Johnny Temple speaks the truth

Johnny Temple, publisher of the funky Akashic Books wrote a great piece in BookStandard about the shelving plight of minority writers. The age-old conundrum, where should minorities writers be shelved in the bookstore.

I say it is a conundrum because I would be lying if I said the "black section" didn't help me find certain titles. But I guess this could be assuaged by knowledgeable sales people. But I know for black writers, gay writers, etc in order to move forward there needs to be integration within the bookstore and the larger sections like fiction (so that the visibility goes beyond black history month).

My favorite paragraph from Johnny's piece:
"Patrik’s admonition is on point, and it brings to mind the multiple big-house editors whom I have heard complain, “I can’t find any good fiction.” That’s a bunch of bull. What they mean is, they can’t find any good fiction that their unimaginative corporate bosses will green-light. There is a lot of excellent unpublished fiction, but publishers (both big and small) are increasingly bottom-line–driven, and they really do try to put books in marketing boxes: black, gay, celebrity, whatever. Beyond a reductive publicity angle and a half-hearted (though often over-funded) initial promotional push, big publishers rarely put creative energy or additional resources into their marketing—unless a book hits big, in which case they immediately start firing on all cylinders. "

Aha. Marketing books can sometimes be such a guessing game, but does that mean we have to be lazy about it?