the never ending Catch-22
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
The Toronto Star discusses the paradox of being a black writer.
I recently had a conversation about this with a publisher of books of African American interest. Some black authors don't want their books boxed in, classified as a black book. I definitely understand that.
But as someone in marketing, i think it's important to first define and reach a target audience (which doesn't necessarily have to be black folks) and then spread out. It is much harder to gain the attention of the masses these days. But if you can conquer a target and move forward many times you are much better off.
Now the whole thing about being an artist versus a black artist (that would be nice wouldn't it), well that is a behemoth that requires an societal attitudinal shift. Or perhaps the disintegration of race, whichever comes first.
posted by Felicia Pride @ 7:15 PM
6 Comments:
as a writer, this is an interesting debate & one i've had plenty of times. while i want my work to be appreciated by the masses as a whole, i am, first and foremost a black writer. i want to appeal to my colored folks, all over the globe. i actually like the way certain bookstores (i.e. Boarders) are setup in the sense that they have a Black fiction section. it saves me time and energy. but then again...some don't. unfortunally there is not a box big enough to hold all of our prefrences, and we keep getting tossed in and jumbled on top of each other. it's getting mighty crowded.
I hear your concept of target marketing, but it is not right to do this just because someone is black. If a black person writes a romance in which race has nothing to do with the story, why should it not be treated the same as it would if a white author had written it? Ditto for science fiction or western or horror. The author's race should never be used to limit their marketability with the excuse of target marketing. You target market based on content, not race.
I'm not talking about marketing a book just based on an author's race. What i'm referring to are stories about, and starring black folks. For too long publishers have failed to reach out to black people as a market, for not just books about us, but books in general. And even now their efforts are questionable.
Genre-based works that you speak of (western, romance, sci-fi) already have defined markets, and very dedicated readers of all races. So you target the western market, you target the romance market, and you target the sci-fi market.
But as you know there are romance authors out there that write stories specifically for black women. Think Sandra Kitt, and the importance of Arabesque to black female romance writers that wanted to write stories of black people falling in love.
Right, and those AA-specific stories are appropriately categorized and marketed to AA people. The material is self-limiting. They belong in that category and wouldn't be expected to appeal to the mass market of commercial readers. There has never been a question about that, at least not as far as I'm concerned.
But therein is a problem. I don't agree that stories that star black folks are self-limiting. Nor do I believe what Amy Tan or Isabelle Allende write is "self-limiting." Especially when stories starring white folks aren't considered "self-limiting." While I believe that black folks should know about stories written about them, I don't agree that they "wouldn't be expected to appeal to the mass market of commercial readers." Would that mean that only stories with race-less characters or white folks be the only stories that should appeal to the mass market of commercial readers? Granted I do realize I am being a bit idealistic.
Would that mean that only stories with race-less characters or white folks be the only stories that should appeal to the mass market of commercial readers?
Yes. Obviously we live in a pro-white society. I don't see too many "commercial" readers over in the African-American section of the bookstore.
"Self-limiting" is used in the context of categorizing. Books written by blacks, featuring blacks, are going to be categorized as AA fiction - that's the way most blacks insist they want it. Therefore the work is going to be restricted to an AA audience. Again, pro-white society.
But what about those of us who are writing with a larger audience in mind? Our books should not be labeled AA simply because we're black. That choice should not be taken away...just because we're black.
Amy Tan and Isabelle Allende's bestsellers weren't pigeonholed into an ethnic niche, despite the characters, hence their success. How often do you see this happen with non-literary black work? Never.
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