April 13, 2009
Good Worlds and Bad
Pure escapism and dystopian visions appeal to consumers unhappy with the here and now.
By Rose Fox — Publishers Weekly, 4/13/2009
As Barack Obama’s election puts a new spin on the national perception of race and racism, small speculative fiction presses are looking for non-white readers and authors. Two new publishing companies have the specific mission of reaching readers of color who are tired of being relegated to secondary roles—when they appear at all. Many science fiction fans know of two prominent black speculative fiction authors, Samuel Delany and the late Octavia Butler; few can name a third, and even authors of color are sometimes hesitant to write (or unable to sell) books with non-white protagonists. “We definitely want to show Asians and African-Americans in speculative fiction, because we don’t think there’s a large representation for the rest of the community,” says Diane Williams, senior editor of 22nd Century Press. “On Web sites like the Black SF Society and the Black Authors Showcase, a lot of people say they can’t find quality books with non-white protagonists in this field. African-Americans don’t seem to know where to find black SF authors, and no one else knows they’re out there, either.”
Mikki Kendall, publisher of fledgling press Verb Noire, sees a similar need. “People of color like to escape from reality, too,” she says. “It’s not much of an escape if the images of the future or alternate realities make it clear that they still are not quite good enough to be a hero, a heroine or even a damsel in distress. What fun is it to read about princesses if the only person that resembles you in the story is the scullery maid?” Kendall and co-founder Jamie Nesbitt Golden decided to launch Verb Noire in February, after numerous blogs erupted in a heated conversation about race and racism in speculative fiction. An informal online drive for donations to cover the press’s initial operating costs raised over $7,700 from about 250 individual donors in less than a month, and their first book is due in May.
Writers of all backgrounds have begun veering away from Tolkien-inspired European fantasy settings and drawing on mythology and folklore from other parts of the world, particularly Asia. Cyberpunk authors first began exploring Asian settings in the 1980s, and the rest of SF is starting to catch on. “Liz Williams’s Inspector Chen series is a near-future, Far Eastern, urban fantasy setting with Chinese characters, and is based on Chinese and Buddhist cosmologies,” notes Jeremy Lassen, editor-in-chief of Night Shade. “John Courtenay Grimwood’s novel 9tail Fox features a Chinese-American police detective in a future San Francisco, and the story and title play around with Chinese folk tales and myths. Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is a forthcoming SF novel set in Thailand, and features POV characters of Chinese, Thai and Malaysian descents. This is the type of narrative I’m interested in, books that present a non-homogeneous view of the future.”
Verb Noire explicitly welcomes submissions from white writers, focusing on the manuscript’s content rather than the author’s background. Lassen does the same at Night Shade, with caution. “I’m very aware of the problems of appropriation of non-white culture by white writers,” he says. “I’m very conscious of the fact that I have two Brits and an American writing about Far East Asian cultures and characters. Particularly in SF, exotification of ‘the Other’ has been and continues to be a problem, and genre fiction only amplifies the ugliness of appropriation.”
Expanding the genre to include non-white and non-Western narratives may well benefit readers of all backgrounds by kicking speculative fiction out of its whitewashed ruts. “What I have seen as both a publisher and a reader is a great deal of the same content being recycled, depending upon what is selling at the time,” says Bryan T. Marshall, the publisher of Mermaid Publishing. “If you look at the Locus bestseller lists you’ll see vampires, zombies and wizards everywhere. What is missing is a new concept.” Lassen says much the same about science fiction: “I think that simplistic, white or white/passing views of the future were anachronistic back in the ’80s and they are anachronistic today.” Kendall is more acerbic: “Do we really believe that only white heterosexuals with no physical or mental impairments are worthwhile representations of our future?”
These publishers may be inspired by Overlook Press’s success with translated speculative fiction, which now makes up about 10% of its list and is marketed to mainstream readers without any emphasis on its origins. “We didn’t acquire Max Frei’s wonderful contemporary epic The Stranger because it was foreign literature or because it came from Russia,” says publisher Peter Mayer. “It’s just a marvelous book that has sold everywhere. I don’t think there is a specific market that drives English-speaking readers to foreign literature in translation; it is simply that the best readers read books regardless of their provenance. There is not a specific Marcel Proust readership or a Franz Kafka readership, for example. Readers don’t go into bookstores looking for translations. They just look for books they may want to read.”
Publishers Weekly
April 2, 2009
Title: BookExpo America (BEA)
Location: Jacob K. Javits Center, New York City
Click here for more information
Description: Event for the North American publishing industry. Meet 500+ authors and discover hundreds of new titles on a Show floor bristling with 1,500 exhibitors and featuring the NEW Downtown Stage and Uptown Stage and the ever popular BEA Autographing Area. Learn the trends during 60+ focused sessions at the NEW “Big Ideas at BEA” Conference and don’t miss this year’s Global Market Forum: Books & Publishing in the Arab World. Experience the buzz of the book business at dynamic Special Events (buy your Special Events Tickets now).
