Black protagonist? Put a white girl on the cover.

I thought that essay was terrific. And I agree that the "black covers don't sell" line is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy. If instead of putting together a beautiful photo shoot for the cover and doing big-push promotion, the publisher grudgingly uses a bit of stock art of somebody African-American and does a teensy print run with no major publicity, because they're so sure "black covers don't sell" -- guess what? That probably won't sell. Like any other book given similar treatment, including those with white cover models -- except, you know, people will actually look for reasons, then.

Yeah, I don't get covers either. I've seen plenty of good ones, but it boggles my mind that the marketing department can be so bad at what they do. It also strikes me as really peculiar that the authors really aren't included in these things. I mean, it sort of makes sense for the marketing department to entirely handle these things in other media, where (for example) the director of a movie is maybe just one of many people who made something, but in this business, they're basically selling the brainchild of one person. You'd think they might be interested in what that person thinks best represents their work.

This sort of thing absolutely astounds me.

I buy greeting cards with Black people on them to support there being some made [and cos why not?]. Nobody bats an eyelash about being White and getting them.

People are crazy. I'm fully convinced.

Let me get this right...Bloomsbury wouldn't put a black person on the cover, even when the MC is black, because people don't buy books with black people on the front?

WTF. What era are they living in?

If that is their reasoning...I'm shocked and disgusted.

I'm glad to read the author's response to this. It must be frustrating to have the credibility of every single word in your book questioned (though they say there's no such thing as bad publicity.) But maybe this will be a stepping stone to get things changed. In this age of connectivity, individual voices can easily rally and be listened to, especially if you put your money where your mouth is.

NaBuyNoCoCoMo* anyone?

Nicole

*National Buy a Novel with a person of Color on the Cover Month

NaBuyNoCoCoMo! Yesh! I'm gonna look for one.

That's pretty pathetic. So many in the industry harp about how details like heritage (black, white, hispanic, etc) shouldn't matter and yet we get this? I'd be confused as hell to buy a book with a white person on the cover and then find out the character is actually black. I'd feel like I'd been misled - and that's exactly what they're doing. And the worst part is that people wouldn't be feeling jipped because of the character's integrity or lackthereof (which I'm not judging either way, since I haven't read the book) but because how the whole thing is presented. Last I checked, we're not living in the time of the Civil Rights Movement. It's time to let those ridiculous notions go once and for all.

Isn't there anything an author could do in the event of something like this, where the cover clearly doesn't represent the book? Because the cover is all part of the advertising, and consumers generally don't like false advertising.

unicornjam said:

You'd think! If I'm not mistaken, authors get ... consultation when it comes to covers? I know one of those links mention it. But I'm sure one of our own can shed light on that issue.

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They run the cover design past the author, but it's up to the individual art director to decide whether to listen or not. Larbalestier is a big seller, but apparently that wasn't enough to sway Bloomsbury.

Geez, who would've thought a book describing "the black experience," written by a white author, would ever show a Caucasian person on the cover. What a scandal!

Please show me where to line up so that I can protest such an injustice.

Well, the cover does match the title.

In that it lies.

The Watson's Go to Birmingham? Bud not Buddy? Those two did pretty well, I mean, considering they had black people on the cover and all. Maybe it had to do with the fact they were well written...hmmm....interesting concept.

Silver King said:

Geez, who would've thought a book describing "the black experience," written by a white author, would ever show a Caucasian person on the cover. What a scandal!

Please show me where to line up so that I can protest such an injustice.

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Just because a book is written by a white person doesn't mean they can't capture the "Black experience". And heck even if the author did a terrible job at capturing said experience, there is still no reason to put a white person on the cover. Are we saying that any book written by someone who doesn't look like their protagonist, must have an image reminiscent of the author? Should therefore "Memoirs of a Geisha" have a Caucasian male on the cover?

To argue that a white person cannot truly capture a protagonist who is African American is one thing (an argument which I do not agree with. Then again I do not agree with the presumption that "Liar" is a book about "the black experience", from what I understand it is a YA about a pathological liar), but to argue therefore it isn't worth getting a little up in arms when a publisher puts the wrong race on the cover to help sales, that's just odd. It was wrong. Plain and simple. Even if the book winds up being obviously written by someone who isn't African American and who doesn't understand what it is like to be one.

