tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post1716278461053458775..comments2024-03-26T01:10:13.720+00:00Comments on Teach Me Tonight: RWA, RITAs and RaceE. M. Selingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426524354823232002noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-47072161757447520652018-04-05T20:04:05.216+01:002018-04-05T20:04:05.216+01:00Responding specifically to Harlequin's stateme...Responding specifically to Harlequin's statement that "Lack of diverse stories and diverse authors is a real issue in publishing," <a href="https://twitter.com/suleikhasnyder/status/981959170168623106" rel="nofollow">Suleika Snyder argues that</a>:<br /><br />there's not a lack of diverse authors or diverse stories. It's a lack of <i>seeing what exists in front of you</i>. WE are not what's lacking. How are we going to put faith in your ability to do better when an incredibly short statement misses the point?Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-85038239392268790832018-04-05T19:59:50.979+01:002018-04-05T19:59:50.979+01:00Jamie Wesley expresses scepticism about that respo...<a href="https://twitter.com/Jamie_Wesley/status/981955544499007488" rel="nofollow">Jamie Wesley expresses scepticism about that response</a> because:<br /><br />As Courtney Milan tweeted a few days ago, Harlequin held conference calls with their mostly white authors and said they heard this diversity thing was the newest trend and why don’t these authors start doing that. What Courtney didn’t say was there was an author of color on the call who tried to metaphorically raise her hand and point out the bullshit. She was quickly silenced. When I first heard about this, my immediate thought was Harlequin isn’t at all serious about diversity. If they were, they would have called up the authors of color who write for their non-Kimani lines and apologized for never once encouraging them to write about people who look like them or being curious enough to ask why they never tried to do so. They never tried because all they had to do was look at Harlequin’s history. With a few exceptions, they have never been interested in publishing stories about minorities. These authors knew this, so they did what they had to do get published. Maybe the authors would have been interested. Maybe they wouldn’t have. But you should at least ask the question. But you didn’t. Nor did you hit up your Kimani authors. Because you don’t actually give a damn about diversity.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-85601343587375919302018-04-05T19:53:02.615+01:002018-04-05T19:53:02.615+01:00At 10:12pm on 4 April @HarlequinBooks responded br...At 10:12pm on 4 April <a href="https://twitter.com/HarlequinBooks/status/981640616839909377" rel="nofollow">@HarlequinBooks responded briefly on Twitter</a>:<br /><br />We wanted to let you know that we value the discussion about diversity in publishing that is taking place here and want to share our response.<br /><br />Lack of diverse stories and diverse authors is a real issue in publishing; one that we are working to address.<br /><br />We are broadening our publishing to include more diverse content and voices, and we are excited about our upcoming books.<br /><br />In the meantime, we continue to be open to feedback from our authors and readers.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-83777945274935290132018-04-05T18:19:27.358+01:002018-04-05T18:19:27.358+01:00Another story about books in the same series, by t...Another story about books in the same series, by the same author, getting a very different reception, presumably due to the cover model, this time <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanaAlbertson/status/981237706272358402" rel="nofollow">by Alana Albertson</a>:<br /><br />A tale of two books! <br /><br />1. I am a biracial Mexican-American author. @courtneymilan thank you for giving me the courage to post this<br /><br />2. Book #1 in this series, Invincible, featuring a white male and a Mexican American female on the cover, made $17,000 and has received two bookbubs. It has 391 reviews and 4.2 stars out of 5 star average.<br /><br />3. Book #2 in this series, Invaluable, featuring an African American male and a white female on the cover, has made only $1300 dollars. It only received an international only bookbub. It has 331 reviews and 4.4 stars out 5 average.<br /><br />4. I did the exact same marketing for both books. Invaluable is by far the better book.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-78093517487168655992018-04-05T18:07:28.988+01:002018-04-05T18:07:28.988+01:00Another story from Kianna Alexander:
