Talkin' About Black Books

Over the last 10 years, African-American publishing has seen its longest period of sustained growth ever. Independent presses and many corporate divisions, including six imprints specifically dedicated to black books—Amistad, Dafina, Harlem Moon, OneWorld/Striver's Row, Walk Worthy and the children's imprint Jump at the Sun—are publishing black authors across the spectrum, in every adult fiction and nonfiction genre, as well as in the children's market.

But while African-American incomes have been rising, the amount spent on books has been decreasing, along with book sales across the board. And at the top of the market, relatively few brand-name black authors are repeatedly hitting the national bestseller lists.

To consider the challenges that remain for African-American book publishing, Publishers Weekly invited prominent publishing professionals to a roundtable discussion (which Barnes & Noble and Borders declined to attend). The following discussion brings together the highlights of the session.

The Self-Publishing Phenomenon

PW: Looking at the market for black books as a whole, where do you see new growth coming from, at a time when book sales are generally flat?

Manie Barron: I think we're beginning to see somewhat of a change in terms of the readership, as a direct result of self-publishing. Self-publishing has leveled the playing field for some writers by letting them circumvent the traditional publishing mechanism. These are the type of books that traditionally were rejected by editors because they weren't grammatically correct or their stories were more street-oriented and raw. Now with technology as it is, people can publish their own books, and they are drawing a new type of readership.

Monique Patterson: I definitely think that self-publishing has changed the way we have to look at books. Most of the time publishers are about a year behind the market, discovering these books after they become major underground bestsellers and they've sold 60,000 copies. But with successes like Zane and Michael Baisden, publishers have realized that they have to pay attention.

Wade Hudson: Manie was talking about developing a new readership and I think that that has occurred for a number of reasons. There certainly is a grassroots kind of movement out there, pushed by groups like sororities, fraternities, organizations that are aggressively trying to get books in the hands of people. As far as the children's book industry goes, small, independent publishers like Just Us Books are really getting into the heart of the community to promote our books. It requires going to conferences and festivals and being seen, not only as a publishing company, but as a part of the community with an interest in the community.

Denise Stinson: I think self-publishing has had a tremendous effect on publishing as a whole, though maybe the impact on African-American publishing is more evident. It seems like African-Americans have done a lot of self-publishing because their books were outside the box and the publishing industry is very much like lemmings. Publishers kind of follow whatever is working at that moment. If they see something that they don't understand, they don't publish it.

Emma Rodgers: You have to give readers what they want. When we first started, there was a time when we did not carry books by Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines. People would get in the door and ask us if we had it, and I would say no, and they'd make a U-turn. I hate that. You've got to give people what they want. Now those people read Toni Morrison too. But it's our knowledge bag that limits what we give to our customers. Now, you know I'm the self-publishing queen. I love to sell books by the self-published people. They give us a leading edge.

Dawn Davis: I think it actually helps [an editor at a major house to acquire these books] when the authors have already gotten such great distribution on their own. Remember it's not so much that the editors get it or don't get it, as whether their sales force get it and know how to distribute the book. So if you can go in with a self-published book and say this little guy on his own has already sold 30,000 copies, then they feel that there's something that we, a big publisher, can bring to the table. The other thing I think is so exciting is that [black readers] are no longer pigeonholed. It's not like we either read a street-published novel or we read Toni Morrison. We can read both. So when we go to our sales force, they take cues from us about what kind of book it is, and they know that black people read everything.

Kelly Martin: Absolutely. Self-published authors are forcing my company to look beyond the book. Self-publishers are actually entrepreneurs. They are not just writers. They're trying to develop themselves as a brand. I think Zane is the precedent-setting person for this with her self-published erotic fiction. When we're thinking of self-published books, the trend nowadays is almost automatically erotic fiction. I think all of our houses have jumped on the bandwagon. But there is that line, whether some of these books are too raw or whether they are so focused on eroticism that you lose a strong plot line.

PW: Has self-publishing led somewhat to the mainstreaming of erotic literature?

Martin: I totally think so. Even with some of the manuscripts that aren't self-published, we'll keep in a lot of the sex scenes.

Barron: But black erotica was certainly around before Zane. I think we're actually seeing more erotica coming out of the mainstream houses than out of the self-publishers. In terms of the self-publishers it's mostly boy-driven street-lit. It's much more gangsta-lit. And that includes a female-driven book like sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever. To me that's the most exciting thing going on. These are the first books since Donald Goines's books to grab black men. Of course because mainstream publishing is proportionately more female than male, these books may not be aesthetically pleasing for some, whether it's because of their language or the message. These books are like an extension of the 1970s blaxploitation films. Those films were accused of exploitation, but the critics were forgetting the fact that the films were successful, people were getting paid. But they thought, "we have to uplift the race. I don't think that book is good for the people. We're looking out for you." [Laughter]

PW: These street lit books aren't nourishing.

