Does my lead female character need to be American?

I'm sorry, perhaps you'll find something more helpful from our other members, but if someone told me I had to write only white Caucasian males, then I would probably clobber them.

Write an asian man, or an asian woman. Write Indians from Calcutta, or Africans, or French men, or space aliens. Write anything you want.

You don't HAVE to write to certain genders, or American, or European, or anything. The very concept of that is silly, silly, silly.

Seems to me that non-Caucasian characters are extremely popular.

In fact, as I was looking at agents' websites before querying, I noticed that many of them said in their specifications something to the effect of, "Looking for narratives with a multi-cultural flair..."

Can't help you there, I have thus far completely failed to be a woman.

I know I read books where the POV character is an alien. Or black. Or even IS a woman. This doesn't slow me down at all.

But again, I'm not your proper audience, so I'll shut up now.

miles said:

But after talking it over with my wife (who's Asian), she suggested that most (Caucasian) women probably couldn't really get into a story about a (non-westernized) Asian woman because they probably want to read about a woman they can relate to.

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I'm sorry to say but that advice is the stupidest advice I've EVER heard. An entire book has been written about Asian women immigrating to America, and so are not 'americanized' (I hate that word). And it's one of the best books ever. I could relate to it, and I'm a white guy. Relating to a character isn't based of race, not anymore. It's based off how likable the character. And likability is somewhat standard across the globe.

Make the character whatever you like. Asian. Russian. Martian, I don't CARE. As long as the story is engaging, the character likable (or hateable, if they're the bad guys) I'll keep turning pages until I get to the end.

Maybe it's because I'm a sci-fi reader, and therefore am used to relating to the strangest characters, but I've yet to find a good character that I can't relate to because of race, gender, or sexual orientation.

PS: I like your first story idea more than the second. Sweat shops are neater than sex slaves. I read about sex slaves often enough in free erotica I scrounge off the slime pool of the Internet.

Hi Miles,

I'm an American female and an avid reader. I read a wide variety of genres. I would say write what feels right for your character. I LOVE to read about different people from different walks of life.

I have a particular affinity for historical fiction. Even tho I don't know what it's like to be a Norman chevalier conquering England and building castle strongholds, I love to imagine it and learn what it was like and how he might have thought and behaved. I read The Dress Lodger and while I cannot relate to being a 19th century London prostitue, I still found it an intriguing story. I would read contemporary fiction the same way and would be very intrigued to learn about how as Asian protag came to work in a sweat shop, how she got away from that life and how it's shaped her into the woman that she is.

Be true to your character, not what you think people may "want". It's a moving target and you'll just be stuck chasing shadows.

Best wishes!

"But after talking it over with my wife (who's Asian), she suggested that most (Caucasian) women probably couldn't really get into a story about a (non-westernized) Asian woman because they probably want to read about a woman they can relate to."


Write it so I can relate to her, and it's not a problem. Write her so I can see my own desires for (insert appropriate desire: love, freedom, acceptance, whatever) in her and you've got me. Or, write her so she's completely different than anything I've ever experienced and I'll read it to "experience" a new perspective.

Just write it.

While you're at it, write both of those stories. I'd read either one. Just to give you some perspective, among the last few protagonists I've read were Aleuts, Koreans, and a woman who's half Korean and half black. I don't have any ancestors in common with any of these women, but I enjoyed their stories.

After more thinking about this question...it bothers me even MORE than I thought it did at first. Firstly, it has the assumption that all America women readers can't relate to anyone but white people.

ARRGH! This is not the middle ages! We are not a bunch of tribals who have to instantly hate and fear that which is different. We shouldn't even be worrying about races now a days. It's about a hundredth of a percent of difference in DNA. I think the term 'race' is a poor one to use, as if we were truly different races, we wouldn't be able to have cross breeds. A different race can not breed with another race, no matter what Mr. Spock says.

Aaand so the point of this whole thing is...I really hate this assumption that we don't like things that aren't like us. If anything, the opposite is true. Why are so many books, video games, TV shows and movies based on war? Not because so many people love war, or like war. I hate war, but most of my favored books/movies/games are based off war. It's because it's interesting and different.


And that's the end of my raaaant!

I'd have to say the advice seems off-base. Inter-racial and cross-cultural romance is one of the hottest areas right now and lit bestsellers include Memoirs of a Geisha, Wild Swans and Across the Nightingale Floor.

miles said:

Do women love a romance even if the leading female character is someone they can't relate to?

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Of course they need a character they can relate to, but this character can be any race or color. The character just needs to be interesting.

If she's well-written, people will be able to relate to her. It won't matter where she comes from.

Does my lead female character need to be American?

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No. There ya go.
Next question please!

Riiiight, and the Memoirs of a Geisha book took off because she was a white girl... no wait... Change her back and ignore your wife (in this case). Your idea was fine.

miles said:

Thanks. But I'm mostly asking this to get a reader's perspective. Sure, no one is telling me I can't write a great story where the leading female character is Asian. But do Caucasian women want to read about that if it's a love story?

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If it's a good story, why not? Many great stories with non-Causasian protagonists struck a chord with American women... I would worry more about making the characters and their relationships real than about the race of the characters, and I worry that if you just switch your characters around, your readers will catch on and say, "This character is cardboard." And seriously, my first reaction about Asian "sweat shop" and Russian sex slave -- it just blink "cliches" to me. I may be wrong.

miles said:

I'm only asking because I, for one, couldn't really get into a novel about an Asian guy who falls in love with a beautiful French girl because I'm not Asian. I like to picture myself as the main character. But perhaps I'm in the minority.