Start Date: 2009-05-28
End Date: 2009-05-31
April 2, 2009
By Calvin Reid — Publishers Weekly, 3/31/2009 8:04:00 AM
The current downturn in the economy is creating problems for the African-American Book Publishing Professionals Conference, an annual event attracting a wide variety of black authors, self-publishers, booksellers and other book professionals, held each year at BookExpo America. This year’s event is scheduled for May 28 and offers an afternoon slate of events that include a panel on African-American books and social networking and another on comics and graphic novels for the African-American market.
Publishers Weekly
January 2, 2009
Publishers are paying attention to African-American teens
by Felicia Pride and Calvin Reid — Publishers Weekly, 12/8/2008
Talk to a Young Adults editor or take a stroll through that section at your local bookstore and it’s evident that there’s a growing number of books aimed at the young adult market—and those numbers include more titles geared specifically to African-American teens. As publishers are addressing the lack of material aimed at this market—many African-American teens have turned to popular adult authors because of this dearth—there has clearly been some improvement.
These days publishers are offering black teens books that deal with serious issues, such as drug addiction and pregnancy, as well as pure entertainment; they’re looking to introduce new authors and experiment with graphic novels and even historical fiction for teens, all while looking for creative ways to make sure parents, teachers and librarians—as well as the kids themselves—know what’s on their lists specifically for black teens.
Publishers Weekly talked with a number of editors and category buyers as well as an agent specializing in titles for African-American teens in order to get a better view of the past, present and future of titles aimed at black teenagers.
Publishers Weekly
October 10, 2008
The New E- in Erotica
Digital delivery helps boost the readership and sales.
by Sarah J. Robbins — Publishers Weekly, 6/23/2008
Sex sells—and always has—so why, in the realm of erotica, has sex sold surprisingly more during the past few years? Is it the ho-hum economy? The war on terror? It’s the Internet, stupid: empowering readers, writers and publishers of erotica, and offering instant access to a lively, diverse and ever-growing community. Only in the past few years have major romance publishers taken notice.
The consumers were far ahead of me,” says Kate Duffy, editorial director at Kensington, which launched its erotica imprint, Aphrodisia, in 2006. “For years I thought of e-publishing as something people did because they couldn’t publish with us. But then we started seeing all of these stellar talents that had first been e-published. It wasn’t that the books were in any way inferior—that was my prejudice. It was a different way of accessing consumers, and it would behoove me to investigate.”
One e-publisher who offers a variety of romance says the racier the story, the better the sales: “It can be difficult to describe the line between regular romance and erotica—it’s often a tone or a feeling, or something specific that makes it more raw,” says Rhonda Peters, editor-in-chief of the Wild Rose Press, which publishes 14 different genres of romance in all lengths and in both electronic and print formats. “But whenever we have a new erotica release, it’s 10 times more successful than anything else we put out.”
“The be-all and end-all” of online erotica, says Peters, is Ellora’s Cave. EC publisher Raelene Gorlinsky says the company saw a 20% growth in e-book sales from 2006 to 2007, the year Kensington and other romance publishing heavyweights like Avon and Harlequin started new erotica imprints. Says Gorlinsky: “Once it was in front of their faces on bookstore shelves, people said, oh! I’ll try this.” A large percentage of the original readership is still buying online—for immediacy, convenience and anonymity.
July 20, 2008
Here are the winners from 2007 African American Literary Awards Show
FICTION
- Eric Jerome Dickey – Sleeping With Strangers
- Clarence Nero – Three Sides To Every Story
- Kimberla Lawson Roby – Love And Lies
- LaTonya Williams – Missed Opportunities
MYSTERY
- Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes – Casanegra: A Tennysen Hardwick Novel
- Tananarive Due & Others – Whispers In The Night: DarkDreams
- Stephen L. White – New England White
- Walter Mosley – Fear Of The Dark
- David Riveria – The Street Sweeper: See No Evil
ROMANCE
- Kendra Norman-Bellamy – In Green Pastures
- Rochelle Alers – Stranger In My Arms
- Brenda Jackson – Risky Pleasures
- Brenda Jackson – Beyond Temptation
- Kathy Marsh – The Aura Of Love
CHRISTIAN FICTION
- Beverly T. Gooden – Confessions Of A Church Girl
- Jamie Karris – Post Script
- Jacquelin Thomas – Redemption
