Wall Street Journal tackles Catch 22 of Black writers

The Wall Street Journal had a front page article about the struggles of Black writers to reach nonblack audiences. The article includes quotes from tons of folks but begins with Brandon Massey's frustations that his sales are limited by being published by a black imprint and automatically being slotted in the African American section. It then talks about how divided black books are within the publishing "food chain." It looks at the case that Millenia Black brought against her publisher, Penguin.

The article then goes on to discuss that Black fiction is doing well when overall bookstore sales have slumped.

I go back and forth on the issue and in a perfect world we'd all be shelved together in harmony (as we would also be living together in perfect harmony.) But this ain't no perfect world. Luckily Momma already told me that.

So one hand, I agree with Tananarive Due:

Tananarive Due, who writes supernatural suspense tales, says that when she
started out in 1995, she was embraced by black booksellers. Her book tour was
almost exclusively in black stores. "There is nothing worse than the release of
a book without an audience," she says. "Frankly I'm glad my books were launched
as they were. The African-American readership has been my rock and given me the
opportunity to expand."

And on the other, I feel for Brandon Massey:

Mr. Massey nonetheless worries he's being shortchanged by being shelved in
African-American departments. "Most nonblack readers aren't going to the
African-American section," he says. His goal, he says, is to compete with Dean
Koontz and Stephen King.