Black Books in Controversy: The Difficulty of Selling Foreign Rights for books featuring black people

Another oddity of publishing that worries me is the lack of enthusiasm on behalf of foreign publishers for titles about black history or novels featuring black characters.

THE KNOWN WORLD only sold rights in one country due to a personal contact before it won the Pulitzer Prize. The Pursuit of Happyness sold rights due largely to the Will Smith film project. But most of the time you just hear crickets from foreign publishers.

This again ties into my suspicion raised in previous posts that for some reason books about black people are somehow seen as less universal. Maybe it's the publishing industry's fault, maybe the consumer's prejudices or maybe neither at all. It's difficult to say.

So what do you think? Anyone seen books about the African Diaspora sold abroad? Which books were they?

The African-American Interest Section Survives!

Thanks a bunch to all of you who commented and voted on the poll from my initial Black Books in Controversy post.

"Shelve literary titles in the general interest section" (37% of the vote) narrowly beat out "Institute Post-Racial Bookstores. Eliminate the African-American Interest Section." (31% of the vote)

Black Books in Controversy: Putting images of Black People on Book Covers

You wouldn't probably believe it if you never have sat around a table and discussed whether or not putting an image of a black person on a book jacket will hurt a book's sales. But when it comes to a lot of literary titles and serious non-fiction, there is a strain of thought that having an image of a person of color on the cover will make the book less appealing to the general consumer.

That this is even taken into consideration disturbs me a lot, because if someone doesn't want to purchase a book because it features a black person on the cover, then I think the problem is that of the consumer, not the publisher.

Again, good readers of this site, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. What do you think? Do cover images influence your purchasing decisions?

Black Books In Controversy: There's no such thing as "Too Literary"

Here's a headline for you: Street Fiction Doesn't Sell. At least not beyond a handful of authors that I can, literally, count on one hand. While there appears to be an abundance of so called "street fiction" titles, by and large the majority of these authors haven't succeeded in getting real traction. I know. I have access to sales figures and personally asked buyers at Barnes and Noble, Books A Million and Borders if recently there'd been any breakout street fiction authors beyond the "brands." They said no.

There's no such thing as "too literary." Something can be too literary for someone's list, i.e. If I publish mass-market romances and you send in a Faustian-inspired interpretation of modern black life in the Gullah Islands. But by and large publishers are always looking for quality works of fiction no matter the color of the writer. It's just the nature of the business that it can sometimes be like searching for a needle in a haystack. And, as always, art is subjective.

So this brings me to the subject of street fiction's effect on black literary authors trying to get published. I don't really think an editor would read a manuscript they loved and say: "Oh, only hardcore drug and sex novels are selling, so I'm passing."

Sometimes people ask me what they should write about. I often respond: "I don't know." Because I don't know what story is in you. That's should be the most important consideration, not the ill-conceived perception that only a certain type of book is selling.

Black Books in Controversy: African American Interest Sections

Type the words "African-American" or "black" along with "bookstore sections" into any search engine. You'll most likely pull up a litany of blog posts, articles, etc. likening the the existence of shelf space designated for titles by black authors to everything from "book segregation" to "literary apartheid."

It's a never-ending debate among booksellers, customers, publishers and authors. "Will only black people buy my book if I'm shelved in the African-American interest section?" is definitely a question that I've been asked more than once.

But here are some facts about the two biggest superstores:

Barnes and Noble with the exception of a few outlets, doesn't shelve its African-American fiction separately. That's right, general fiction titles are lined up in alphabetical order regardless of the subject matter, or the author's race. Barnes and Noble does however have an African-American non-fiction section.

Borders does group both black literature and non-fiction titles together, a move they made back in the 70s when instituting an African-American interest section was considered a fairly progressive move. (Two of the more nuanced looks at the issue can be found in this WSJ article and on lit blogger Maud Newton's site.)

Many superstores will argue that having an African-American interest section allows customers interested in those titles to find what they're looking for more easily, and crosslisting all African- American titles would be overly complicated.

But can being shelved in a particular section really hurt a book's chances? I don't think that if someone walks into a bookstore and asks for Beloved or a serious work of non-fiction such as Medical Apartheid and is directed to the African-American interest section that some sort of invisible barbed-wire will prevent them from making the purchase. Still, it's a sensitive issue. And understandably, some people take issue with more literary titles being shelved along side more commercial fare.

But enough of my rambling. I turn this now over to you good readers of this site. Perhaps if enough votes come in from the poll at the bottom of this page, I will send the results to the superstores, letting them know that the people have spoken.

Next Week's Black Books In Controversy: Street Fiction--why it doesn't prevent literary authors from getting published.