Marketing African-American commercial fiction used to be simple—publishers just claimed they had the next Terry McMillan and expected the books to move. But in the decade since McMillan's Waiting to Exhale revealed the sales potential of black authors, publishers have come to recognize—and begin to cater to—the vast diversity of tastes and interests among African-American readers.

The variety and sheer number of books demand a more sophisticated marketing approach, one that doesn't target African-Americans as a monolithic group, but that pinpoints readers by preferences more specific than race, said Janet Hill, executive editor of Doubleday's Harlem Moon imprint. That means marketing defined by genre—mystery, romance, horror and literary fiction—and consumer habits.

Not that campaigns aimed at African American readers are color-blind. Tactics that were once considered quaint—such as reaching out to hair salons and local book clubs—are now an integral part of major publishers' promotional strategies. It's just that publishers have gotten savvier about how and when to use them. "The same people who read Toni Morrison are often the same people who read [romance novelist] Brenda Jackson," said Monique Patterson, editor of St. Martin's Press. "But you can't market Toni Morrison the way you market Brenda Jackson."

Tuning into Radio

For some books, standard book reviews are critical. "With literary fiction, it's really important to get the reviews," said Patterson. That means publishers of black literary novelists are jostling along with everyone else in the industry for space in The New York Times and USA Today, as well as vying for attention from influential African-American publications such as Essence and Black Issues Book Review.

For other types of black fiction, reviews mean little, publishers say. Radio, on the other hand, doesn't tend to work as well for literary fiction but is a major force for other black novels. Two nationally syndicated morning shows on urban radio stations—the Tom Joyner Morning Show, which has seven million listeners, and the Doug Banks Show, which has 3.2 million—are great for selling lighter fiction, said Karen Thomas, editorial director of Kensington's Dafina imprint. "Some days they might be talking about cheating husbands, so we'll send them He's Just A Friend by Mary Morrison [Aug.]," she said.

"Radio is more important to reaching the African-American market than it is for the general market," agreed Malaika Adero, senior editor at Atria Books. To promote erotica writer Zane's novel Sisters of APF (Apr.), Atria ran ads on the New York radio show The Wendy Williams Experience, which mixes R&B and hip hop music with heavy doses of risqué celebrity gossip. By paying Williams to read the ad for the book, Atria made it appear as if the African-American DJ was endorsing a book about racy African-American students. "That's the beauty of the announcer-read promotion: it doesn't sound like a promotion," Adero said.

While such promotional ads are standard practice across the radio dial, they can be particularly effective in marketing to black consumers, who tend to favor personal recommendations over canned advertising. Because black readers see reading as a social activity, according to several editors, they depend on friends, family and trusted booksellers more than the media to recommend titles.

Connecting with Book Clubs

Black readers also want to talk about what they've read. That's why book groups count so much. "There are so many and they're so vocal—I think of them as the talking heads in their community," said Melody Guy, editorial director of One World/Strivers Row. All Striver's Row novels have reading group guides in the back to encourage discussion. The publisher courts book clubs with e-mails announcing forthcoming releases, galley mailings and an electronic newsletter. Sometimes its authors even call in to join in book club discussions.

Such tactics are typical for publishers of African-American fiction, many of whom compile lists of clubs using outside agencies, information that customers register on the publishers' Web sites and online sources such as Mosaicbooks.com, which lists e-mail addresses for clubs around the country as a service to its readers. In some cases, the clubs focus on certain categories, such as mystery or romance, which makes it easier for publishers to refine their approach.

The biggest coup on the book club circuit is to get a title chosen by Go On Girl, a network of more than 30 groups around the country that got its start in 1992, when three friends decided to create a structure for their informal book discussions. Now, the groups all read the same book each month, after voting for the entire year's reading list at an annual business meeting. While the club reads a mix of fiction and nonfiction, this year's selections show a taste for light commercial novels, such as last fall's Dancing on the Edge of the Roof by Sheila Williams (One World/ Strivers Row) and last April's Sittin' in the Front Pew by Parry Brown (Villard).

A Captive Audience

Another sweet spot for pushing light fiction is the beauty salon. "It's a captive audience. It's a great place" to market books, said Guy, whose imprint has produced booklets with excerpts from its novels and sent them out to salons. Other publishers send mailings ranging from brochures to actual books. "As a black woman who gets her hair done a lot, you're in the salons, and you talk about everything in there," added Patterson.

For novels with an overtly Christian perspective or that at least avoid explicit language and sexual content, predominately black churches are also fertile promotional ground. Dafina's Thomas said she does mailings to large churches, in hopes of getting carried in the on-site store or even mentioned in the church bulletin. For example, the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, which boasts more than 17,000 members, carried Testimony by bestselling romance writer Felicia Mason in its bookstore last year. The book centers on in-fighting among members of a church choir and has an uplifting ending that made it appealing for a churchgoing readership.

No matter the category, getting booksellers behind a title is crucial to its success, editors say. To make sure its new novella, Rockin' Around That Christmas Tree by Donna Hill and Francis Ray stood out among the flood of other holiday titles, St. Martin's sent out tins of cookies with the novella (which has a cookie recipe in it) to nearly 200 leading African-American booksellers.

Bookseller support is especially critical for publishers who want to expose African-American genre writers to a cross-racial audience. Early next year Dafina is sending two of its black writers straight into the heart of the horror market. Dark Corner, the second novel by Brandon Massey, is going out in January with a 30,000-copy first printing. It will be followed in March by Robert Fleming's Havoc After Dark. Both are trade paperbacks with a price of $14, intended to entice readers of all races. Dafina has also lobbied stores to make sure horror fans who'd never think of wandering over to the African-American fiction section can easily find the books.

"Yes, you have your support from African-American booksellers, but these are crossover books," said Thomas. "People love to be scared, so we did really push the mystery bookstores and the chains to stock them in the horror section. Fear is fear."

Lynda Fitzgerald, events and marketing coordinator of the Chicago-based Barbara's Bookstore chain, said horror is much like the mystery genre in that race counts less than subject. "Most people who read mysteries tend to read them pretty exclusively. And because of that, they're eager to discover new authors," she said. "In the same way, horror fans are very dedicated also."