I dunno...it's a chicken-or-the-egg problem. Are there not
many black-protagonist books because the demographic of black
male readers is small or is the demographic of black male
readers small because there is a lack of black male
protagonists?
My experiences in this regard are wholly anecdotal, and
therefore worthless in a sociological context, but in my
experience there just ISN'T are large black male readership
out there to be tapped, or, rather, it's probably there to be
tapped, but it's a major change in marketing that'll bring
them around, not necessarily a change in the number of black
male protagonists. I manage and do the tradebook buying for a
small/medium size independent book store in New York
(Brooklyn, to be precise), and my customers are pretty evenly
divided, racially speaking. It's not as if books with black
male protagonists don't exist, aren't published, or are
suppressed by retailers like me. When I get new novels, I put
em in the window, put em on display, put em on a table,
whatever I can to sell them.
However, as a merchandiser, I can't help noticing that the
books seemingly marketed specifically to black males, having
black male protagonists, e.g. Heru Ptah's "Hip-Hop
Story"--which was pushed very heavily by its publisher, Simon
& Schuster--do very, very poorly. Especially when
compared to the fiction marketed to black female readers,
which outstrips in sales pretty much any other kind of
writing in my bookstore. Our all-time bestseller is Sistah
Souljah's "Coldest Winter Ever."
Also, incidentally, in my experience, black males do not
purchase Walter Mosley books. White males do, but I rarely
sell any Mosley to a black customer, and when I do, it's
usually a female.
And, personally, I love Donald Goines. Much more so than that
wanker Iceberg Slim. If you haven't read him, i.e. Goines, I
highly recommend him, particularly "Daddy Cool". I'm very
happy they're making it into a movie...whenever I daydream
about being a famous film-director, one of the first projects
I've always fantasized about undertaking is an adaptation
of
"Daddy Cool" starring Samuel L. Jackson. Or maybe Morgan
Freeman, cast a bit against type.
David Moran
Michael Robison wrote:
> Mark Sullivan gave a link to a Goines
article.
>
> *********************
> Thanks, Mark. It was a good article. I had to
smile
> when I read the part about publishers being leery
of
> marketing books with a black male protagonist.
The
> general rule of empathy is that like attracts like,
so
> that means they were targeting black male readers,
and
> publishers don't think they read. If I
recall
> correctly, Walter Mosley went through the
same
> problem.
>
> miker
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