Barron: Exactly, because the race must be uplifted. Meanwhile, so many black books coming out now are not making money. But you've got these street-lit books, which are attracting a lot of black men readers, making a hell of a lot of money. If you compare self-published books from street book vendors in New York—where a lot of books are sold in the black market—to what is coming from the major publishers, major publishers are losing out. It's the self-publishers that are hitting that street-lit audience. This is the first time we're seeing black men with books in their hands and books in their pockets.

Patterson: We get so wrapped up in thinking that there's only one kind of black person. There's the buppie, the black urban professional, so we have a lot of these buppie-type books. But with street life fiction you have this whole audience that was being overlooked. And now that there are these books they're just buying up everything. It's astonishing what these books are selling. Numbers like 50,000 copies and up.

Davis: We have a book by Darren Coleman [Before I Go] that came in and he had self-distributed 30,000 copies. Totally on his own.

PW: How do you validate those numbers?

Patterson: It's hard.

Rodgers: This is what our market wants. Zane has crossed all markets, no matter what your ethnic group or age group or whatever. She is a strong seller.

PW: As a religious publisher, Denise, how does this affect you?

Stinson: Obviously, at Walk Worthy Press, I'm not really too much into the erotica. [laughter]. But believe it or not, I have seen some Christian-type street life books.

Rodgers: Christian-inspired fiction is also being missed. We are continuing to sell Church Folk by Michele Andrea Bowen, and her Second Sunday, both from Denise—let's not miss out on a great market in Christian fiction. Church Folk, which came out in the summer of 2002, is still on our bestseller list. We've sold that book so much this year, partly because of reading groups at churches. That's a huge market right there, and I think the publishers are missing an area where they could generate a lot of sales.

Hudson: That's an excellent point because that's certainly true in the children's market. We get tons of requests from parents who want Christian-inspired books for their children.

Rodgers: We've done real well with books by Stephanie Perry Moore. Those books are for teenagers. They continue to be strong sellers. There are five in the series and parents will come in looking for them.

Black Books and Bestseller Lists

PW: There's a perception that black books need a non-black audience to make a book a bestseller. Do you agree?

Stinson: A bestseller doesn't necessarily mean the same thing for an African-American book. When I was agenting, I had a client who had sold over 700,000 copies of a book that had never been on the New York Times bestseller list. But people in publishing judge the book by whether or not it appears on a particular list. African-American books sell a little bit slower and a little bit longer than other books. The New York Times bestseller list is compiled based on volume and velocity. And our books don't sell like that.

PW: How do you deal with these expectations, given that they affect how black books are perceived, as well as the level of the author's advance, including bestseller bonuses?

Davis: What we've tried to do at Amistad is re-educate or talk with our sales team and to say just what Denise is saying. You may not see your sell-through in the first three to four months. It may take us nine months to get there, but we're going to get there. Part of our responsibility in marketing is to keep in conversation with the stores, particularly the African-American stores who are more open to keeping books longer because they know their market is going to come in. They'll buy the hardcover, even if it came out six months ago. Yes, everyone is looking for a New York Times or PW or Barnes & Noble bestseller, but there are other ways of measuring success.

PW: But you're working in a corporate framework where books are publicized for the first couple of months and they move in and out of many stories on a three-month basis—especially at the chains. How do you support black books for nine months, when the system is not set up that way?

Stinson: You're right, in corporate publishing everything is set up to go in these 90-day cycles. After 90 days everyone is kind of moving to something else. That's one of the advantages of being an independent or an imprint like Walk Worthy. We don't have to stop at three months. Emma will tell you that I call her and I say, "what's selling in your store? What's moving?" You can market a book as long as you want, as long as the book is moving, or as long as you have the time to find different ways to market the book.

Hudson: You're 100% right. Almost all of our backlist books continue to sell very well. Books that we printed 10 years ago, still continue to find an audience and we really have to continue to promote our backlist. We can't depend on frontlist books because it takes a period of time to get those books to kick in, in terms of sales.

Davis: The Essence bestseller list is an indicator of success for us. It's something that we use internally to re-energize our marketing team, our sales force, to say, we're hitting a key market here. Barnes & Noble and the other big chains know black books move a little slower, and they're working with us to try to keep them in the front of the store.

Patterson: I think that there's this perception that there are not enough black people to buy a book to put it on the bestseller list, which means the New York Times bestseller list. I find it very interesting that when it comes to a book by a non-black author, no one is wondering whether you need black people to go out and buy this book.

Stinson: And these non-black authors are oftentimes on the bestseller list because black people are buying their books.

Patterson: I've had this conversation with my authors. They think the only way they're going to make the bestseller list is if they get a crossover white audience. But I'm not sure even Terry McMillan has a 50-50 white audience and black audience. Yes, there are people who came to Waiting to Exhale because it was this major movie. But is the same number of white people going back and reading her backlist and coming to each and every new book? I don't believe so. I think there are enough black book-buying people out there to put black books on lists. Eric Jerome Dickey is a very good example of that.