- Victoria Christopher Murray – The Ex Files
URBAN FICITION
- Shannon Holmes – Dirty Games
- Tracy Brown – White Lines
- Wahida Clark – Thug Matrimony
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
- Sidney Poitier – The Measure of A Man
- Victoria Rowell – The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir
- Robin Givens – Grace Will Lead Me Home
- Eddie Levert, Gerald Levert & Lyah Beth Leflore – I Got Your Back
- Rain Pryor – Jokes My Father Never Taught Me:Life, Love & Loss with Richard Pryor
NON-FICTION
- Jeff Henderson – Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras
- Tavis Smiley – What I Know For Sure: My story of growing up in America
- Gil Robertson – Not In My Family: Aids In The African American Community
- Barack Obama – The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream (tie)
- Angela Bassett & Courtney B. Vance – Friends: A Love Story (tie)
POETRY
- Michael J. Burt – Love Changes
- Nikki Giovanni – Acolytes
- DuEwa M. Fraizer – Check The Rhyme: An Anthology Of Female Poets & Emcees
- Marc Lacy – Rock & Fire: Love Poetry From The Core
- Barbara Culp – White Smoke Rhymes
MAGAZINES – LITERARY
- Booking Matters
- Black Issues Book Review
- Disilgold Literary Magazine
- Mosaic Magazine
- Quarterly Black Review
SCIENCE FICTION
- L.A. Banks – The Wicked: A Vampire Huntress Legend
- Brandon Massey – Vicious
- L.A. Banks – The Forsaken
- Brandon Massey – Within The Shadows
HISTORICAL FICTION
- Kim Robinson – The Roux In The Gumbo
- Lalita Tademy – Red River
- N. Quamere Cincere – We Ain’t No Niggas
MAGAZINES – NON-LITERARY
- Sister 2 Sister
- Vibe Vixen
- Black Enterprise
- The Network Journal
- Ebony
SELF – HELP
- Tyeese Gaines- Reid – The Get A Life Campaign
- Alex Ellis – Restoring The Male Image: A look from the inside out (tie)
- Denzel Washington – A Hand To Guide Me
- Russell Simmons – Do You: 12 laws to access the power in you to achieve happiness and success
- TD Jakes – Reposition Yourself: Living Your Life Without Limits (tie)
COOKBOOKS
- G. Garvin – Turn Up The Heat With G. Garvin
- Roniece Weaver – The Family Style Food Diabetes Cookbook
- Fabiola Demp Gaines & Roniece Weaver – Healthy Soul Food Cooking
- Deliah Winder – Deliah’s Everyday Soul
- Monique – Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted
BREAKOUT AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
- William Frederick Cooper – there’s Always A Reason
- Miasha – Mommyh’s Angel
- Dana Rondel – A Flower Has Its Own Song
- Venesha – Mistress Me
- Eisa Nefertari Ulen – Crystelle Mourning: A Novel
SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
- Dornell M. Griffin & Kodzina D. Griffin – A Divine Addiciton
- Dana Rondel – A Flower Has Its Own Song
- Beverly T. Gooden- Confessions Of A Church Girl
- Venesha – Mistress Me
INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR
- KNB Publications
- Triple Crown Publiciations
- Melodrama Publishing
- RJ Publications
CHILDREN’S BOOK
- Stephanie Perry-Moore – Perfect Joy (Carmen Brown)
- Brittney Holmes – Living Consequences
- Coe Booth – Tyrell
- Jacquelin Thomas – Simply Divine
PLAYWRIGHT OF THE YEAR
- David E. Talbert – Love In The Nick Of Time
- Shelly Garrett – What Kind Of Love Is This?
- JéCaryous Johnson & Gary Guirdy – (I;m Ready Productions) – Whatever She Wants
- JéCaryous Johnson & Gary Guirdy – (I;m Ready Productions) – Men, Money & Gold Diggers
PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE YEAR
- Penguin Putnam/Dutton
- Harper Collins/Amistad
- Harlem Moon (Random House)
- Kimani Press
- St. Martin’s Press
AUTHOR OF THE YEAR – MALE
- Eric Jerome Dickey – Sleeping With Strangers
- Carl Weber – The First Lady
- Shannon Holmes – Dirty Games
- Omar Tyree – What They Want
- Travis Hunter – Something To Die For
AUTHOR OF THE YEAR – FEMALE
- Victoria Christopher Murray – The Ex Files
- Kimberla Lawson Roby – Love And Lies
- Connie Briscoe/Lolita Files/Anita Bunkley – You Only Get Better/Three For The Road/This Time Around
- Francis Ray – Irresistible You
- Mary B. Morrison – When Somebody Loves You Back
BOOK CLUB OF THE YEAR
- Black Expressions Book Club
- G.A.A.L Bookclub of Atlanta
- G.U.R.U. Bookclub
- OSSA Bookclub
- Rawsistaz Literary Group
TELEVISION WRITER OF THE YEAR
- Ali LeRoi – Everybody Hates Chris
- Mara Brock Ali – The Game
- Stacey Littlejohn – All Of Us
- Tyler Perry – House Of Payne
EROTICA
- Trista Russell – Chocolate Covered Forbidden Fruit
- Zane – Carmel Flava: The Eroticanor.com Anthology
- Noire – Thong On Fire: An Urban Erotic Tale
- J. Tremble – Secrets Of A Housewife
- Joylynn M. Jossell – Wet
COMEDY/HUMOR
- Mother Love with Tonya Bolden – Half The Mother, Twice The Love
- Nina Foxx – No Girl Needs A Husband Seven Days A Week
- Pat G’orge Walker – Crusin’ On Desperation
COMIC STRIP
- Keith Knight – The K Chronicles
- Aaron McGruder – The Boondocks
- Jerry Craft – Mama’s Boyz
