Blogs by Glenda A Bixler
Color Me...
7/16/2008 5:04:10 AM
Some personal thoughts on publishing and marketing...
Do you use ethnic issues in publicizing your book? A reader recently suggested this to me so that readers would better be able to find books I've reviewed by African-Americans. At first I was angry, because my reviewing is based upon the book, not by the skin color of the author.
Well, after my initial irritation, I saw that there might be a need for this, so I went back and added tags for a number of my books. In fact, I recently reviewed a book by another client, and his book was about his Italian-American heritage and the discrimination of those who immigrated from Italy and other countries. Even more, I understood the potential use of tags which could be used in search engines.
Recently, however, my little local Walmart became a "Super-Walmart" with a much larger book section (dangerous for my pocketbook!) I took the time on my first visit to go through the various sections and found, for the first time, a section on African-American books.
Ok...the issue of this article is about whether or not authors should use their race as part of their sales approach...
Honestly? What I found myself doing was briefly glancing at the books in that section, seeing all were fiction...and then I went on, bypassing, with "no" thought to purchase. I quickly point out that I have a lot of favorite authors that I routinely buy and I normally choose books by known author or by genre.
Now, one of my favorite authors is Jacqueline Randolph...Client and Friend. Another one is Walter Mosley. Jacqueline, of course, came to me for a review. Mosley became a favorite through his Easy Rawlins series which I've been reading for years.
Now, it seems to me that having your book in a special section of a bookstore is NOT something that I would want if I were an author. I would want my book placed within the proper genre section so that everybody would see it and possibly buy it, based upon title, content, etc.
Soooo... here's the issue for me...If I'm a writer of black, yellow, white, red or whatever color...am I writing only for my ethnic group? Yes, I quickly point out that some books written, especially nonfiction, would be "pointed toward" my ethnic background and may be found in designated areas. But if I were writing fiction, like Walter Mosley, I would want to have my books read by everybody!
I do point out that the tag for his books includes "African American men" but I think that is more because the character, Easy, is, as opposed to the author.
What do YOU think? I work with a lot of clients and my thoughts is that race is not part of the process. But is there another side of that I'm wondering...By putting the books in one section, are there more sales generated because race has become part of the selling process?
I'd like to see comments with pros and cons! What say you?
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More Blogs by Glenda A Bixler
• Have you Checked Out Raw Talent by Dave Ross - Thursday, April 29, 2010
• Attention Poets - Wednesday, April 1, 2009
• Free Books! - Tuesday, January 6, 2009
• Thought for the Day... - Tuesday, January 6, 2009
• Welcome My Friend Doug Boren - Saturday, January 3, 2009
• Welcome to Richard S. Lucas - Friday, November 14, 2008
• Standing the Watch - A True Story of Love! - Wednesday, October 15, 2008
• Check out the Gray Fox! - Saturday, October 11, 2008
• Peer Critical Reviews - Friday, September 26, 2008
• Check It Out! - Saturday, September 20, 2008
• A/D's youngest author??? - Saturday, September 13, 2008
• Do we Want Only Good Reviews? - Friday, September 12, 2008
• The Reviewer Gets A Bad Review... - Thursday, September 11, 2008
• Honor Defended Coming Soon! - Tuesday, September 9, 2008
• Starting to Read a New Book - Monday, September 8, 2008
• A New Friend - Sunday, September 7, 2008
• Critiques - Tuesday, August 26, 2008
• Oh Boy... - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
• Charlie's Book - My Review - Monday, August 18, 2008
• Bob Noonan Snags Award Finalist Recognition! - Tuesday, August 12, 2008
• Sweetwater's Sips... - Wednesday, August 6, 2008
• Charlie's High! - Wednesday, August 6, 2008
• The Good News - Tuesday, August 5, 2008
• Yours to Hold.....and Sell! - Saturday, August 2, 2008
• Edit Me, Honey - Friday, August 1, 2008
• Proofreading and Grammar - Does It Matter? - Thursday, July 31, 2008
• Saturday at the Computer - Saturday, July 26, 2008
• Didn't Know, Did You? - Monday, July 21, 2008
• So Many Writers... - Sunday, July 20, 2008
• I'M So Excited! - Saturday, July 19, 2008
• Taking a Break - Friday, July 18, 2008
• Color Me... - Wednesday, July 16, 2008
• Good Morning - Tuesday, July 15, 2008
• Reading A Book a Day - Monday, July 14, 2008
• Thoughts on online publishing - Monday, July 7, 2008
• Browsing Authors' Den - Saturday, July 5, 2008
• Hello - Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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