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C'mon... so you've never read a novel with a female MC?? If you have, did you identify with the MC even though you're not female? Or did you at least admire the MC for certain traits or were entertained by the MC? If so, the same can be done for a non-caucasian MC.

Incidentally, Russians are white. Probably more "white" than us southern Euros because they live in the cold. Being "white" or "caucasian" encompasses a lot of different-looking people with some similarities. And we can all identify with stories of different cultures or ethnicities as long as it's well-written. I love Joy Luck Club but I'm not Asian.

As for your 2 examples, sex sells so go with sex slave. As for ethnicity, go with the one you have most knowledge of.. in your case, since wifey is Asian, go with the Asian sex slave. Maybe pick an Asian country not yet used-to-death, like say Laos.

Good luck.

Most Americans do have an empathy program in spite of their ethnocentrism. You just need to punch in the right code. Perhaps in this case it would be blatant racism against a nameless impoverished unamericanized asian imigrant by his exgirlfriend while she is imploding over their break up. In other words beat the puppy.

Another way to deal with ethnocentric readers is to write science fiction.

Write the story that speaks to you. If your characters are real and engaging, it won't matter what ethnicity they are.

Amy Tan's books sell like hotcakes, so I don't know why your wife would think an Asian character would be unacceptable to an American audience.

The only thing you need to worry about is making sure to emphasize the feelings and dilemmas that are universal to all women (and indeed all people). If you do this successfully, it won't matter if your character is from an entirely different solar system.

The book I'm writing has a protagonist who's a half-Irish black Jew, and his girlfriend is half filipino and half thai. It just kind of happened.

Best of all, writing them still feels natural. I don't feel a need to make them say THIS specific thing or THAT specific thing because of their cultural background. I just try and make their lives interesting.

Well, I'm going to say something a bit different. I consistently write non-white lead female characters, and there are indeed problems - but I suspect the problem is less with readers, and more with publishers' perception of readers.

And yes, American publishers do perceive US female readers as being extremely insular and unwilling to realte to non-white lead characters. This is the reason my first novel was rejected in America. This was back in 1998, and I was told that American readers could not relate to an Indian main character.

OK, we're a few years down the road and in the meantime we've had the Indian craze so things have changed, But still, caution is necessary as far as finding an agent and publishe is concerned.

The reason my agent turned down my fourth novel was that "Publishers are extremely xenophobic". That was confirmed by another top, top UK agent; he said I'd have a difficult job getting my book sold. (A caveat, this was not just because of the non-white characters, but also because of the location, which was not the UK or the US. So factor that it as well.) I have been constantly told that I HAVE to have either the main character or her love interest as white. That's an imperative if I want to write for mainstream Europe or America. It's OK for Amy Tan or another famous author, and of course there are publishers willing to take a risk if the book is excellent; but this is an established agent's perception of the market.

We can cry out here as much as we want that readers don't care, and maybe they don't, but if publishers believe that readers do care you won't get published.

This whole subject has given me much grief; I've lost an agent and a publisher on account of it (as recently as 2005) and it breaks my heart, but that is simply the reality.

In my present book, the female MC is black and non-American. I would not be surprsed if an editor asked me to make her white American before acceptance. That's just how cynical I've become. (And no, I won't)

People who have answered here seem very optimistic but how many of them have actually tried to get published using such characters? "Write what you want" indeed, but I also want to get published (again) and in my experence, much as I hate doing so, I have to think of these publisher concerns. Writing what I wanted just did not pan out.

I don't want to discourage you but you should not assume that just becuase readers do read such books and a few have become bestsellers, that racism is absent from publishing. That said, I think your book sounds interesting.

(And ps: why not pose this same question to Nathan Bransford on the Ask the Agent forum? He might be able to give you a more enlightened view of the present publishing situation than this poor discouraged author!)

Great point, aruna. I know in the past Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood have been pressured by American publishers to make books more appealing to American audiences.

Things have changed a bit, but there's still a lot of struggle involved. Still, I'm going to finish my manuscript before I stress over all the good stuff.

You know I think I've dodged some of those problems by writing sci-fi. Sci-fi readers seem to accept more different charicters, in general, because well...it's sci-fi. Or do any of these stupid race issues leak into that market as well? I woulden't think so, but I'd still like to know.

BlueBadger said:

Things have changed a bit, but there's still a lot of struggle involved. Still, I'm going to finish my manuscript before I stress over all the good stuff.

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I think it's very important for writers of multi-racial stories to be AWARE of the problem - and to be accomodating of it when they write. This is at any rate how I tried to solve the problem: I accepted the reality, and simply absobed it as one more writing parametre. And then I wrote my book.

What happened was this: my black MC has two possible love interests. The first one - whom she meets in the first three chapters - is black, non-American, and a desirable candidate. Since I don't plan my novels in advance, I assumed at first that he would be The one, and the story developed along those lines.

Then later she meets a white American. Not only that, but he is the American Vice-Consul! And things take off between them. It soon became obvious while writing that he is the serious partner - for a variety of reasons, none of them having to do with his skin colour or even his nationality, but more with his position as US Vice-Consul; and THAT, I believe, is the hook for American readers. At least, I hope so.

Somehow, my subconscious mind did the right thing. I did not say to myself "I have to create a white love interest for my girl." It just happened that way. After that, I went back and played down the connection to the first guy.

What I'm trying to say is: while I've always refused to write for the market, I learned the hard way that I do have to take the market's reality into account. I can't be stubborn and willingly defy it just to prove something (which in a way is what I did with my 2005 novel). To use a cliche: I had to go with the flow. And I am quite happy with the result.