Sometimes I need to be beaten over the head before I get it. For a long time I couldn’t quite grasp the complaints about the niche marketing of AA novels. It’s a difficult balance. There are readers that prefer to go to one section of the bookstore for books by African American authors and there are AA authors that are pleased with having their books marketed in the African American section of bookstores.
But then there are AA authors that would prefer to be marketed within the genre that they write… romance, mystery, fantasy etc…
And there’s the rub — in many brick and mortar stores they’re not given the choice.
When I finally grasped the reality of this, that these authors are being disenfranchised by not being marketed to the entire reading market, I realized that we as readers can make a difference. Publishers and booksellers are about making money. Niche marketing is lucrative, if it didn’t work they wouldn’t be doing it, but that doesn’t mean we as readers have like it or go along with it. Not only can we complain when we see this type of marketing happening, we can speak with our pocket books/wallets.
While I was blog hopping this week I came across this quote from a blog post by Seressia Glass:
I know this will sound like sour grapes, and for that I apologize. But it was a slightly disheartening weekend to be a black romance writer who doesn’t write erotic or paranormal romance. To sit in on a panel discussing AA romance, and to hear that Kathy Baker no longer buys AA romance for Borders, a guy named Sean (whose last name escapes me) buys all the black books for Borders Group instead. He sees absolutely no problem with AA romance being shelved right alongside street lit alongside pure literature alongside poetry, in which the only commonality is the race of the author (because hey, James Patterson’s Alex Cross books aren’t sitting there, but Walter Moseley’s Easy Rawlins books sure are.)
It’s not sour grapes, I can’t imagine how disappointing this is for an author who is trying to change this. Apparantely authors aren’t listened to. I can only hope that if enough readers voice their displeasure, something will be done to rectifiy the situation.
You can email Borders at ccare@borderstores.com — I have and unfortunately have not heard back from them, but I am a firm believer in volumn, if enough complain at some point they will have to respond.
If you feel strongly about this shop where books aren’t segregated by the race of the author. If you shop where they are segregated, complain to store management, let them know you’re not happy and will be taking your business elsewhere. Google the company and email/call corporate.
We need to VOICE our opinions because we’re the customer and supposedly we’re always right.
Related posts:
If I want a mystery, I go to the Mystery section. If I want a romance, I go to the Romance section. It never occurred to me to go to the AA section looking for genre fiction, and I’m a little peeved to think I may have been deprived of some great reads because of the author’s skin color. Silly me, I assumed we were decades beyond such blatant displays of racial segregation. How unfair to the authors who have missed sales because their target audience never saw them.
I wonder if the publishers might be partially responsible for making the author’s race the selling point rather than the book itself. It would be interesting to know how they present to the booksellers.
It would seem Latino writers might have the same problem. I’ve noticed a call for them in contemporary romance? I’ve yet to find one another genre.
And Asian, while I’m on a roll here! I’ve found two wonderful novels by Asian authors – Buddha Baby and China Dolls. Both are contemporary fiction about the Asian American experience. Anyone know what gives?:neutral:
A good book is a good book regardless of who wrote it. I dont’ care what color the author is, or what color the characters are as long as I get a good story that I can sink into.
There have been a number of bloggers who have posted on this subject in the past year. At best, segregation of books by race is a silly business practice; at worst, it is flat-out racist.
You’re right, Tara. The best way to counteract this is with a one-two punch: Vote with our pocketbooks by not patronizing stores with this practice and then contact the stores to let them know why. It is the combination of activity that will get their attention.
I just emailed Borders and I plan to frequent other booksellers, where the books know only genre, not race.
Good, thought-provoking post, Tara. I’ve been following Karen Scott’s continuing series of interviews–this is the most ridiculous racism. Like Walter Mosley is like Kayla Perrin is like Octavia Butler is like Seressia Glass.
I do see a lot of AA women reading AA romance on the subway, I wonder if they like having a separate section to read books about women with their skin color? Obviously, I can’t answer that, but I wonder what the thinking is behind the booksellers’ segregation.
Here’s a list to get you all started:
I’ll go check for my Asian authors and be right back.:wink:
I can’t think of one Latino author and that saddens me.:cry:
Kim Wong Keltner
Michelle Yu
Blossom Kan
Anyone else have recommendations?:smile:
…Binaebi Akah. Never heard of her? She wrote a novel, CATCHING THE ROSE, a historical. I haven’t found it anywhere either. Why do you suppose that is? Here is her website http://www.worderella.com
Thankfully, the issue does not apply to me – in Britain, books are shelved by genre as they ought to be – but I’m furious about the whole idea of shelving people by skin colour and find it racist and offensive.
