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Troy
Veteran Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 865
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - 12:53 pm: | 
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I wonder if McMillan’s latest salvo will have anymore impact than Nick Chiles’.
Actually, I know the answer: It will not. The bottom line is that these books will continue to crowd out the literary fiction as long was we buy it – full stop. There is nothing that a McMillan, or anyone else, can say that will change this.
Further, I assert that no one person should be able to impact this situation. The widely held impressions are that McMillan was driven to action because of the Plummer book and Nick was expressing sour grapes due to the lack of his own book sales.
Would Terry have been so vociferous if her marriage was going strong? Would Nick have spoken on the issue if he was a NY Times Bestselling author?
One thing I can say is that Terry, even more so than Chiles, despite their motivations, has raised awareness of this issue and that is a very, very good thing.
See when people attend the Harlem Book Fair (http://events.aalbc.com/harlem_book_fair_2007.htm), visit a couple hundred author tables and tell me they could not find anything to buy; they will now have some insight as to why…
Personally I don’t see and end to the urban/street/ghetto/hip-hop/gangsta genre, but at the same time I don’t see an end to the publication of literary works either. Sure the means of marketing, selling and promoting literary work may need to be to be revamped and updated; but why should literary books be any different and any other product?
Perhaps we will see the publishers of literary work transition from the German multinational’s to the independent or even self published authors.
They is room for all types of books. The publication of one type of book does not come at the expense of another.
AALBC.com will continue promote, without reservation or guilt, the best of all genres.
Peace,
Troy
The following are some additional articles on the subject:
Publishing Company Called Out over 'Ghetto Lit'
by Karen Grigsby Bates
http://tinyurl.com/2z8rk6
All Things Considered, October 12, 2007 (Radio, audio)
Author Terry McMillan sent a letter to Simon & Schuster's head editors, blasting them and the publishing world for publishing and promoting so-called "ghetto lit," which is often referred to as urban literature and urban fiction.
The genre often shows the most outrageously pathological part of black life.
Many esteemed black authors have been equally dismayed, but the McMillan broadside is now loosening lips.
Terry McMillan vs. Ghetto Lit
by Amy Alexander
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071029/alexander
The Nation, posted October 15, 2007 (web only)
“Almost two years have passed since writer Nick Chiles published a New York Times op-ed piece headlined, "Their Eyes Were Reading Smut."
Chiles, an African-American editor and author, had not written that headline, but its clever play on the title of Zora Neale Hurston's classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, quickly established Chiles's thesis question: How did so many poorly written black oriented titles--novels that depict wall-to-wall crime, sex, violence and hip hop ghetto-fabulousness--come to own so much shelf-space in major bookstores?
It's a topic that has been smoldering for the past several years among black writers who hold aspirations to literary seriousness. For us--I consider myself a "serious" writer, having authored or edited nonfiction titles concerning black topics--it is not about envying the big sales that "ghetto lit" books like Karrine Steffans's bestseller Confessions of a Video Vixen and Zane's Addicted rack up (well, not entirely, anyway).”
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 10310
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - 01:19 pm: |
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Yes, we always think that all problems have solutions but the solution to some problems is that they don't have an immediate solution, especially within the flux and variables of the human condition. What happens is that issues evolve and resolve themselves in the natural cause of things. In the future, quality literature and street lit will co-exist. It's a cliche, but time is what brings change. Of course, putting the idea of change on people's minds plants the seeds for change...zzzzzzzzz |
Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 1184
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 12:52 am: |
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Quality literature and street lit existed side by side 30 years ago....Random House(Toni Cade Bambara) and Holloway House(Donald Goines)....it's nothing new. And yeah, unfortunately, the garbage is here to stay. It's just a blackfaced version of Harold Robbins' old bullshit, or (better yet) Horace McCoy. |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 552
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 09:48 am: |
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How did so many poorly written black oriented titles--novels that depict wall-to-wall crime, sex, violence and hip hop ghetto-fabulousness--come to own so much shelf-space in major bookstores?
Self-publishing and vanity publishing have become very affordable in the past decade. If one so desires, one can have a 200-page book perfect bound for less than $7 a copy using Print-on-Demand (POD) technology. If one so desires, one can do a 1000 copy print run of a 200-page book for around $3000 using off-set printing, which breaks down to about $1.5 a copy. Then take these books to the streets, barbershops, salons, poetry cafes, even set up a free personal website or dummy corporation and sell the books direct and turn a profit.
Mind you, few of these books benefitted from any formal literary evaluation. The author acts as writer, acquisitions editor, publisher, editor, copyeditor, proofreader, and salesperson. Hence, the poor quality of the book.
I buy lots of books off the street here in NYC from self-pubbed authors. One book I purchased over the summer (I won't give the title or author) has a plot of twin sisters, one good one evil, out to land the same rich guy. The good twin really cares for him. The evil twin just wants the money. Halfway through the book, the author confused the twins; making the good twin evil, the evil twin good. A few chapters later, he got back on track.
It was a laughable, glaring inconsistency that an entry level editor would have caught. I won't get into the improper grammar (in narrative, not dialog), typos, homonym confusion ('there' for 'their'), incorrect punctuation, and so forth. As you can imagine, they were abundant. Nonetheless, he had a large box filled with his book and some on display spread out on a table. He sold them for $10 each, signed each purchased book, and threw in a free bookmark with the cover image on it.
While I spoke with him, he made 5 other sales; briefly pausing our conversation to personalize and sign each book, and thank his customer for their support. Including my purchase, he made $60 in 15 minutes; $48 of which is profit.
I don't doubt that he could convince several independent bookstores to stock his book on consignment.
I also want to make mention of why I personally believe Urban Fiction is such a hot ticket despite everything that may be wrong with the genre. The vast majority of people (Black, White, Asian, Latino, mixed) in this country fall into the low income/working class category. While most of us aspire to achieve wealth and the lifestyle that comes with it, few of us can relate to wealth or a wealthy lifestyle. Most of us can, however, relate to the struggles and conditions of the inner city or an otherwise low income/working class neighborhood.
The largest percentage of readers of Urban Fiction are inner city teens. These books speak to them. They identify with the characters; most of them share similar experiences with the characters. In a way, perhaps a big way, UF, for all its shortcomings, says to these teens 'you're not alone;' 'you're not the only one going through what you're going through'. Most UF that I've read usually has a moral. The moral is: Crime doesn't pay, and keep your head up. To me, that's a good thing - a positive message. No other genre is communicating to inner city teens on their level the way UF is.
Do we want our teens to read better books? Of course. I'm an optimist, and I believe that UF is quite possibly a baby step in that direction. Start them off with a book they can relate to and, hopefully, they'll wonder 'what else is out there?' They may start off reading K'wan and end up reading Jamaica Kincaid.
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