Back in 2011...Another story <a href="https://twitter.com/KiannaWrites/status/981935666933137409" rel="nofollow">from Kianna Alexander</a>:<br /><br />Back in 2011, I was at a chapter meeting for my local (very Caucasian) RWA chapter. Editor from a large NY house was there, excitedly talking about a relaunch of a line. <br /><br />Now mind you I am one of maybe three Black faces in a room of like 75 to 100. Anyway, she is going on and on about how they're so geeked to be acquiring new voices across subgenres. I'm like, time to shoot my shot then. So I raise my hand. I was toward the back so it took her a minute to see me. When she called on me I stood. "So, is (publisher redacted) open to African American historical romance?<br /><br />Y'all. Her face. <br /><br />It. Went. TOTALLY. BLANK.<br /><br />I mean, vacant eyes, thousand-yard stare blank. Blank like the screen when the computer crashes. It occurred to me in those long, silent seconds that this woman had NEVER CONSIDERED such stories existed/could be written.<br /><br />Finally, she rebooted. A very subtle, professional smile covers over her face and she opens her mouth, I'm waiting for something profound. After all, it's been like two minutes since I asked my question. She says, in a very flat tone, "I suppose we could."Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-64343279667256467632018-04-04T23:24:13.380+01:002018-04-04T23:24:13.380+01:00And on the topic of readers and their behaviours, ...And on the topic of readers and their behaviours, <a href="https://twitter.com/AlyssaColeLit/status/981580079070433280" rel="nofollow">here's Alyssa Cole on</a><br /><br />Life as a Black historical romance author: just got a message saying "I was unable to suspend my disbelief about how your characters met" and asking me to take time to explain my historical research. I wonder if this person emails Regency authors and says they were unable to suspend their disbelief about a Duke marrying a serving girl, or a wallflower who shot him. Asking me to use my valuable time to show "show my work" because my heroine is Black (look, you know they wouldn't have cared if she was white) is really something, especially when I provided a bibliography and Author's Note.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-86597238984715110712018-04-04T23:13:36.561+01:002018-04-04T23:13:36.561+01:00Here's something about readers and coverart, b...Here's something about readers and coverart, by USA Today Bestselling author Naima Simone, regarding her two most recent releases:<br /><br />The first book, <i>Scoring with the Wrong Twin</i>, had released in January, and the second, <i>Scoring Off the Field</i>, in early March [...] In the two months since book 1 had released, I’d sold 561 copies. In the nearly two weeks since book 2 had released, I’d sold 3,052 copies. Both books had received the same advertising budget, the same number of ads on the same platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Instagram, the same promotional push. [...] There was really one main difference between the promotional and marketing package of the books…<br /><br />The first book had an African-American hero on it, and the second book cover had a white hero. (<a href="http://bookendsliterary.com/2018/04/04/bestselling-author-naima-simone-talks-sales-in-the-diverse-books-movement/" rel="nofollow">Bookends Literary Agency</a>)<br /><br />She concedes that there may be other factors at work related to the particular storylines, and a commentator noted that:<br /><br />"There are some other statements I’ve heard that I also think about: The second book in a series always does better, and then helps sell the first book. Finally, the color red is hotter than blue and then attracts more. [The cover with the African-American hero was blue, the other cover was red]<br /><br />Still, back to those numbers, and such a discrepancy." (<a href="http://bookendsliterary.com/2018/04/04/bestselling-author-naima-simone-talks-sales-in-the-diverse-books-movement/#comment-65720" rel="nofollow">Louisa Bacio</a>)<br /><br />It is an extremely large discrepancy. And so Simone concluded that while there might be some contributory reasons for it which weren't about the race of the cover models, they<br /><br />"still couldn’t account for the fact that book 1 only sold 1/6 of the sales of book 2.<br /><br />Finally, I had to look at the most obvious—and according to Occam’s razor—probably the most likely explanation. Book 1 didn’t sell as well because of the black man on the cover."Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-87771860925076855842018-04-04T01:12:03.520+01:002018-04-04T01:12:03.520+01:00What this week has also shown (and again, this has...What this week has also shown (and again, this has also been evident in the past) is that there's also a lot of genuine supportiveness among authors and authors who've been hurt/treated badly who are nonetheless willing to put in a lot of time and effort to change things for the better.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-49859771616667781392018-04-04T00:54:55.752+01:002018-04-04T00:54:55.752+01:00My impression as an outsider who has been reading ...My impression as an outsider who has been reading blog posts, tweets etc about romance publishing for years now, is that the culture in romance publishing can be quite two-faced because on the one hand there's pressure for everyone to be "nice" (along the lines of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all") but although that can sometimes be a way of trying to keep relationships positive and mutually supportive, it can also suppress discussion of things which need to be addressed. And as this week's discussions show, there's a lot which needs to be addressed.