a lot of romance readers are into historical and the likes of Loretta Chase and Lisa Kleypas. That fantasy is whoo-big different from relating to a contemp with a black chick.

Maybe so, but they’re both outside my own experience and so I never expect to relate to them. I find that both historicals and contemporaries have the ability to expand my world. Or they simply entertain me. It’s all good.

Most of what I choose to read is the direct result of someone on a site like this mentioning an author or title they liked. I’ve read Beverly Jenkins and Adrianne Byrd thanks to online recs. And now, because of recent discussions, I have several new books by other AA authors in my TBR pile.

Other people have more or less said what I would say. Not to mention I don’t have much to add after my long diatribe at SB. I really don’t have a solution to this dilemma. I’m such a promotions whore I’ll send my book to anyone and, attend the opening of an envelope.

Which reminds me, Loose-Id just bought my most recent manuscript, Try A Little Tenderness. With any luck, it’ll be out in August.

I respect and understand the views of many authors and readers who wish to be niched. After so many decades of wandering in the ‘black people don’t read’ desert, I understand why they’d be leery of taking such a leap.

How can you go from making the jump from aristocratic inevitably wealthy English rake kicking hordes of bad dark native ass (hey, the only Chase I finished was Mr. Impossible) to some regular U.S black dude?

Heh, I hated Mr Impossible, pretty much for that reason. I think Reader I Married HIm is going to do an analysis of that, As you Desire and The Duke of Shadows re: romance and colonialism. I’m very much looking forward to it.

(Sorry, off-topic.)

Not to be irreverent, but I'm thinking maybe they have a point. Romance is romance, but a lot of romance readers are into historical and the likes of Loretta Chase and Lisa Kleypas.

Actually, Monica, I think the call for contemp is getting pretty loud. I’m seeing more and more readers comment about how they want just a straight, normal contemp, more romantic suspense, etc. I’m big on an urban fantasy kick right now, but when I’m reading romance lately, I’m wanting contemp & suspense, too.

I dunno. Not to be irreverent, but I’m thinking maybe they have a point. Romance is romance, but a lot of romance readers are into historical and the likes of Loretta Chase and Lisa Kleypas. That fantasy is whoo-big different from relating to a contemp with a black chick. How can you go from making the jump from aristocratic inevitably wealthy English rake kicking hordes of bad dark native ass (hey, the only Chase I finished was Mr. Impossible) to some regular U.S black dude? I can kinda see your pain.

But I think more black authors are attempting to reach out over to the romance aisle and sending ARCs to this site and others such as AAR. It’s a good thing.

Once reason for the difficulty is as far as black authors sending ARCS….it's a dilemma. There's a limited number of books we get. We might spend our own money and postage for these books. I've heard some authors complaining about taking effort to send out books to romance sites only to be told that nobody wanted to review them. Most authors have lists for mailing that don't include romance sites where our readers don't frequent or our books are rarely reviewed. It's smarter to send them to sites where they will be appreciated by the reader, and more likely to be reviewed.

What about e-ARCs? Some authors send us their books in PDF file form. We never share these with anyone who is not a reviewer for DA, and most of us actually prefer them to print ARCs. I don’t know if it is feasible for AA authors to send us PDFs or even Word docs but if it is, maybe that’s one solution.

Monica wrote: as far as black authors sending ARCS….it's a dilemma. There's a limited number of books we get. We might spend our own money and postage for these books. I've heard some authors complaining about taking effort to send out books to romance sites only to be told that nobody wanted to review them.

I don’t know how many AA romance authors would have read this, but the sending an email with a blurb and excerpt would be an option that wouldn’t be expensive for authors. Is there some way of contacting lots of AA authors to share the request with them? Maybe Monica knows how to spread the word that you (i.e. the Dear Author reviewers) would be interested in being sent blurbs of AA romances and links to excerpts?

One other possibility as far as the Kimani books go, is that each month, at the beginning of the month, all the Kimani books will go up on the eHarlequin website. There are all the blurbs and excerpts there. It would perhaps be a bit more effort for you to go to that website rather than getting individual emails from authors, but it would still be a relatively easy way to find blurbs and excerpts.

I'd be twice as likely to buy a book if it was in eform as well

I don’t think the ebook part of the Harlequin site gives the excerpts, unfortunately, it only has the blurbs, but the Kimani books are available as ebooks.

I don’t think Parker Publishing or Genesis Press offer excerpts, and I didn’t notice them selling their books as ebooks.

4. Online shoppers: how do you search for new romance books?

Since I am admittedly a finicky reader, I usually rely on excerpts and recommendations from trusted readers whose tastes are similar to mine in the sense that they place a high value on good prose and characterization. Writing styles are a huge factor in my enjoyment of a book, so if an excerpt isn’t available and Amazon doesn’t offer a “look inside” the book, I won’t purchase. Period.

