Ain't That a Shame →
The notion that “black books” don’t sell is pervasive at every level of publishing. Yet I have found few examples of books with a person of colour on the cover that have had the full weight of a publishing house behind them.4 Until that happens more often we can’t know if it’s true that white people won’t buy books about people of colour. All we can say is that poorly publicised books with “black covers” don’t sell. The same is usually true of poorly publicised books with “white covers.”
An old link but an appropriate one in light of Bloomsbury’s recent actions. Again.
On one hand, I hope they change that awful cover. On the other hand, I like the fact that Bloomsbury has slipped again, stumbled again, and that people took notice again. The cycle of slapping dishonest covers on books written from already marginalized perspective is not going to end without publishers feeling like people do take notice and do care, and not in the way that leads to increased sales.
