Survey for Afrocentric Books

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JS Emuakpor

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Hi, Everyone.

I've never posted on this forum, but I am frequently lurking. I'm doing some market research on "Afrocentric" books. For more information, please see my blog. Yes, I know I'm plugging my blog, but I'm not a particularly active blogger, so I'm really not trying to collect more readers (even though I probably should be), because I fear I'll end up disappointing you :(.

Anyway, that's a different ball of twine.

I know that posting this survey on the POC forum might lead to some bias in responses. Rest assured, I am also going to post this in other places. I really just wanted to make sure I got some POC respondents.

If you don't mind and you have the time, please complete the survey. It's only 10 questions long and it is right here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C3WFG8Q

Thanks a bunch. You guys rock!
 

Vegetarian Cannibal

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If and when your afrocentric press generates sales, I'll revisit this idea of yours. I've been burned by too many new and micro presses to submit to them anymore, unfortunately. That being said, a dedicated indie press for/by POC would be a dream to work for. I've worked with small LGBT presses in the past. Diverse-focused indie publishing can work and there's a high demand for it (at least with LGBT--mainly gay, M/M). POC readers and writers want to see more racial/ethnic representation, too. #WeNeedDiverseBooks is a very trendy topic right now. If there were more publishers that catered exclusively to POC, that would be awesome. Everyone talks the talk but I've yet to see someone step up and make it happen the way LGBT publishers/writers have.

Anyway, I hope your idea is a success. You need to get the word out on social media. Do not underestimate the power of black twitter. ::laughs:: Try approaching Black Nerd Girls with your idea or other black-nerdy bloggers. Good luck.
 

JS Emuakpor

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Anyway, I hope your idea is a success.
Thanks for your well-wishes. And yes, I have seen the power of Black Twitter! I'll definitely put the word out. Just waiting for a release date for our first novel (and he cover art). Once we have a product to look at, we're going to hit social media very, very hard. Fingers crossed!

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks a bunch for all your responses. The survey is now closed and we are crunching numbers!
 

JS Emuakpor

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So it's been a little over a year (barely), and I've been terribly silent. I said I'd post results and I would have, except my computer crashed and I lost EVERYTHING. Everything except my full length WIPs. Luckily, I'd been emailing those to myself for many moons. I know, I should have backed up my computer and I meant to... really did.

Needless to say, losing my work set me back quite a bit. More psychological than anything else, because most of the work I lost was garbage. There, I said it. Anyway, by the time I consoled myself out of despondency, life started getting in the way. Now I'm back on track. Mostly.

Afrocentric Books is open for business and we are taking submissions.

As for the results of the survey. They were surprising, yet not.

In a nutshell, a majority (~85%) of respondents said they would be interested in reading stories featuring Black/African cultures and/or characters. Only about 10% of total respondents identified as Black or partially Black. And the majority of them (>60%) said they would not be particularly interested in reading stories featuring Black/African cultures and/or characters. Despite what I initially thought, it appears my target audience will, in fact, be heavily non-black. Very interesting.

Submit your stories! We would like to get publishing!

Oh, and if you know any awesome fantasy artists, please ask them to contact us.
 

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I'm going to lock this and copy the last post to Markets where more writers will see it.
 
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