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Libralind2
Regular Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 386
Registered: 09-2004
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 09:28 pm: | 
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From The New York Times ==
November 11, 2006
For Readers, a New Forum for Black Literature
By CELIA McGEE
Joy Bramble remembers when black writers
struggled to attain their dreams and the attention needed to sustain them.
“Now I can’t believe how many books are being
published by black writers,” she said. “It’s
almost as if we’re recognizing suddenly that
people want to read them, and we have so many stories to tell.”
Getting the word out to potential readers, though, has not been easy.
Publishers and authors still worry that
African-American titles receive sparse coverage
in the mainstream media where the space
allotted to books has been dwindling while
historically black newspapers like The Baltimore
Times, where Ms. Bramble is publisher, often have
scant resources to cover the arts.
But next week The Baltimore Times will join The
New York Amsterdam News, The Philadelphia Tribune
and several others in introducing Blacks & Books,
a monthly insert focusing on books by or of
interest to readers of African descent. The
project was conceived by Ken Smikle, president of
the Chicago-based market research and media
consulting company Target Market News, which in
March acquired the respected bimonthly magazine Black Issues Book Review.
“We’re trying to bring an otherwise unheard black
perspective about things happening in book
publishing across the board,” said Mr. Smikle,
who is publishing Blacks & Books from Black
Issues’ small, book-stuffed suite of offices on
the 15th floor of the Empire State Building. “I
have long thought that black newspapers were underutilized in that area.”
The first cover story: Senator Barack Obama and
his current best seller, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Contributors will include Black Issues regulars,
as well as freelancers, established authors and
newspaper journalists. In addition to reviews and
features, there will be a best-seller list,
author interviews, a literary calendar and a
children’s and young-adult section.
Mr. Smikle has placed day-to-day supervision in
the hands of Susan McHenry, a founding editor of
Black Issues who returned as editorial director
after Mr. Smikle’s acquisition. “The writers will
be a combination of familiar names and young
people,” Ms. McHenry said, “because it’s an
opportunity to help another generation find a voice.”
The publishing industry is greeting the
enterprise and its initial 100,000-copy print run
with enthusiasm, and caution. Delivering a
national publication to a local, selected
readership does make economic sense, publishers
said, especially with advertising rates topping
out at $8,000 for a full-page color ad and the
potential for additional presence in retail
outlets, at book festivals and among book clubs.
Still, said Sara Nelson, editor in chief of
Publishers Weekly: “In this day and age, with
newspapers cutting back on book coverage, I think
it’s a brave move.” Even her publication, the
book industry’s chief trade journal, addresses
the flourishing black market primarily “with
several features a year and during Black History
Month,” she said, so she would welcome someone
compiling an African-American best-seller list.
With so little marketing money to spread around,
and so much of it going to a handful of
high-profile titles, publishers depend on the
attention of book reviews. But mainstream reviews
often suffer from “a complete absence of
African-American titles,” said Patrik Henry Bass,
the books editor of Essence magazine. “To read
them, you’d think that in a month only one or two are released.”
Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book
Review, said, “Nothing is sufficiently covered.”
“We get so many books, and space is so limited,”
he said, “and we tend to concentrate on serious
fiction and nonfiction. So we’re more likely to
do a big takeout on Edward P. Jones, as we did,
and we published Skip Gates’s introduction to
‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ ” he said, referring to
Henry Louis Gates Jr. “Our books tend to be a
small, select group, but that’s across the board,” he added.
Instead, African-American authors have come to
rely on radio, word of mouth, church group
appearances, book signings and the occasional
“Oprah effect.” The best-selling novelist Terry
McMillan, who helped kick-start the upsurge in
black books, first introduced herself to a wider
public by “putting her books in the back of her
car and driving to churches and conventions and
wherever else she could talk to black folks,” Mr. Smikle said.
Blacks & Books, he suggested, is his declaration
that writers shouldn’t have to do that.
This is especially true now that the larger
publishing world has taken notice, adding new
imprints and more African-American editors in
recent years. The flood of new titles range from
literary to populist, chick lit to street lit to
spirit lit, Edward P. Jones to Tyler Perry to
Tavis Smiley’s surprise hit “The Covenant With
Black America.” Seven-figure deals are being made.
Nonetheless, the frustration remains. “Black
authors don’t succeed because of the system, but
in spite of it,” Mr. Smikle said.
When fresh out of Queens College in the early
1970s, Mr. Smikle started with his brother, the
photographer Dawoud Bey, a black arts journal called Easy. It was short-lived.
“I wanted to be the black Jann Wenner,” he said,
laughing. His short Afro is graying now, and his
wardrobe runs to crisp white shirts and
conservative ties. Blacks & Books is a means of
joining the system with a twist.
For the first issue, the cover story by the
Chicago journalist Sabrina Miller fits that bill,
Ms. McHenry said. Senator Obama’s book, following
on the success of his memoir “Dreams From My
Father” (1995), explores this Illinois Democrat’s
political vision. And, unlike other books by
political figures, he actually wrote it, Ms. McHenry said.
“His memoir was one of my absolute favorites,”
she said. “He’s like the 21st-century Frederick
Douglass. He gives us an interesting way to
launch. As an icon in America and in our
community, lots of different hopes are pinned on him.”
Valerie Boyd, an assistant professor of
journalism at the University of Georgia and
author of “Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora
Neale Hurston,” believes Blacks & Books is an
important step. “For me, as a black writer,” she
said, “it indicates that there’s at least a
perception of black people as active and engaged
readers who are willing to read new books, which
is the opposite of the way the book industry seems to think of them.”
It also means that African-American newspapers
can begin to regain the role they once played in
the literary marketplace, Mr. Bass said.
“It’s gratifying to know that the black press can
once again have the continuing presence of books,” he said.
Mr. Smikle knows he and his staff have their work
cut out. He doesn’t have as many ad pages in the
first issue as he would like, and some newspaper
markets he has been courting are not yet on board.
“I have this theory, though,” he said. “When you
get an idea, you launch first, and the rest will come.”
No splashy party is planned, either, Ms. McHenry
said. “We’ll have an anniversary party, a
celebration of its longevity instead,” she said.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5761
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 12, 2006 - 01:39 pm: |
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Very interesting article, Li-Li. If I were a younger woman I would love to get into the black publishing field, not so much as an author but rather in the editorial and marketing capacity. |
Libralind2
Regular Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 387
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 12, 2006 - 04:16 pm: |
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Pleaseeeeeee You are young at heart..just DO IT
LiLi |
Zane
Newbie Poster
Username: Zane
Post Number: 29
Registered: 11-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 08:46 pm: |
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This is wonderful news. I can't wait to see the results.
Zane |
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