Unless of course I am way off base here and your post is sincere. In which case I genuinely apologise .

ZeroFlowne said:

Well, the cover does match the title.

In that it lies.

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A truly post-modern cover!

Why put a person on the cover at all ...

Toothpaste said:

Just because a book is written by a white person doesn't mean they can't capture the "Black experience"...

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Well, they can't. Sorry. Maybe to a white audience that is gullible, but that's as far as it goes.

And when you have a moment, I'll tell you about my latest project, a book about how it truly feels to physically bear children, from a man's point of view.

Silver King said:

Well, they can't. Sorry. Maybe to a white audience that is gullible, but that's as far as it goes.

And when you have a moment, I'll tell you about my latest project, a book about how it truly feels to physically bear children, from a man's point of view.

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Actually, if you've passed a big kidney stone, you basically already know what it feels like.

Wow. This is good to know. I have a MC that's black in one of my books I'm planning to write. Better find another race so I won't have this problem with covers.

And...I'm sorry. I just have to ask one brief question real fast:

Silver King said:

Well, they can't. Sorry. Maybe to a white audience that is gullible, but that's as far as it goes.

And when you have a moment, I'll tell you about my latest project, a book about how it truly feels to physically bear children, from a man's point of view.

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Are you...like serious? Sarcasm doesn't come easily on the internet at times for me and I don't actually know if you were joking or being serious. It's like saying since I'm Hispanic I can't capture the "White Experience." Which would suck if it were true since I have two MCs in two different books in varying degrees of editing that are white. I guess I better just write my own race and hope they don't modify my book cover. Or hope the entire planet is extremely gullible

And, to summarize your impending book, like others have said. Just have an 8 pound kidney stone pass. That's exactly what it would feel like.

Apparently Silver King would have only black individuals writing about black characters, only white individuals writing about white characters, men writing books only with men in them, women writing books only with women in them, etc. What a sad, limited world this would be if that advice were followed. Justine Larbaleister's books are much beloved by readers of many different races and nationalities; they aren't all gullible. Just more open-minded than some.

Silver King said:

Well, they can't. Sorry. Maybe to a white audience that is gullible, but that's as far as it goes.

And when you have a moment, I'll tell you about my latest project, a book about how it truly feels to physically bear children, from a man's point of view.

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Cool with me. I've never considered excruciating pain, nor the joy of seeing life that you helped create brought into the world, as gender specific.

While we're at it I should share some of my reviews from boys who totally relate to my male MC in my latest book.

Dude, I'm sorry. You are doing that age old argument that if you ain't it, you can't write it. Which means no books can be set in any other place other than those locations you've lived in, in any other era than the time you've lived in, about any other race/gender than you are personally, and of experiences (ie murder) that you've never had. And I just don't buy that. Probably because I've seen all done remarkably well. But maybe I'm just gullible.

Bloomsbury's response to the whole thing was so infuriating, too. To imply that maybe the narrator IS lying about her race in the book, when the author has clearly stated that was never her intention, is overstepping the editorial line.

It does make me wonder, though. There was an African-American author not too long ago who complained when her publisher put a black model on the cover of her book...when the characters in the book weren't black. Her publisher basically said, "You're black, so you're writing a black book."

And pretty much nobody cared about that, even though the author was quite upset.

It's really sad, to me, that it takes something like this happening to a white author to get people to think about the inequalities in the publishing industry.

caromora said:

Bloomsbury's response to the whole thing was so infuriating, too. To imply that maybe the narrator IS lying about her race in the book, when the author has clearly stated that was never her intention, is overstepping the editorial line.

It does make me wonder, though. There was an African-American author not too long ago who complained when her publisher put a black model on the cover of her book...when the characters in the book weren't black. Her publisher basically said, "You're black, so you're writing a black book."

And pretty much nobody cared about that, even though the author was quite upset.

It's really sad, to me, that it takes something like this happening to a white author to get people to think about the inequalities in the publishing industry.

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What's especially sad that a story like that wasn't well-publicised by someone (or else I live under a big rock lol ). Because it's equally as stupid as putting a white person on a cover of a book with a black mc.