Black Readers Don't Discriminate When it Comes to Romance

This month I asked debut romance author, Vina St. Fran to talk about the challenges African American romance writers face. Here's what she has to say:

"African American romance writers don´t have discriminating taste when it comes to romance novels. However, their white counterparts do. I say this because African American women tend to be more open when it comes to reading a good book. We typically don´t care if the author is African American, or the book´s characters; for us, it´s not an issue.

White women may read African American romance novels, however, there is not much of this going on to be talked about. I have been told from some white friends and associates, that they would buy my book because they knew me. Furthermore, one in particular, Lori from South Carolina really drove home this point: white women tend to think that if it is an African American romance, then all of the characters are black, as is the story, and she is sure this is why they won´t read it.

African American romance writers have disadvantages, which make it challenging for us to expand outside of our racial boundaries. Due to book segregation in some of the major chains, African American books--as other minority groups--are separated from white romance novels. Barnes and Noble within my region, places all books together and I think it is healthy for their business.

There is a huge benefit for African American romance writers. Other book markets were down, but the demand for African American books is on the rise. Wall Street Journal columnist, Jeffery Trachtenberg said, "Black consumers spent more than $300 million on books last year, according to Ken Smikle, publisher of Black Issues Book Review, a unit of Chicago-based Target Market News Inc (2006)". Clearly this number is phenomenal and shows that Black consumers love books and we have the spending power to buy them, often in quantity.

I think as an African American writer in today´s market, you have to really make sure you do a lot of research and know the markets' strengths and weaknesses that you are targeting. This strategy is smart because you have an opportunity to learn about their needs as well as your own and how it may affect placement of your books.

Also, people really do judge a book by its cover. If you have any input on the cover, you want to make sure that people look at your book as something that they can relate to and not be turned off by what the cover depicts. Some African American novels don´t move despite the fact the novel is really good because people can´t get beyond the cover.

Another point I wish to make is about titles and the weight they carry. Be careful what you name your baby. You may love it and find it catchy as an author, but remember that as writers, you don´t want to be pigeonholed into one area. Make sure that you talk to people from within the industry that have knowledge of what will and won´t work. Hope Clarke, an African American writer, told me to change the title of my first book. I was stunned because I´d become attached to it and she said change it. I´m glad I was open-minded enough to take the constructive criticism from her as I get questions all the time about the title, One Foot Outside The Door."

One Foot Outside The Door is available through Amazon.com.