I don’t want to be in a shelf with Welsh authors, regardless of how much I love Wales…
I don’t know what the stats are in the U.S. but here in Canada, only 40% of all book sales are “impulse” buys (according to the Handbook of Canadian Consumer Markets). According to The New Publisher’s Journal (Aug 2005 article), most of book impulse purchases are in grocery stores and near the door at Barnes & Noble.
So unless the section you’re hankering to be in is near the door…that says to me that the majority of your book buyers know what they’re looking for before they even walk into the store.
If I was an author looking at selling books, I’d concentrate on the sweet spot of targeted traffic (in other words, getting folks to ask for your books).
But y’all know I’m a business gal. I might be a tad bit too practical.
BTW…I know several AA and female Personal Finance bloggers and they can count the authors contacting them about promotion on one hand. That despite healthy traffic and a yummy target audience (skewing towards wealthy, young, female and AA).
I’m certain there must be AA bloggers in other industries in the same situation. The marketing possibilities…darn sexy.
I’m a lazy gal. I like to pick the low hanging fruit first.
And ummm…they’re not shelving by the color of the author (who knows THAT? That’s like saying that I’m Asian…which I’m not) but by target market. Like shelving romance separately.
Why do AA targeted books have separate shelving? Because they have a healthy readership. I don’t know if I would be too upset about that.
I heard about this last year, I think, and I was appalled and amazed. So, I checked out my local BN. No AA section, all romances in romance, all fiction in fiction. About the only time I’ve seen an AA section is February for Black History Month, and it isn’t any specific genre, just whatever AA authors/AA stories the store had.
I can only speak as a Latino author who helped launch the ENCANTO line in 1999, only to see it die two years later. No one knew where to shelve the books. They would be in the Spanish Language section even when they went to English only. They would be next to dictionaries and other reference materials and only rarely would these romances be in the romance section.
I now write for Silhouette Nocturne (and helped launch that line) as well as Pocket books. My vampire series, THE CALLING, regularly features Latinos, but it’s not marketed that way. It’s shelved with all the other series books. I’m happy to say that by 2009, there will be 10 books in the series.
My single titles all have had Spanglish titles — FRIDAY NIGHT CHICAS (St. Martins, 2005), SEX AND THE SOUTH BEACH CHICAS (Sep 2006) and SOUTH BEACH CHICAS CATCH THEIR MAN (Sep 2007). The last two didn’t start off with those titles.
I can’t help but wonder if a Spanglish title doesn’t say to some that they can’t identify with the characters even though the heroines would resonate with to women of all ethnicities and races.
I’m eager to hear what you have to say about this.
Caridad–I think the success of your books definitely speaks to the idea that plenty of readers will read to their tastes, not the ethnicity of the characters. I’m a paranormal junkie, and I’ll try anything that sounds good or different and has gotten some good reviews. They’re marketed as they should be, to those of us who like vamps and things that go bump in the night.:wink:
That’s why I don’t think AA should be marketed to an AA audience alone, perhaps that’s the most profitable market, but there are plenty of AA readers who hit the plain old romance section as well. I’ve looked at the AA section in several Borders, and yes, it smacks of ghettoization to me. Authors of all genres jumbled together. I don’t care what anyone says, sticking certain romance authors in a certain corner of the store due to the color of their skin and saying, “Well, that’s your target audience, you should be happy,” is condescending and limiting to authors.
Kerry…I wonder if the publishers might be partially responsible for making the author’s race the selling point rather than the book itself. It would be interesting to know how they present to the booksellers. Perhaps this is the case, but I’ve seen enough comments by AA authors to know that the ones that wish to be shelved with their genre aren’t being heard.
Megan–I do see a lot of AA women reading AA romance on the subway, I wonder if they like having a separate section to read books about women with their skin color? Obviously, I can’t answer that, but I wonder what the thinking is behind the booksellers’ segregation. I can’t answer it either. It is curious though.
Kimber An, Vivi Ana, Jill and Catja–not all bookstores do this, in my area we have one Borders and one B&N, the B&N doesn’t have a separate section, Borders does. Hopefully if enough people complain and take their money elsewhere this will change.
Kimber Chin–If I was an author looking at selling books, I’d concentrate on the sweet spot of targeted traffic (in other words, getting folks to ask for your books). I totally agree with this and that’s part of why some AA authors prefer being in a separate section. The books are being targeted to the AA market, obviously the niche marketing works, but at some point there’s a ceiling, where the over all genre markets is much higher.
Caridad–I think Latino authors run the same risk as AA ones, my local Borders has a “Latino” section. I’m curious, where do your publishers expect your books to be shelved? I would think in romance, right?