Books usually get on my radar based an email from the author or publisher or word of mouth from other readers. I also have favorite authors I make an effort to keep up with because I enjoy their books. I think I have actually reviewed all of Anne Stuart’s Ice series, but this has less to do with her being a “big name” author, and more to do with my love for Black Ice, a book I’ve probably read six or seven times since it came out in 2005. Before Black Ice was published, I was not reading Stuart regularly, and I was not yet a reviewer here, either. I was on the fence about whether to buy Black Ice, but a spoiler about the hero that was mentioned in a column on AAR intrigued me, and I already knew that Stuart’s writing style had some appeal to me, so I took a chance on it.

It’s interesting to hear Jane and Jayne’s feelings about books that are sent to us vs. books we buy. I don’t generally feel guilty about not reviewing free books if I did not request to have them sent to me. If I do request them, I make an effort to review them. But I do notice that where my guilt kicks in is if I want to read an older book. I feel as if the newer books are the ones clamoring for attention, the ones readers most want to know about. I read an older book occasionally, but it feels like self-indulgence. So for me, there is always this race to get to the newer books while they are still new.

Right now for example, I have a bunch of ARCs that Jane sent me. Three are May releases, but I don’t know if I’ll get to them in May. At the moment I’m reading Emily Giffin’s Love the One You’re With, a book I bought in hardcover with my own $$ becasue I loved Giffin’s Something Blue. Since I usually only review at the rate of a book every week at best (and often less frequently than that), I’m confused about what to read next — one of the May ARCs, or some June books since it will probably be June by the time the review of the book I read next posts.

I am also dying to read the new Loretta Chase before it comes out, but unless my opinion is radically different from Jane, Robin and Jayne’s, I doubt I’ll review it. Still, I really want to read it, since I loved her Carsington books. But if I do, I’m pretty sure I will feel guilty about that, since that reading time will come at the expense of reading a book I could review. It’s the curse of being a slow reader.

That’s what I was thinking when I said treat some black authors as if they weren’t black–the difference between nonblack and black romance authors is the reader buzz for nonblack authors because of the fact that the nonblack authors are read. Without being read by readers of the romance community, there is no chance for buzz in the romance community. Also, to be honest, black romance authors aren’t really a part of the genre as presented on most romance sites, but something different, outside the genre. It’s a Catch-22. We don’t need any sort of book affirmative action, we simply need the same chance to be read. But it’s difficult to figure out how.

Once reason for the difficulty is as far as black authors sending ARCS….it’s a dilemma. There’s a limited number of books we get. We might spend our own money and postage for these books. I’ve heard some authors complaining about taking effort to send out books to romance sites only to be told that nobody wanted to review them. Most authors have lists for mailing that don’t include romance sites where our readers don’t frequent or our books are rarely reviewed. It’s smarter to send them to sites where they will be appreciated by the reader, and more likely to be reviewed.

I can see some authors gladly making the extra effort if a book is requested for review…but that puts the onus on you to review it.

As things stand, I don’t see the situation changing anytime soon unless the romance sites make the effort to read a lot more black romance–and as you wrote, you have plenty romance to read already…or a lot more black authors make the effort to send ARCs in advance–and it’s not as if we don’t have places to send ARC’s. Although more readers are welcome, getting white readers on board has proved to be a tough nut to crack time and time again. Some have concluded it’s not worth the trouble and use their promo effort and dollars with care, targeting their likely readers.

This is also correct. The tickling the reader’s fancy is the goal of excerpts and blurbs. I’m not willing to buy books just because. I want to buy books I think I am going to like and excerpts and blurbs can help whittle that decision down. As Robin said, because of the volume of free books that we receive, we are more likely to read a book that is in front of us than one we have to specially order from a small print publishing house (I’d be twice as likely to buy a book if it was in eform as well). Jayne probably reads more books she purchases than anyone else on the blog. I feel compelled to read the books that I get sent for free because it costs money to send them to me and I want to make sure I am sensitive to that. I actually feel guilty sometimes reading books that I have purchased, personally, given the stacks of free books that we have.

If a book’s plot doesn’t interest me, I won’t read it no matter if someone sends me a print copy, e-copy, whatever. And unlike Jane, I feel absolutely no guilt in not reading a book even if it’s already been sent to us. I already have so many – heaps many – tons many – a houseful many of books – that even if I didn’t buy another one or was not given another one, I still have decades worth of books (no, I’m not kidding) to read. If I’m not interested, I’m not reading it.

As Jane says, we do this in our spare time and I want to enjoy what I’m reading. First it must interest me. Then it has to keep my attention. I do finish most of the books I start but I’ve ended up abandoning a few this year – some I bought and some that were sent to us by authors or publishers. I don’t like doing that but I’m not going to make myself miserable by continuing to read something I hate. And also as Jane says, I do buy a lot of books each month so I want to read them too.

