Controversies in Black Literature Prove Book Sales Aren't Color-Blind

Young adult author Justine Larbalestier recently made some headlines by complaining loudly and publicly that her publishing house had placed a photo of a white girl on the cover of her novel, the heroine of which was black. The publishing house eventually acquiesced and replaced the cover image with one of a black girl.

One has to applaud Larbalestier's nerve at railing at the publishing behemoth, but her ire, while morally upright, was practically foolish, and the press indignation that followed was largely self-righteous and hypocritical.

Throughout American history, blacks have often hidden their flames behind white firescreens in order to make good livings. Black artists' album covers from the 1950s notoriously sported white girls to assuage the majority music-buying audience. An Los Angeles relative of mine had a black wife so fair that she was mistaken for white. Using her as a front, the pair bought property where blacks weren't allowed to buy. They prospered.

Justifying her crusade, Larbalestier said, "The notion that 'black books' don't sell is pervasive at every level of publishing. Yet I have found few examples of books with a person of color on the cover that have had the full weight of a publishing house behind them."

As a practicing marketing professional, I take the world as it is, not as I believe it should be. I acknowledge buyers' prejudices and preconceptions (especially those they don't acknowledge themselves) and work to subvert them. When the now-defunct publishing house Carroll & Graf published my novel several years ago, they placed an image of a bare-assed flirtatious black tart on the cover. This despite the fact that the book had one major black character among a pervasively white cast--and that character was male. I noted my objections to the publisher, who ignored them, seemingly convinced that basic marketing principles did not apply to the book trade.

I had grave professional misgivings about a principal black image of any kind on the cover, considering the audience I might attract, and this black image, while attractive, was particularly misleading. Would my book have sold better with a more representative and less black cover? I will never have the chance to find out.

Should I be fortunate enough to have another publisher accept a manuscript not aimed solely at a black audience, I will do violence before I let them put a solo black image on the cover. It will limit my sales. Period. The image will limit the marketing department's ambitions for the book, and no one wants to sink time and resources into a foreordained loser. In a perfect world, would such an image limit the book's saleability in the salesman's eyes? No. Does it? Yes.

We do not live in a perfect world. This is 21st-century America, where money and power rule, and as black Americans, we have history to deal with. According to a 2003 study by Dr. Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago and Dr. Sendhil Mullainathan, who was then a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, resumes with "black-sounding" names (e.g., Keisha, Tremayne) were 50 percent less likely to receive a callback than those with "white-sounding" names (Brad, Kristen).

In 2001, University of Pennsylvania researchers showed that those speaking "black english" or with a "black accent" were more likely to be told that an advertised rental unit was unavailable than those speaking "white english." And yes, it is safe to assume that white folks are less likely to pick up a book with a black person on the cover. These are the facts on the ground. Self-destructive utopianism won't cure it. Cash will.

I will save my crusades for when I have racked up sufficient sales to wield real clout, at which time I will plaster my covers with bona fide Nubian princes. Until then I will accept that, in the American marketplace of letters and ideas, black is as popular as it is on the Paris runway. Black authors need to prove we can sell books to mainstream audiences and earn on par with white writers. If it takes a "white" cover to do that, fine. Sacrificing on the altar of "the world is not as it should be" simply limits black opportunity and extends the status quo in which our books too often don't earn, and we continue to get the appropriate lack of deference and respect.

 

 

 

Comments

[BlackJAC]

06:03 PM on 01/30/2010

Define "white English," especially given the wide variety of accents and regional slang in the US alone.

[Lowell Thompson]

06:30 PM on 01/30/2010

BlackJAC,

Tell it!

http://buy­thecover.c­om

[BlackJAC]

10:12 PM on 01/30/2010

it's probably not even about race in that situation but rather socioecono­mic rung and consequent­ly potential behavior patterns. Jeff Foxworthy-­-a white guy, I might add--has an entire bit about how Southerner­s can be just as intelligen­t and educated and erudite as anyone else but the accent just makes you not want to let one of them perform brain surgery on you. Even in England there's the "Received Pronunciat­ion" accent of the upper classes and royalty, as opposed to gutter Cockney.

[Lowell Thompson]

03:02 AM on 01/30/2010

As a recovering adman, I've got to agree with your basic premise here - hell, I think I said something similar when I heard about the Justine Larbalesti­er book.

But, as an artivist, creative catalyst and game-chang­er, I disagree. It's up to real artists to always try to create the next new thing, while understand­ing the last old thing. The idea that what has been, has to always be is wrong. How long ago was it when we thought this nation would never elect a "black" President?

Besides, great covers, like great art, transcend race. Don't believe me?
Check out my "Buy The Cover" blog:

http://buy­thecover.c­om

[k1dork]

12:41 PM on 01/29/2010

Mr. Gaiter, do you think that the same applies to a black author having his picture on the back cover?

I'm black, and I'm fortunate to be having my novel published, and my picture appears on the back cover.

My novel is a sci/fi story, so the front cover is non-racial and sci/fi, but I've had friends say that my little picture being on the back cover could be problemati­c.

[angelacraft]

06:12 PM on 01/28/2010

Justine complained "loudly and publicly" about her cover *in July.* Not exactly recently. And she was only loud if by "loudly" you mean she acknowledg­ed the discrepanc­y between how her character was described in the text and presented on the cover that readers had asked her about. Justine didn't bring it up first - when she debuted the US cover on her blog she remained carefully neutral about the cover, more excited that it was going to be used on the cover of Bloomsbury­'s catalogue than anything else.

Now, the controvers­y you may be thinking of is the recent uproar over Jaclyn Dolamore's Magic Under Glass, which the author never complained about. Justine commented on it briefly because she's the other author that's had to deal with this situation publicly.

The recent controvers­ies haven't just been about wanting more people of color on the covers of books - though there are lots of people who would prefer that. At the very least what we are angry about is the blatant misreprese­ntation that whitewashi­ng is. Putting a naked black woman on the cover of your book is certainly puzzling it sounds like, but is nowhere near as egregious a move as changing the race of a character for marketing purposes. Don't think a book with a black person on the cover will sell? Fine. Illustrate the cover without using people - it's been done lots of times and is often quite striking, and avoids angering most people.