On a more serious note...

Discriminatory.
Definitely.

No doubt about it.
There's good black writers who got published, and it's just wrong if a company blows him off because he's black.

Actually, everything about this sounds odd to my ears. He sent in a sample of the book? You mean he submitted a partial? Fiction or Nonfiction?

They wanted to know the direction? Is the book not finished yet or do you mean they wanted a synopsis or a proposal?

Then they met with him? Like, in person?

And then backed away from him and became less enthusiastic? Did they give a reason? Was there discussion of a contract?

Sorry, I know that was a lot of questions.

I had the same questions as Soccer Mom.

I know you have to maintain some confidentiality in this case and aren't able to divulge every single detail, but it's really hard for me to believe that they would go that far on a book they would make money on, only to back out because of race. My first instinct is to say that there has to be more to it than that (and please do NOT take this to mean that I don't think you are telling the truth, it just means that I need more information, especially when dealing with a sensitive subject like discrimination).

Unless you were in the room and unless the publishers explicitely said, "you are black, therefore we no longer want to publish", assumption of prejudice is jsut that -- assumption.

Are there biases and prejudices in the world? Absolutely. Could there be at this publishing house? Sure, why would they be immune from having less enlightened workers representing them. Was that the reason in this specific case? No idea, we don't have enough facts.

Much would depend on what kind of book your friend was pitching. Is it non-fiction dealing with a non-black person's experiences? Was it a memoire that gave the impression the writer was not black? (there's a lot of problems going on with "fake" memoires right now) Was it something where race could conceivably become a major factor in a negative way?

Was it truly skin color? Or, when your friend took the meeting, was it something else? Inability to come up with sequels? Animosity between your friend and the assigned editor? Just old-fashioned "not clicking"? Poor pitching on your friend's part because he's not experienced with how to pitch? The possibilities are many more than these.

Whether or not this is a true case of prejudice, it does highlight why having a legitimate agent in your corner is a huge benefit. The standard recommendation I've heard is that if you get an offer directly from a publisher you should contact the agent of your dreams, explain the situation, and see if they wish to represent you. If they somehow say no, go to next agent of your dreams. Then have your brand new agent handle this meeting for you, since they tend to know how to deal with publishers better than authors do.

Hopefully your friend can use this experience to gain said good agent and try again elsewhere.

This all sounds very odd. Publishers do not normally meet with writers. An editor might very well meet with an author if travel distance was not a problem, but that most likely would not occur until the book was under contract.

but after the publishers met with him and realized he was black, they suddenly had concerns about whether the book would sell and they seemed a lot less eager to publish him (I speak the truth) and the whole thing seemed to reach a dead end.

Click to expand...

Actually I don't see how race would have anything at all to do with any major publishing house having issues over the profitability of a book. Seriously. Aside from the legal ramifications of such discrimination, it occurs to me that a good book by an African-American writer would generate HIGHER profits.

Jeepers, I hope nobody tells Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Ralph Ellison, Samuel Delany and a whack of others that black writers can't get published.

The only colour (American) publishers care about is green.

Something's wrong with this picture.

JeanneTGC said:

Was it truly skin color? Or, when your friend took the meeting, was it something else?

Click to expand...

I have to second this.

A common experience as a hiring manager has been that my friend Joe recommends his friend Bob for a position, and when I interview Bob, he's completely unqualified. A few days later, I run into Joe, who asks with some confusion why I didn't hire Bob and if I really said or did some outrageous thing.

What really happened was Bob did something stupid which cost him the job - usually misrepresenting his experience and skill level. ("So you'd call yourself a Java expert?" "Yeah, definitely." "How do you feel about 'final' classes?" "Well, I'm self-taught, mostly." Ooooookay, interview over.) Then he goes and tells his friend Joe some story where it's really, honestly not his fault - instead, it's that rat bastard of an interviewer who totally screwed him over.

This is natural and normal human behavior, and it's basic "man rules" that you pretend to believe every word your friend told you. Even if you know damn good and well nothing of the sort happened, even if you can prove it, you let your friend have his fantasy.

I can't say the publisher isn't prejudiced, but I can say that it's tremendously unlikely they'd kill a book deal over skin color. I'm a businessman myself, and the only color I care about in an interview is green. If I turn someone down, it's because I don't think he'll put enough green on the bottom line. Full-stop.

The Mad Geek said:

would you concur that the writing industry is discriminatory, or should this just be brushed aside as an isolated incident?

Click to expand...

Every industry is discriminatory, unfortunately. I just can't believe we (as a society) can't get past this B.S.

I'm with most of the others. While I don't deny discrimination could very well have happened, all the steps leading up to that are so unusual, that I am a bit suspicious of what is going on here. If there is any way you can elaborate on the details, you don't need to give names, but maybe a timeline and as others suggested info on: partial, full, proposal, fiction, non-fiction . . . etc that sort of thing. Would be helpful!

