Marketing Black Books--part 1

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Now Playing: Marketing Black Books--part 1 - Should fiction written by black authors be shelved in African-American departments, a move that often helps nurture writers? Or should it be presented alongside other categories, such as general literature, allowing books written by black authors to take their place in publishing's mainstream? --Jeffrey Trachtenburg, The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2006 This article prompted me to organize a discussion to explore the issue of race in the book publishing industry, especially as it impacts that marketing of books by black authors. Following is part 1 of that discussion. Comments are welcome and encouraged. 00:00 – Overview 01:06 – Introduce the participants 01:27 – John McGregor, president JMG Books, literary agent 02:17 – Camille Hacker, editor, John Wiley & Sons 03:11 – Bridgett Davis, author of Shifting Through Neutral 03:45 – Economics of publishing 06:51 – History of the current system 08:17 – Impact of economics on an editorial POV 10:37 – 1963/64—Conglomerates start buying publishing houses 12:13 – Lingering perception that blacks don’t buy books 13:27 – Black books published straight to paperback 14:33 – An author’s expectations vs. the reality 15:58 – Book covers as indicators of industry’s conflicted feelings 16:38 – Barnes & Noble and Borders 18:08 – Does a race-based strategy really work? 18:41 – What are the “boundaries” for blacks? 19:36 – Just be grateful 20:06 – What do we mean by African American? 21:57 – AA life only understood through narrow lenses 23:01 – No salespeople of color, so sales to retailers are problematic 25:57 – Marketing amnesia 28:11 – Really, how thin are the margins? 31:32 – A surprising fact about Harpercollins’ backlist