So the truth is out: readers really don't like books about furriners from weird places

It's disappointing to hear, but I'm not entirely surprised. Come to think of it, I'm surprised that even books about Indian characters sell

I've been trying to target my books to Indian expats, with limited success, but I don't have the marketing muscle of a big publisher. Just curious, why are they targeting a white audience--is it their default approach?

This is incredibly disappointing. Really appreciate your candidness, Aruna, and I'm glad your publisher are still supporting you and communicating honestly with you. They sound like good people, and yeah, they rock for putting black people clearly on your covers and in your blurb.

I think it depends on the genre you're writing in, and who your intended audience is. Books about out of the way furriners and odd places sell pretty darned well in some genres, and win awards. They sell not at all well in other genres.

I do suspect Guyana books would work better in Guyana. There's nothing wrong with this. You can give readers a fork, even if it's a beautiful fork, when they really want a spoon. You might, though, take the usual route and give them a spoon that was made in Guyana. This is more than a fair compromise.

I'm uncomfortable with the click-bait title for this thread, especially given the OP wrote a much more nuanced and thoughtful assessment of the situation in her post. As she stated there, it is hard to know why one book is less-successful than another, because books aren't widgets. Maybe the second book is less successful than the first because it had a black girl on the cover, or maybe the second book generated less word-of-mouth because it wasn't enthusing readers like the first one did. We can't know, because one data point is evidence, but not proof.

If you look at the publishing industry as a whole, then you have a body of evidence that helps average out the differences between books. And it may show that white audiences don't buy books about non-white characters, or it may show that a whole bunch of un-examined biases among publishing professionals has created a self-perpetuating system that under-values books that are not about mainstream white people. Again, we can't really tell the difference between those two cases without studying the data extremely carefully and perhaps running a few controlled tests.

To me, it doesn't seem like sound logic to say that books about furriners from weird India are going to be better liked than books about furriners from weird Guyana. I wonder if that's more an excuse made by publishing professionals who want to sound like they understand what happened than a fact determined by concrete evidence. This is exactly the sort of situation where un-examined biases could be a factor in what gets said.

The only way to really tell the difference is to do a controlled test: Release the same book with different covers under otherwise similar circumstances and then track the individual sales. And even then, you might only be tracking what audiences have been trained to look for by a publishing industry that has offered them, for decades, a very narrow portrayal of their favourite types of books.

aruna said:

Just want to say this: India is not considered "weird" in the publishing world. India is or was extremely popular ... in fact, a few years ago India as background was what all publishers were thirsting for. Sales were the foundation of this bias. that's why I was supposed to write more and more India.

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As you said, it depends on the publisher. I have a family member who wrote (what I consider to be) an excellent Indian novel. His agent liked it enough to submit it to a couple of Big Five publishers, including some Indian imprints, but she was told that Indian novels aren't sellable anymore.

Aruna, I suspect this is a lot more complex than 'having characters from Guyana'. There are so many variables in a book. The plot/characters are undoubtedly factoring into your sales in a big way. In this case, this may be a story near and dear to your heart, but not so much to a broad stroke of readers.

As an artist, this happens to me all the time. I swear, if I pour my blood, sweat, and tears into a sculpture, it sells low. If I slap it together to make a quick buck, it sells high. Such is creative life.

Aruna's literally being *told* by publishing pros that the Guyana setting is the issue, though. If plot/character was also a contributing factor, surely a savvy editor would have suggested a plot/character focussed revision instead of saying the setting makes it unsellable?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to believe there's more to this than publishers being weird about books with non-Western settings. But Aruna is only receiving feedback about the setting. She can't know if there are other factors involved unless told, and there's no way for a trade published author to run any kind of control tests on the audience.

It's not easy or comfortable to think the Guyana setting might be this much of an issue, but it's what two entirely different publishers have said quite plainly.

EMaree said:

It's not easy or comfortable to think the Guyana setting might be this much of an issue, but it's what two entirely different publishers have said quite plainly.

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There's the thing, however. How do they know? Did they quiz readers who didn't buy the book about why they didn't? Of course not; how would you even track such readers down? I really doubt they did any controlled study to try to figure out what really happened.

They have a guess, and their guess could be a repetition of biased beliefs, or a correct assessment of the situation . No one knows -- including the people saying it's true.

EMaree said:

Aruna's literally being *told* by publishing pros that the Guyana setting is the issue, though. If plot/character was also a contributing factor, surely a savvy editor would have suggested a plot/character focussed revision instead of saying the setting makes it unsellable?

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The publishing pros could be way off the mark here. Or tip-toeing.

Fashions come, fashions go. A few years ago India was hot (mostly because Bollywood became popular). I'm sure it still sells. Africa isn't hot. Nothing really popular has come from there (yet). It's really no more complex than that.

aruna said:

OK, this might sound horribly vain, but it's not just near and dear to my heart. One thing I really am good at, is plot and characters. I'm not so good at other things, but I can do those. I have been told, not only by my HarperCollins editor, but by at least two agents, the manuscript-assessment person who first got me a deal, and, now, by my new publisher that Guyana is the problem. HC offered me a contract for an unwritten novel. Just: no Guyana setting.

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See, as a reader, I find the Guyana setting fascinating, and I would buy your book in a heartbeat if I weren't so penniless today.

I have bought all your books except for your latest which I do plan on buying in the future. I was interested...

Victor Douglas said:

Africa isn't hot. Nothing really popular has come from there (yet). It's really no more complex than that.

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I would disagree with this - Alexander McCall Smith's series, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, seems as if it's been really popular. 15 books worth of popular. It's set in Botswana, southern Africa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_No._1_Ladies'_Detective_Agency

Personally, I'd much rather read a book set in Guyana than a book set in India. For one thing, I've never read a book set in Guyana, so I'm instantly interested.

However. The cover of the two clasped hands would put me off - because it makes the book look like it's purely about the issue of a relationship being interracial. Like, it gives me the impression that the heart of the book isn't the setting, or the characters, or the relationship itself, but simply the fact that it's interracial. I happily read books that have interracial relationships in them, or at the heart of them, but I don't enjoy books that are focused around an issue rather than around the characters - and while that's not how you describe your book, that's how the cover reads to me. I'd be much more likely to pick up your other book, the one whose cover has a black girl's face, because I would assume it's about her as a character.

The fact is, publishers don't know what factor causes a book to do well or badly. They can try and figure it out, but until they track down every single reader who bought one of your books but not the other and ask them why, they're basically guessing. Maybe it had absolutely nothing to do with race: one of the plot elements from your new book just hooked more readers. (For example, it looks like your earlier one is a family saga. A lot of people just aren't drawn to those.) If publishers knew for certain what worked, every single book published would be a bestseller.

Sorry, I'm not being dismissive, but the fact is that one or two popular authors or titles do not make something "hot". Hot is when everyone is aware of it and wants it. IMHO, the real problem here isnt you, your work, or the fanbase, it's the publishers who wont look at something unless it's trending. Maybe you need to find an a new publisher for your Guyana based works.

BTW- I would love to read you book, but as I never partake of digital books I have no idea what format my laptop might use.

Irrespective of nothing, and maybe Aruna is just too polite to mention it: Guyana is not in Africa. It is on the Atlantic hump of South America, next to Venezuela.

MM

You're right. As the one who made that mistake, I humbly apologize.

Victor Douglas said:

You're right. As the one who made that mistake, I humbly apologize.

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You are not the first, and I'm sure will not be the last, to make the mistake.

MM