Devon–I don’t care what anyone says, sticking certain romance authors in a certain corner of the store due to the color of their skin and saying, “Well, that’s your target audience, you should be happy,” is condescending and limiting to authors. I completely agree, it is limiting and the authors should be given a say as to where they want their books shelved.
I wish I knew where they want them to be shelved. It’s a complicated business and surely there has to be some rationale for why you would market to a niche rather than a larger audience.
I am not alone amongst Latino writers in wondering why the focus is on that niche and not a larger audience and yes, there is that risk of finding oneself limited to certain readers by both the placing of the books and other factors.
I think that the ability to continue with THE CALLING Vampire series speaks to the fact that readers can enjoy a story regardless of the ethnicity or race of the characters and/or the writers.
As for the shelving of the single titles, as far as I can see, they are being shelved in the Fiction section and not romance. That’s what the spine on the book says and that’s why they go there.
Even in New Jersey, where there are a fairly large number of Latinos, there are few bookstores which break out books with Latinos. In those cases where there are Latino sections, they often feature translations of English-language books, but not books by Latinos, complicating such break downs even further.
I can understand a Spanish language section since that serves a particular clientele, but like many others, I think it would be best to put books together by genre.
The other thing that I was thinking about was that the argument for segregation of African-American authors is kinda dependent upon the assumption that the target audience is not too bright and needs to be sppon fed. I believe it was Kimber Chin who pointed out that (in Canada at least) only 40% of bookstore buys are impulse buys. Many readers are going into the store knowing exactly what their looking for. So what help is putting books in the AA section rather than the proper genre? I would go even further to say that many genre readers (and mystery and scifi readers even more so than romance) are very knowledgable about their genre of choice and are familiar enough about authors without having it spoonfed. Plus they’d still have to browse to find the mystery or romance or whatever with all genres shelved together.
(Hope this makes sense, my kids are done with my bloghopping
KimberAn…also Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is fabulous!
Tara my Bn and Borders are set up like yours are!
Patricia–it has to be a one-two punch. If all we do is complain that wont affect their bottom line and it’s the bottom line that gets the most attention.
The bottom line is what matters, but is the bottom line affected by segregating the books?
Based on what I’m reading on this blog and what I’ve heard from others, I think many think that the bottom line is being hurt by this.
Thanks to all of you for your words and ideas. It’s great to be able to share all this info!
“Based on what I’m reading on this blog and what I’ve heard from others, I think many think that the bottom line is being hurt by this.”
Ummm….so you’re thinking that the folks managing the bookstores don’t know what their customers want?
Wowsers, no wonder the book business is in trouble. Why do they bother doing their millions of dollars in market research if they don’t look at the results? Silly hobbits.
Great column, Tara Marie. It made me feel a little better about the romance genre when I was getting somewhat disheartened.
I can’t help but wonder if a Spanglish title doesn’t say to some that they can’t identify with the characters even though the heroines would resonate with to women of all ethnicities and races.
I’m eager to hear what you have to say about this.
I’m a little hesitant to offer my opinion on this. I’ve picked up a few titles with “Spanglish” titles or what I see as “self-consciously” Latino characters. I know I’m probably not being fair, but I went to a high school that was approximately 65% Latino and none of my friends talked liked these women!
So when I read the books, the characterization has felt very forced to me.
Beyond that, the “self-consciously Latino” books I’ve picked up have all managed to be first-person chic lit, so the stories have been light, amusing fluff – mostly forgettable, but enjoyable.
Can I identify with these women? Not really. But that has more to do with their obsession with Manolo Blaneks than with their ethnicity.
LOL Miki! It probably does have more to do with the Blahniks than the Spanglish at times.
I also do not normally speak like this with friends. I did, however, have an experience in a New York elevator which floored me. Two women stepped in and were discussing a visit to a hospital. Every other word was in a different language. You would have been lost if you didn’t understand either Spanish or English.
I really had not ever heard anything that extreme.
I want to thank you all again for this wonderful discussion. Many thanks to Tara Marie!
“Hmm, but it does make me wonder if they’re going about their market research in the wrong way.”
Interesting, Kimber An.
The bulk of my experience has been with consumer product goods so the book business is based on second hand information (which I always get a bit nervous talking about, especially on an industry site).
From what I’ve been hearing, the shelving decision in grocery is easier. The grocery store does their research, each of the manufacturers do their own independent research (which has to be fair as all the research is then compared). Drafting the planograms is a cut throat, heavily negotiated business, typically at least a six month to one year process, but the grocery store knows at the end of the day their profit will be maximized.