The Mad Geek said:

Now I don't know what you think of this, but would you concur that the writing industry is discriminatory, or should this just be brushed aside as an isolated incident? I, personally am VERY upset with this.

Click to expand...

The story as you recount it doesn't make sense. Full stop. Publishers don't meet with writers; editors do. I can't imagine an editor believing that a book was less likely to sell because an author was black (unless it was a book advocating white supremacy, I suppose).

Now, does it seem possible that a writer you knew submitted a manuscript directly to a large publishing house, had a meeting with an editor, and that the editor later lost interest? Yes, it's absolutely possible--although do note that it's extremely unlikely for an editor at "a large publishing house" to even bother with a manuscript that had been submitted directly by an author, rather than through an agent.

Okay, so is it possible that the writer in this scenario was being discriminated against because of race? Yes, anything's possible.

But fundamentally, this is a really unusual situation, and in unusual business situations, things go south all the time.


So I would suggest that your friend find an agent. Perhaps an agent who identifies themselves as "black" or "African American"--the Hurston-Wright Foundation has a list of such agents here.

Or perhaps an agent who isn't a person of color themselves, but who represents high-profile black writers (agent Nicole Aragi, for instance, represents Colson Whitehead and Edwige Danticat, among others).

Other things may have happened when they met him. Most people mamnage to notice a few other things about a person they will be in business with other than their melatonin levels.

I don't see why a publisher would discriminate against a black author. Certainly this is not something that is an integral part of the industry or there wouldn't be so many black authors already out there. I also thought the publishing industry was working harder now to try to bring in more black readers (because the more demographics they can appeal to the more money they can make). I'm with everyone else: are you sure it was a racial issue and not something else?

The Mad Geek said:

A brilliant writer I know, who happens to be a close family friend recently sent out a sample of his manuscript to a big publisher I shan't name and it was almost a dream come true; He recieved a call from the publisher citing they were interested in seeing more, going on to ask for him to meet with them to discuss the direction he was going in because, if I say so myself, the book was pretty good with an original idea + an interesting twist... then came the problem. Now I don't know if this made any logical sense, but after the publishers met with him and realized he was black, they suddenly had concerns about whether the book would sell and they seemed a lot less eager to publish him (I speak the truth) and the whole thing seemed to reach a dead end. Now I don't know what you think of this, but would you concur that the writing industry is discriminatory, or should this just be brushed aside as an isolated incident? I, personally am VERY upset with this.

Click to expand...

So much hearsay here.

Sorry, I can't help but be skeptical.

I gotta go with the group here. There's so much hearsay in this, it makes the assumption too far a leap.

I'm not suggesting it wouldn't happen. But I haven't met anyone in publishing who isn't more interested in the color green.

No one is jumping on you, MG, or wants to silence you. We're just puzzled because the events you listed are not the way publishing as we know it works.

The Mad Geek said:

It's O.K. Never mind! I've reached my own conclusions. Thank you.

Click to expand...

Why do I have the sinking suspicion that "your own conclusions" are that we're all white people who are in denial about how incredibly racist the publishing industry is?

None of us know what happened, because we weren't there. However, the situation you describe is really, really unusual in terms of the publishing industry's standard business practices.

Now, it's certainly possible that there are racist editors at major publishing houses, and that your friend had the misfortune to encounter one. But given how unusual the situation you describe is, an awful lot of other things could have happened that result in the outcome you describe.

And this is one of the reasons why it's really important to have an agent advocating for you in the process. Agents deal with editors and other people who work in publishing every day; they know what behaviors are appropriate, and what behaviors are "red flags" for unprofessional attitudes.

I hope your friend finds an agent who can provide him with the experienced and professional representation he needs.

The Mad Geek said:

I DIDN'T SAY THAT! THAT'S YOUR OWN CONCLUSION!! ALL I SAID WAS NEVER MIND AND THAT I'VE REACHED MY OWN CONCLUSIONS!! THE NERVE!!

Click to expand...

Yes, that's why I said it was a "suspicion"--to point out that it was my "suspicion" that those were the conclusions you'd reached.

I'm sorry if your friend feels that he experienced unprofessional behavior from anyone in the publishing industry. Again, that's why he needs an agent, in my opinion.

Whoa. You should calm down. Screaming at people isn't a very nice thing to do at all.

You're not giving us much to go on here, and now you're bowing out of the conversation, without much in the way of explanation either in that or in your OP. Help us out a little here, and calm down. Maybe fill in some blanks here, so we can understand a little better.

But do quit "screaming", please.

I give up. I can't offer an opinion, because there aren't enough facts to go on. I'm not going to hang a "racist" or "prejudiced" label on someone with what information you've provided.

Simple as that. I'm sorry that this opinion seems to make you angry, but it's a pretty reasonable thing to do, to withhold judgement in this case. As it stands, that is.