I can’t remember reviewing every single release of any author. I think we have reviewed nearly every new release of Kresley Cole and maybe a couple of other authors but Cole sends us her books months in advance of the release date. I think Kathleen O’Reilly has done that. Similarly, I read Ann Christopher’s latest release because she sent it to me and I will be reading and reviewing Devon Archer’s June 2008 Kimani Press release because it was sent to me.

From what Jane's saying in her post, it sounds as though the decisions about what to review are affected by (a) what takes a reviewer's fancy, so if there's an author that many of you like, there are likely to be multiple reviews of their books, but if none of you are so keen on the book, it may get no reviews at all and (b) because you're sent review copies for free, you're all more likely to review those than to seek out books you have to pay for, although this may vary from one DA reviewer to another.//

This is also correct. The tickling the reader’s fancy is the goal of excerpts and blurbs. I’m not willing to buy books just because. I want to buy books I think I am going to like and excerpts and blurbs can help whittle that decision down. As Robin said, because of the volume of free books that we receive, we are more likely to read a book that is in front of us than one we have to specially order from a small print publishing house (I’d be twice as likely to buy a book if it was in eform as well). Jayne probably reads more books she purchases than anyone else on the blog. I feel compelled to read the books that I get sent for free because it costs money to send them to me and I want to make sure I am sensitive to that. I actually feel guilty sometimes reading books that I have purchased, personally, given the stacks of free books that we have.

So I'm inferring that publishers of AA romances don't tend to send you copies of their books. Would that be correct? Is it normally publishers or authors who send you copies of books? //

We mostly get books from the publishers and I actually prefer it that way. If an author sends me her book, I feel more obligated to read/review it.

So, do the publishers who already send you books ever send you books by their AA authors? If not, why not? //

Every month Avon publishes one or two AA books (at least AA by the characters on the cover). I’ve also received AA books (again looking at the cover) from Penguin which appear to be marketed to the general public. Speciality print publishers ordinarily don’t send us ARCs except for a couple and they generally send us e-arcs but almost only when we request them. We don’t get any books from the Dafina line from Kensington and would have to purchase those in order to read them.

Harlequin does not send out ARCs of its category/series books.

I don’t know if that answers the questions that you have but I think that if more AA authors would send us an email saying with the back cover blurb and a link to an excerpt, we would likely increase our coverage of AA authors. Part of the reason some authors get more play here on the blog than others is because these authors make themselves known to us. They send us the books. Sometimes we get reminders of the publication date (which I actually appreciate).

Reviewing is something all of us do in our spare time in addition to our real jobs so going out and searching new books isn’t something that I spend a lot of time doing when I’ve got 100+ books each month that arrive on my doorstep and in my mailbox.

I suspect I'm misunderstanding you and taking you too literally, but I couldn't find any reviews here of Beverly Jenkins's novels. Is that a problem with the search facility or are they just not there?

Sorry, Laura; what I meant was that DA has been reviewing AA-authored Romance just like white (or other ethnicity)-authored Romance since the blog’s inception (and FWIW, I’m reading Jenkins’s new one right now for review). I read Monica’s comment with an emphasis on “someone” and Beverly Jenkins as an example.

Is it normally publishers or authors who send you copies of books?

It’s both, actually. As Jane said, we get far more books and requests to review than are humanly possible to complete, and the factors that go into whether or not to review a book are neither fixed nor one dimensional (nor the same for every reviewer). But the first cut, so to speak, occurs at the level of what books and queries are sent to us, because those books or requests are right there in front of us, getting our attention. And we do get some AA-authored books (some we purchase; the majority of the AA-authored books I’ve read I have purchased — all but the Jenkins, in fact).

Outside of a few long-time favorite authors whose books I still keep track of, I try to review some different books, books I might not otherwise pick up on my own, books that Jane sends to me, and books that strike me as interesting for one reason or another. But the collection of possible review books, even at that level, is way beyond what I can do, so actually seeking out books I don’t know about is very difficult these days. Which is why I think Jane put out the word to authors who might want a new release reviewed.

However, your point about publishers making an effort to send their AA-authored books more routinely is a good one. What I don’t know if how readily any particular books are sent out for review, because not all books published are sent out by the publisher, and some ARCs are the responsibility of the author to send, etc. This is another layer of inequity in the publishing world, one that tracks across different lines, but can be at least partially countered by authors who can send out a blurb and a link to an excerpt, for example. We are all HUGE book buyers here, so it’s far less about the book being gratis than it is about simply knowing a book exists and that a request for review has been submitted. Sometimes authors just don’t have the copies to send, and that’s completely understandable. But if we don’t know a book is being published at any given time, only a heads up is going to put that book into contention for review.

