The Audience Is There
For a moment I was inclined to agree that the reason “those people” don’t read AA romance is because of the stigma against the genre, but my involvement on a post by Clutch Magazine, entitled “Selling Ghetto” made me think otherwise. Based on the comments, the readers of this online magazine targeted to upscale black women have no clue genre fiction written by black authors exists!
I think black authors need to step up and write a variety of books! NOT just one! I would love to see more black authors branch out, you don’t know how many other black readers that are into stuff like Twilight/vampire fiction, Nicholas Sparks romance novels/romance novels in general, Sci-Fi, interracial novels etc… I WOULD LOVE TO SUPPORT MORE BLACK AUTHORS WHO WRITE BOOKS THAT I LIKE READING.
Granted, I think they don’t know because they head for the African-American Literature section when they enter a bookstore. They also don’t know because they see rows and rows of books in the romance and sf/f and mystery and YA with white cover models. Or, because the bookstores don’t order genre fiction written by black authors due to population demographics. Or, they stumble across L.A. Banks, or Brenda Jackson, or Beverly Jenkins, et al, and have no one to turn to for book buying advice/recommendations. The bottomline is that there is an untapped audience out there–you just have to know where and how to tap into it.
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I can tell you from experience that demographics is everything. A friend just asked me why BAM had all their black book signings at a particular store in Birmingham. It’s not in a predominately black area. I used to manage a BAM and I told her that they live and die by demographics. If they’re having a lot of black book signings there, it’s because they’re selling a buttload of black books there.
And that comes back to my particular situation. Back when my first book was released, I was living in a fairly affluent community in Huntsville. I could only find my book in the bookstores in the more melinated parts of town. Further, when it was re-released in mass-market last year, I couldn’t find it in my neighborhood in ATLANTA!!! Again, when I went to the more melinated areas of town, it was all over the place.
So again, we have to contend not only with the fact that there is segregation within the physical structure of the store, there is also the issue of segregation in what the stores themselves will carry based on what neighborhood you live in.
Most upscale folks tend not to live in the melinated areas of town, therefore they may well not see any black genre fiction at all. And given the way it’s all thrown together all willy-nilly in the stores that do carry it, I’m not surprised that it’s difficult to find. I think we need more online forums and we need them to be accessible and not just a cheerleading section.
For print books, the racial distribution is limiting. It makes the online approach even more attractive.
To reach upscale folk of all races, I think defining a book into a genre by the race of the author won’t work. Even black folk wonder what’s up with that.
Nice blog you have here.
I can’t even go here cause the challenge of getting found is like biting down into an eight layer cake. There’s:
1. new rules to publishing. Living solely off book deals is certainly a dinosaur of the past. Even established writers struggle. You have to sell a script an a la JK Rowling…or have Mrs. O put her personal stamp of approval.
2. A crowded market place of writers…been to Barnes and Nobles Lately? Dizzyingly overwhelming. If I don’t know what I’m getting I bounce.
3. Black writers not wanting to be pigeonholed and define solely by their race.
4. Finding the right target audience.
5. Competing with celebrity culture.
6. Getting the mainstream press to even care about you and your non-story.
7. Getting readers to care; especially in a day and age where free content is the order of the day.
8. The day of the respected and critically acclaimed crossover black writer is gone. While E. Lynn Harris, Zane, Eric Jerome Dickey, Vicki Stringer and a slew of other Urban Fiction writers have had tremendous financial success no one’s is lauding their cultural impact on Black Culture beside them selling and getting paid.
No more Morrison, Ellison, Baldwin, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou….hell Amiri Baracka/Leroi Jones….and yes I’m a snob but today’s audiences are an entire nother animal and are extremely fickle….
At the end of the day you’ve got to writer from your heart and let the pieces fall where they may. You can’t plan success. You can’ only live from a place of passion.
7.