From what I hear from the bookstore managers I talk to, the publishers aren’t as involved. The bookstores still do a lot of market research (did you know that green covers sell more than blue covers?) but they don’t have as much additional publisher information to support their findings. (And because the publishers don’t share info with the bookstores, there’s no real incentive for bookstores to share info back – not like grocery where there’s a trade)
However they would have tested whether they sell more AA fiction in a separate section or not (that’s an easy test to do, take two stores with the same cross section of sales and the same demographics and run parallel tests – a no brainer). At least for the chains which I imagine we’re talking about.
Re: Spanglish — When I lived in NY, one of my roommates (born in Columbia) would come home shaking his head at how the mangling of BOTH languages he’d hear in his travels. Like a (mostly) Spanish conversation including the word “lunchar”.
And here in NM, oh, yeah — you hear the back-and-forthing between languages all the time. Or one person speaking English and the other Spanish, and everyone’s perfectly happy with that.
But then, we are a border state with Mexico. And we’re also the only officially bi-lingual state. So Spanish happens. A lot. 
Duh. Born in COLOMBIA.
But he WENT to Columbia University.
Not awake yet, obviously.
Caridad and Karen, I worked with a girl who was Haitian and Dominican and when she was really mad she spoke in a mangled version of spanglish/creole.
Kimber An,
Other Asian American authors you might want to try: Gennita Low, Marjorie M. Liu, Sunny
Hey, everybody, thanks for the recommendations for Latino and Asian authors!:grin:
Kimber Chin, the bookstore in our neighborhood which went out of business was a national chain. There are at least as many African Americans as all the other racial groups in our neighborhood put together. Either the store had a national policy or the managers were totally clueless, because their policy of segregating our African Americans authors killed their business. I could see it every time I went in. Why couldn’t they?:roll: First of all, I always had to order my novels by African Americans. Second of all, when I asked for help finding a novel, the white cashier couldn’t find it. *Because someone had put in the romance section.* I said, “Well, it is a romance.” I received no comment.
If Wal-mart knows to blitz Alaska with a media compaign in September and October in preparation for the arrival of our Permanent Fund Dividend checks, why can’t this one national bookstore chain get a clue?
[...] On the upside, Tara Marie, a romance readers, gets it and acts on what she gets on RTB. I was pleased and amazed. Her commenters predictably take it to the far more comfortable racial territory of Hispanics and Asians but stay civil. [...]
I never really thought about but yes it does seem racist if you look at it that way. To me it does seem strange to find in the AA section straight romance or mystery. I can say the AA section would be understandable if it held only urban fiction that is definitely a niche that has a lot of African American authors.
The saddest thing though, that I’ve commented elsewhere, is that I’ve met AA authors that will never write characters who has the same color as them because they believe AA characters don’t sell. And if the relatively small AA section in Borders or B&N is the cause for this belief then I say it needs to be changed.
Thanks so much for blogging about this subject, and the responses to it.
Let me just state for the record, my target audience is a romance reader, period.
Borders has had their AA section since 1971. At that time it was overwhelmingly literature: Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, etc, in deference to recognizing out of the civil rights movement that there were brilliant voices that needed to be heard.
Now however, that area is a hodgepodge section of all genres mixed in together. Generally speaking, the person looking for “The Ski Mask Way” by rapper 50 Cent isn’t looking for my IR romance, “Three Wishes.” And they probably aren’t looking for “A Raisin in the Sun” either. To say that black people are going to buy a book just because a black person wrote it is just, well, ignorant.
Black women who read romance shop in the romance section. In fact, that’s where we’ve always gone for romance books, before there were AA imprints. But if the survey question the bookstore asks is, “Do you prefer to have a special section for the books you like?” who among us wouldn’t answer yes? Heck, I’d like for historicals to be separated from contemporaries to be separated from paranormals.
I understand that I have to do my own promoting and marketing, even with the help I get from reviews adn awards from RT and other places. Kimber Chin, I never would have thought of contacting a personal finance blogger about discussing my romance books (I’d have thought they’d be discussing personal finance.) But I’d love to have their information. Please have them contact me!
Thanks again for the discussion all.
I think it’s a mistake to assume bookstores are either condescending or racist when they shelve AA books together. As a small press publisher I’ve learned a lot about the way wholesalers and booksellers do business: It’s all about branding, about types, genres, and easily identifiable niches. There’s soooo much competition for readers’ attention and time. Anything that makes it easier for readers to find a certain specific type of book promotes sales. So it’s my guess that bookstores are mostly concerned with providing their AA customers (including non-AA readers who want to read AA fiction) with a simple go-to place to find it. *And*, while yes, some readers are looking for a specific author, the marketing rationale is that “If you like this author’s book then maybe you’ll like books by these similar authors.” I seriously doubt AA romances are being shelved separately from other romances due to any form of racism. It’s always about what sells the most books the fastest.