A solution would be to take someone such as Beverly Jenkins and review her books as you would review a white romance author of the same stature. For example, Jo Beverly isn't going to put a book out without the romance sites taking notice and reviewing it…well known and popular romance author's books aren't going to be ignored.

I think it would be easier for romance sites such as this one to pick a few (well known, respected, prolific, popular) black romance authors and treat them the same as any other well known (nonblack) romance authors and review their current releases consistently too!

As per the discussion I had with Monica on her blog, I furthered the offer Ciar Cullen had made to review any AA author books they cared to let me know about/were happy to send me an ARC for (I AM a poor author, and I’m not on the publisher ARC lists :) the library is my friend ).

I don’t run an official review site (although I might set up a sep blog if I can figure out a name), I really can’t guarantee any sort of exposure, I don’t guarantee rave reviews (although if I dislike a book I’ll endeavor to coherently say why), and I’m sure my reviews will no doubt sound a bit fumbling as I figure out what I’m doing. But I have made a start.

No, It’s not solving the problem, nor finding a solution to any of the issues. But it’s offering support in the best, most positive way I can at this point. And hey, if one of the bigger review sites wants to pick them up, I’m all ears.

A solution would be to take someone such as Beverly Jenkins and review her books as you would review a white romance author of the same stature.

Dear Author has been doing this since its inception.

I suspect I’m misunderstanding you and taking you too literally, but I couldn’t find any reviews here of Beverly Jenkins’s novels. Is that a problem with the search facility or are they just not there?

Or if you’re meaning this in a non-specific way, are there any AA authors whose books the DA reviewers would automatically have (mentally) tagged as “someone whose books must be reviewed”? I think that’s what Monica’s thinking you might do for some “big name” authors, but I’m not sure you do this for anyone on the basis that they’re a “big name”. Maybe my memory’s bad, but I’m thinking that you don’t automatically review every single novel that Nora Roberts, Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn etc write.

From what Jane’s saying in her post, it sounds as though the decisions about what to review are affected by (a) what takes a reviewer’s fancy, so if there’s an author that many of you like, there are likely to be multiple reviews of their books, but if none of you are so keen on the book, it may get no reviews at all and (b) because you’re sent review copies for free, you’re all more likely to review those than to seek out books you have to pay for, although this may vary from one DA reviewer to another.

So I’m inferring that publishers of AA romances don’t tend to send you copies of their books. Would that be correct? Is it normally publishers or authors who send you copies of books? I could be getting totally the wrong impression here, but I’d got the impression that it’s a combination of the two.

So, do the publishers who already send you books ever send you books by their AA authors? If not, why not? It’s just that it occurred to me that maybe the segregation doesn’t just exist on the level of labelling of lines and shelving of books, but perhaps also affects which review copies are sent where. Maybe publishers are assuming that non-AA review sites won’t be interested in reviewing AA romances.

Do you think they would they send you some if you asked them to? For example, if Harlequin ever send you any books would they be open to the idea of sending you some Kimani ones? Avon publishes Beverly Jenkins. Do they send you other authors’ books but not hers? If that’s the case, maybe you could ask them why/request that they send you some of the books they publish by AA authors? And does Kensington ever send you review copies? Because if they do, maybe you could ask them to send you some romances from their Dafina line. As I’m already speculating wildly about what publishers might send out for review, I’ll stop there.

Dear Author has been doing this since its inception. I think Jane is saying that she’s willing to do more, and she’s asking for concrete assistance, whether that consists of authors sending DA blurbs or books for review, or something else. I think, in other words, she’s trying to create a collective, a network of allies that more actively shares strategies for change.

I think it would be easier for romance sites such as this one to pick a few (well known, respected, prolific, popular) black romance authors and treat them the same as any other well known (nonblack) romance authors and review their current releases consistently too!

The way this gets done here, for other authors, is most often the consequence of authors or their publishers sending review queries or review copies. I know that I have gotten to the point where I am simply trying to catch up on an ever-growing list of books I have to review, books that have been sent to us that I have committed to review (I often let Jane just assign books to me for review). I do purchase a lot of books, too, many of them after I review a book I love, but some I purchase, read, and then review (I do this with Shelly Laurenston’s books, by the way). Yet I still barely have time to read the books that have been sent to me, let alone figure out who is releasing what book when (especially for authors little known or unknown to me). Which is why, I think, Jane asked for some help from AA authors who want their books reviewed (i.e. please send them to us or at least send us a query).

A solution would be to take someone such as Beverly Jenkins and review her books as you would review a white romance author of the same stature. For example, Jo Beverly isn’t going to put a book out without the romance sites taking notice and reviewing it…well known and popular romance author’s books aren’t going to be ignored.

I think it would be easier for romance sites such as this one to pick a few (well known, respected, prolific, popular) black romance authors and treat them the same as any other well known (nonblack) romance authors and review their current releases consistently too!