<br /><br />Leaving a table without saying anything is the kind of passive-aggressive plausibly-deniable behaviour which fits into that superficially "nice" context.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-53403441679339796412018-04-04T00:25:35.576+01:002018-04-04T00:25:35.576+01:00I'm not surprised at many of these stories, be...I'm not surprised at many of these stories, because I have experienced on occasion some similar ones, but leave the table because a black woman sits there? That is sick, and scary.Maria in Brookingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988138373057596966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-74462746289554384272018-04-04T00:06:47.304+01:002018-04-04T00:06:47.304+01:00Another, this time from Laura Jardine/Jackie Lau:
...Another, this time <a href="https://twitter.com/JackieLauBooks/status/981298338405367809" rel="nofollow">from Laura Jardine/Jackie Lau</a>:<br /><br />My publisher canceled my series before the only book with a POC hero or heroine. tbh, by that point, I wasn't upset. I was kind of glad it was over, even though I'd already written the book. During my final phone call with my editor, who had always been supportive, I told her about my plans to start a new pen name and write romantic comedies with Chinese-Canadian characters. First, she told me not to use a Chinese surname. Second, she wasn't exactly enthusiastic about my plan to write Chinese characters and said something like, "If the characters just happen to be Chinese, but they’re still identifiable/relatable, that’s okay.” As if...most Chinese people are unrelatable freaks and white people can't relate to their issues? IDK. I was too shocked to reply. I'm sure she didn't *mean* to be insulting, but...umm...yeah. This was the week @TheRippedBodice's diversity report came out last year, btw. That report cemented my decision to self-publish. [...] I'd spent years submitting to publishers...and occasionally being published. But I felt like there was no place for me and what I wanted to write, and it was just too discouraging to keep at it.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-47951034974515445612018-04-03T22:26:47.521+01:002018-04-03T22:26:47.521+01:00And this comment from Marjorie Liu:
I loved writi...And this <a href="https://twitter.com/marjoriemliu/status/980943052427669505" rel="nofollow">comment from Marjorie Liu</a>:<br /><br />I loved writing romance, but it's no accident that's where I was asked to write under a "white" name; asked to make POC characters white; or where I first heard a POC author referred to as "ethnically tainted".Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-73340611049127810322018-04-03T21:16:37.357+01:002018-04-03T21:16:37.357+01:00There are so many more threads I could add, but he...There are so many more threads I could add, but here's a few more egregious comments/examples of how publishing as an industry does things wrong in this area:<br /><br />"In 2015, the editorial director of Pocket Books announced at RWA’s national conference that they did not acquire books by black or Latina authors." (<a href="https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/980978405310017536" rel="nofollow">Courtney Milan</a>)<br /><br />Some years before, as <a href="https://twitter.com/BarbFerrer/status/981250551596724224" rel="nofollow">Barbara Ferrer recounts</a>:<br /><br />that same ED acquired my first (RITA-winning) book and did so specifically <i>because</i> I was Latina. Of course, there were also some instances during the publication process that also makes this statement not at all surprising. Such as wanting to title ADIÓS "Light My Fuego." (No lie—I think there's still a cached Amazon page with that title.) When I protested—vehemently—as to why that was an awful title, I was labeled "problematic." Why did they want such a dreadful title, you ask? Because they specifically wanted a title with a Spanish word in it. As if the book couldn't stand on its own otherwise. Then there was the part where they <i>insisted</i> I take a "more Latina-sounding name." (Yes, those exact words were used.) As if Barbara Ferrer wasn't Latina enough. So I used my middle name, which led to its own issues years later. But my <i>favorite</i> part was when I received my author copies of the book & learned that all of my meticulously chosen Spanish colloquialisms had been replaced—post-galleys & proofs—with high school textbook Spanish phrases. When I called my agent & editor (the same ED as mentioned in the RT) absolutely devastated, my editor cavalierly blew it off with a "What does it really matter? It's still Spanish, isn't it?"<br /><br />Barbara Ferrer's <i>Adiós to My Old Life</i> was published by MTV Books (an imprint of Pocket) in 2006. The author's name <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Adios-Old-Life-Caridad-Ferrer/dp/1416524738#reader_1416524738" rel="nofollow">on the cover</a> is given as Caridad Ferrer.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.com