I recently filled out one of those notorious Borders surveys and wonder about the accuracy of the AA book research. I never told Borders my race and don’t know if they sent copies to all Borders Reward memebers or if they tracked the fact that I make AA book purchases.
The survey was described as being general, but it seemed like 90-95% of the questions were about AA books. I think it would have been very tempting for anyone to give affirmative answers to questions like the ones about the convenience of and special cultural/ethnic acknowledgement in having separate shelves. There was even a question about whether respondents thought an AA children’s book section was a great idea… There were also questions about coupons, promotions, bookclubs and other issues in relation to AA books and AA readers.
I said I liked convenience, but always left comments emphasizing that I like consistency even more. I was really irritated to find Kimanis on an endcap facing a little visited corner of my store when everyone was looking for Kimanis in the AA and romance section.
Deborah Smith said, “*And*, while yes, some readers are looking for a specific author, the marketing rationale is that “If you like this author’s book then maybe you’ll like books by these similar authors.” I seriously doubt AA romances are being shelved separately from other romances due to any form of racism.”
See the problem comes from is if the authors only similiarity is their skin color, then that can be seen as racist hiding behind the excuse of marketability. It’s being called niche marketing but it’s not being based of the content of the story but the color of the author.
Even if you don’t see it as racist then see the problem is the authors and readers voices aren’t being heard. In the simpliest terms they are asking why can’t my book be with the general romance section or erotica, or paranormal, etc.?
Kimani Press is an imprint of Harlequin so why isn’t these books on the same shevles as a Blaze, Desire, American Romance, and all the other imprints and lines they own?
Okay, if you don’t see that as a problem then ask is the way AA authors are marketed(clumped in alphabetical order no thought to genre) helping or hindering sells?
The second definition of racism according to the American Heritage Dictionary is “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.” The definition of discrimination is “treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit”
So clumping a group of books together, in which the sole defining characteristic is the author’s color/or the imprint’s focus, can be argued as being racism. Especially when you consider other ethnic groups are not separated out in this manner in Borders or Waldenbooks. Where’s the Asian fiction section? Shouldn’t the Native American romances be in the Native American section? All the regencies in the British history section? Where’s the fiction with Maori protagonists?
Again there is an assumption that all black people are going to buy any black book because a black person wrote it, so why not put them all together. This is simply not the case, especially when it comes to genre fiction.
[...] Romancing the blog has a post covering the topic. Monica Jackson also blogs about it. Actually, this writer has been blogging about the subject for years, and I can certainly see why she feels she’s pounding her head bloody against a locked door. [...]
Ms. Smith, you’ve explained why I had a hard time understanding the complaints against an AA section, but finally I realized it’s not about marketability, it’s about right and wrong. Ms Glass uses following definition…The definition of discrimination is “treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit”.
African American authors are not given a CHOICE in stores that segregate, their work is held separate because of the color of their skin.
If we don’t tolerate it in restaurants and schools we shouldn’t in bookstores.
Thank you, Tara Marie.
Monica–It might have taken me a while, but really–I did finally get it.
You know, I was getting discouraged and Karen Scott predictably smacked me upside the head and pointed me to your post.
Maybe the banging of my head upside the concrete wall for frickin’ years was worth something more than a headache
.
I spoke to representatives of Borders, and they maintain that their customers like to have African-American fiction shelved separately, and that is why they do it.
I personally am uncomfortable with the idea of black authors like myself being shelved separately (I don’t think this is why all those people fighting for equality had in mind when they were attacked, beaten, and sometimes killed.) But the issue of shelving is a big one, and many authors have problems with it. I resent having my novels placed under the heading of “Street Lit,” and I also resent having my mainstream women’s fiction classified as “Romance.” I write romance, yes; but I also write mainstream women’s fiction, and they are two different things.
Anyway, I also can’t argue with Borders for giving their customers what they want. That’s why they’re in business. I have to wonder if that is why I’ve noticed more African-American customers in Borders than I do at Barnes & Noble (I have set up the majority of my book signings at Borders, who has a very strong presence here in the Chicago area).
Even though I prefer the shelving practices of Barnes & Noble (*all* the fiction is alphabetical by author, with certain newer titles set up on the “African-American fiction” display table), I have to promote where the people who are most likely to buy my books shop.
Bettye Griffin
http://www.bettyegriffin.com
http://www.chew-the-fat-with-Bettye.blogspot.com