February. The black community fought hard for this month, given that our people and our work had been sadly ignored and/or marginalized for centuries. I still support black history month and the national celebration of the black intelligentsia during this time. But we’re no longer confined to exposure for just one month a year–it’s a bonus not the entire reward.
All that said, I must remark that white publishing people were often clueless when it came to ethnic material and black authors. I found that this cluelessness was often a direct result of their not knowing any black people and therefore feeling awkward handling their work product. Most felt that black people simply lacked writing skills and the credentials for authorship. Publishing was, after all, a gentleman’s profession.
An English major through high school, college, and graduate school, I won my master’s from NYU in 1978. During all those years, I only read 2 or 3 books by black authors: Richard Wright’s A Native Son; Jean Toomer’s Passing; and a slave narrative. But I had to read Huck Finn almost every year. And the teacher always asked me what I thought of Joe.
Gee, did any of my blackness bleed through to my prose?
Tana
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Finally, the voice of reason!
]]>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/11/books/11blac.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
]]>Nitwit of the Day!
“Here’s a big hunk of clue cake for everyone at the book buffet: don’t diss your publisher in public. Not now, not ever. Not even if you think you’re right, especially when I know you’re wrong.”
Very worth reading.
]]>I just read all these comments again. One point I think is a good one. “niching” makes logical sense if it is content-related, but not if it isn’t. (If you have a niche system at all, that is.)
Lynne, I also think your initial point about marketing is a good one– where you write that if you were a bookseller you would be “seeding” various niche areas with a book that crosses several niches, to maximise the chances of selling it. But this does depend on the bookseller being intelligent (are there any as intelligent as you?), energetic, on the ball, committed, etc. I suspect a lot of the big chains don’t care all that much or don’t pay their staff enough to encourage this kind of initiative.
So we are back to my boring suggestion of one A to Z run, then?
]]>There are books in my “niche” that I’d never read, and books in other “niches” that I might. And then there is the question of mis-niching, or “grey area” books or, gasp, this A-A fiction problem that we are all debating here. ]]>
During negotiation, either party has the right to walk away.
]]>This has nothing to do with African-Americans wanting a section of “our own”, because most African-Americans read all over the spectrum of fiction and non-fiction, but an issue of segregation that is rarely, inforced on other ethnicities. I think it’s an issue of white guilt rather than racism. It’s easier to read about the culture of a non-white person (that isn’t of African descent) because there’s none of those pesky reminders of slavery and degredation. Hey, I’m black, and I’m regretful about slavery, but I’d like this white guilt to stop–discussing slavery and racism is nothing to be ashamed of or to feel guilty about: it happened, feel regrets and move on. But by white people refusing to acknowledge what happened, by white people continuing to occasionally reach out in the wrongful emotion of guilt instead of with TRUE COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING, bigotry will continue to run rampant through the hearts of man regardless of how many times it’s denied.
It’s sad that Millenia Black’s situation has been trivialized by rumors of her supposed deceit or it being fueled by ulterior motives when the issue behind the lawsuit is quite simple: she is a HUMAN BEING who should be extended the same opportunities as her non-black counterparts. Period.
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