Stinson: You know, I think there's a danger in trying to market a book as a crossover book. You'll fall through the cracks. No one will know who this book is for. I think you have to identify your market and go after it.

Barron: There's another reason why few black books make the New York Times list. We're just starting to lean towards real empirical data with BookScan. Until BookScan, it was about polling these mysterious stores that report to the Times. There may be three black stores that are part of this mystery group, and those three stores are not going to get a black book on the Times list. The closest thing we have is Essence, but that is only available to Essence readers.

Rodgers: Do you need another audience to help a black book make the New York Times bestseller list? As a bookseller, I'm going to say, yes, if it's literary fiction. We had Edward T. Jones in the other night, and we had a crossover audience, and that's what it takes. But part of the reason why some black books don't make the bestseller list is because of store inventory. When Ed Jones was in town, the media escort took him around to several stores, and they may have had two or three or no books—the stores don't have sufficient inventory.

Martin: [Jones's] The Known World hit the New York Times extended list and judging from the quotes that Dawn got, the incredible bookseller attention, black and white, that we got, the book has a multiracial audience. But thinking of Eric Jerome Dickey and Terry McMillan and probably E. Lynn Harris, their core audience is probably African-Americans. So I think it's just on a case-by-case basis.

Marketing African-American Books

PW: When it comes to publicity and promotion for black books, how effective are publishers' strategies?

Rodgers: I think the publishers need to look at some other strategies to get the buzz about a book going—because it all depends on that marketing promotion. We had a great audience for Ed Jones simply because there was a full-page features article on him in the Dallas Morning News the day before. He was on our NPR radio station for one whole hour the day he was in town. It doesn't have to be the Dallas Morning News, it doesn't have to be NPR, but get them on key radio stations and then have some kind of book giveaway that gets the buzz going. We've had great success with that, but it takes a lot of work. You have to look for radio stations where that book is going to fit.

PW: Have publishers improved at marketing black books to black readers, or is it only marginally better?

Rodgers: Again, it's quick-and-dirty. Of course we're glad to see the ads in Black Issues Book Review and Essence, but there are other periodicals out there. The main thing is getting on these radio stations. Especially in markets like Texas where everybody has to drive to work. But I think they just need to look at other sources, nontraditional sources.

Stinson: I usually hire an outside publicist who specializes in gospel and Christian radio stations to plug the books to radio stations for a year after the book is released. Gospel and Christian radio stations do a ton of giveaways. We used to buy blocks of commercials but I didn't get the longevity out of them that I do out of using someone to work on approaching radio stations. It is a lot of work. He has to approach some of these radio stations for six months before they'll do an interview and do a book giveaway. But I have found that that kind of radio play is a very successful tool.

Hudson: Looking at nontraditional ways of marketing, we've established wonderful relationships with organizations in various cities—church groups, sorority groups. They are willing to work with us and to help set up publicity programs and book signings. That has really helped to generate a lot of sales for Just Us Books. I think perhaps it's because we are seen differently—we're not a major house, and oftentimes we're seen as an institution as well as a business enterprise. There is a lot of support and commitment from people within the community themselves, to help the company move forward.

Stinson: Walk Worthy has very extensive outreach into churches, first ladies, pastors, singles groups, youth ministers—I'm talking thousands, and we do direct mailings and callings to them. We also have Christian reading groups that we work through. Those are just some of the roots-level things that we do.

Hudson: What we've done, too, is to try to convince pastors to allow our authors to do signings after church service is over. So, you catch that captive audience as they are leaving the church.

Stinson: See, you can't do that with erotica. [Laughter]

Hudson: I think by doing these kind of things we are helping to further develop the readership. A lot of people need to be educated about the importance of books. It may be the first time that parent has bought a book.

PW: Corporate publishers. How do you handle this issue?

Patterson: We've definitely improved over the years. Is there more to do? Yes. But fortunately there's a lot interest at the house in improving. Basically, reading groups are a huge part of our marketing. We have a database of reading groups, and we work with an outside publicist who does mailings to them.

PW: Do you offer reading group guides and make authors accessible to the groups?

Patterson: Yes, and send them books. Getting the books in their hands is the most important, even if you don't have the reading group guide.

Davis: Direct conversations with bookstores has really helped us. We've been going into black stores—we still have to get to Dallas, I know—and saying "what do you need?" Our sales in black bookstores have gone up by 26% this year, thanks in large part to our marketing director, who is very hands-on. You cannot rely exclusively on your sales force. You have to be in dialogue with the bookstores.

Martin: We have a database, Black Book News, which has over 15,000 e-mail subscribers, and we cull names from people who signed up on the Harper Web site to receive information about this type of book. There are also names from the Harlem Book Fair. We'll talk with the author, find out if they are part of a fraternity or sorority or if they're part of their church or Jack and Jill. Mailings like these can extend the life of a book.