Reading, Writing & Racism

Today on the Blogging In Black author Monica Jackson blogs about a recent controversy that resulted when she blogged about a romance blogger who said she not only would never read an AA romance novel but will never feature them on her site because she felt Monica was racist. Huh! Anyway, the discussion that resulted from this has caused British romance blogger Karen Scott to conduct a survey of AA authors and our experiences within the publishing industry. She is looking for at least 100 authors to participate. The details are below.

Racism In Publishing, How Does It Affect You?

Are you an African American author who’s been published for at least one year? If so Karen Scott wants to hear from you.

She’s conducting a survey based on the racism within the publishing industry, and whether or not it’s as prevalent as some believe. She’s looking for black or African American authors who have been published for at least one year.

She would like to know about your specific experiences within the industry thus far. She wants to know how AA authors feel about the current shelving policies, and niche marketing. She wants to know who you feel is to blame for the problems that you face. She also wants your suggestions on how things can be improved upon.

In all, there are twenty questions in the survey, and all that she asks is that people be as honest as possible. Confidentiality is assured if requested, but for the findings to yield more weight, she would request that she be granted permission to directly quote from the answers given by the authors.

She’s hoping to poll at least 100 AA authors, in an effort to ensure that a fair representation is achieved.

If enough authors agree to participate, (and depending on the findings) the results may well be sent to representatives within media and press. No promises that Oprah will hear about it, but all efforts will be made to get the message out.

If there are AA authors out there interested in participating in this poll, please e-mail Karen at hairylemony @ gmail. com (without the spaces) with the subject header ‘Please send me the survey’.

The deadline for the survey to be completed and returned to Karen is March 1st 2007

Angela