I hope your questions about publishing and submitting got answered.

Thanks for noting I didn’t call regard you as white in the first quote either, since you stated you were dark not white or black.[/quote]

Monica,

I thought I cleared that up the first time you made that claim. Once more, and then I’m really done.

I said I was darker than the rest of my family. Which remains true. Darker is still a comparative word.

The picture, for what it’s worth, is in black and white. Shades of color between black and white will only ever show up as grey. I put a blue tinge over it for artistic effect. Judging what color I am by that picture is sort of silly, but okay.

However, I never claimed to be dark.

I in no way was laughing at you.

Monica is like running into Hannibal Lecter at a PITA rally.

I just can not believe she is real.

I hope your questions about publishing and submitting got answered.

Thanks for noting I didn’t call regard you as white in the first quote either, since you stated you were dark not white or black.

I know very well you aren’t black and American or you would have never written such offensive things.
[/quote]

[quote]
As a white author, you never have cause to be affected by them, that’s why you can be so annoyed by Monica’s expression of what it feels like TO BE affected and work under that reality.
[/quote]

[quote]
You can submit to the romance houses and leave race out and it will be assumed you’re not black if you’re light enough as your pic attests you’re are.
[/quote]

You, BSA and you again. I’ll grant you that the last one doesn’t say I’m white. Just that I’m light enough to pass.

I apologize to Jane for dragging out a pointless discussion for far longer than it should have gone on.

You say you’re an ethno-mutt. Fine.

You can submit to the romance houses and leave race out and it will be assumed you’re not black if you’re light enough as your pic attests you’re are.

You can submit books with characters for nonblack lines at Harlequin. Harlequin may pick it up for that line or consider it for Kimani. Other pubs may release it as a single title (with black folks on the cover), send it to their black imprint or not. It will depend on who you are, what your book is like, and if they have any other books with black characters coming out when yours would in that line.

So race doesn’t have to be an issue.

However, if you come out as an unabashed, unashamed black author, eventually race will be an issue. You can count in it.

But since you stated that isn’t going to happen in your case, it’s a moot point–for you.[/quote]

if you’re light enough as your pic attests you’re are.

HAH! Damn! Monica you are something.

I see they have been answered several times and you misconstrue the answer or attack.

Nobody has assumed you’re white. You say you’re an ethno-mutt. Fine.

You can submit to the romance houses and leave race out and it will be assumed you’re not black if you’re light enough as your pic attests you’re are.

You can submit books with characters for nonblack lines at Harlequin. Harlequin may pick it up for that line or consider it for Kimani. Other pubs may release it as a single title (with black folks on the cover), send it to their black imprint or not. It will depend on who you are, what your book is like, and if they have any other books with black characters coming out when yours would in that line.

So race doesn’t have to be an issue.

However, if you come out as an unabashed, unashamed black author, eventually race will be an issue. You can count in it.

But since you stated that isn’t going to happen in your case, it’s a moot point–for you.

Except for the part where, because I don’t share your viewpoint, I’m apparently automatically white and have no concept of discrimination and couldn’t possibly understand. You go on believing that.

[quote]Tess Garritsen said on her blog, in writing, that she chooses to write white characters because they sell and she wants to be successful. She has also said she’s gotten flak from Asians for doing so.[/quote]

Aha. I did not know that. Fair enough.

[quote]
I might be able to write all whites under a pen name, but I would also have to say I’m an ethno-mutt and accentuate my other heritages and deny my black one vigorously (which I could do, I’m mixed also). You could probably do so also.
[/quote]

If I wanted to do that, I probably could, if I were interested in telling people what race I am or am not when I submit manuscripts. I’m not. Never have been. Don’t intend to start now. Ah well.

[quote]So, a black person can be accepted and participate in places where they are shut out if they’re willing to pay the price.[/quote]

So a black author who writes for a non-AA line or writes non-AA characters is a sellout. Got it. Good to know.

[quote]The race bias in publishing and the existence of an AA race-based literary niche isn’t debatable. It’s fact. It exists and is silly to engage with somebody who simply says it doesn’t. Might as well say the sky isn’t blue.[/quote]

That’s a good stance to take with someone who said it doesn’t exist. Good luck with that.

I asked questions. I’d think that someone who wants to get the message out so badly would answer them without dismissing the person asking or the questions themselves.

Apparently I was wrong. Also good to know.

Come on, I’m still waiting for you to explain your “experience” to rationalize your attack on Sara.

Sara is someone I really do not know and have only traded maybe two emails with over this whole event but you seem to feel you can judge her by her looks and her skin color.

Racist much there?

Anyhoo, Sara, I can’t see how anybody is discriminating against you by sharing their experiences as a black person.

Tess Garritsen said on her blog, in writing, that she chooses to write white characters because they sell and she wants to be successful. She has also said she’s gotten flak from Asians for doing so.

BSA’s point is Garritsen is allowed to do so while black authors can’t unless they dissemble about race.

I might be able to write all whites under a pen name, but I would also have to say I’m an ethno-mutt and accentuate my other heritages and deny my black one vigorously (which I could do, I’m mixed also). You could probably do so also.

LaShawn Barber is accepted in areas that would never accept other blacks and Barber is much darker than I am. But she often publicly states disdain for other blacks as a whole on her blog and that makes her acceptable to those circles.

So, a black person can be accepted and participate in places where they are shut out if they’re willing to pay the price.

The race bias in publishing and the existence of an AA race-based literary niche isn’t debatable. It’s fact. It exists and is silly to engage with somebody who simply says it doesn’t. Might as well say the sky isn’t blue. I’m not going to argue with that either.

Has Ms. Gerritsen said that she writes white content to reach a mainstream audience? Anywhere? Or is that simply your opinion on what she’s doing? Is it not possible that she writes characters as they come to her and doesn’t worry about whether they’re white or not?

Sara, yes, she certainly has. She’s said so a number of times when she blogs about the issue. I think, beyond all the other communicative misunderstandings, that case-in-point proves the point of the entire discussion.

Monica to me is a sad attention whore and about as shallow as a kiddy pool.

I honestly think she is only dangerous to her publisher.
I hope they have a good legal department.

LOL! Certain romance blog owners and their buddies need to calm the heck down.

Which is funny, given that I made sure when I checked their booklists that they weren’t authors who write only white characters, just so you couldn’t accuse me of … what you accused me of anyway.

[quote](equal to the likes of Tess Gerritsen, an Asian author writing “white content” to reach the mainstream audienece) I’ve never heard of them.[/quote]

Has Ms. Gerritsen said that she writes white content to reach a mainstream audience? Anywhere? Or is that simply your opinion on what she’s doing? Is it not possible that she writes characters as they come to her and doesn’t worry about whether they’re white or not?

[quote comment="23213"]
Sara, maybe I’ve missed something. Who said this was happening? Books being “pulled out of non-AA series lines…” I thought the issue was them never making there in the first place because the author (or characters) happen to be black Americans vs. white Americans…
[/quote]

I don’t know if it’s happening. I’m asking if something like it is happening. And the authors I listed, as Alison Kent pointed out, are AA authors who wrote/write for non-AA specific lines with AA-characters, not white characters.

This sort of response is why people get frustrated with this argument. Because someone arguing from a different viewpoint perspective might as well be shouting into the wind.

[quote]Because of the fact that in this industry black writers are expected to write for black audiences. be much better off not letting anyone know you’re black. I don’t know about the specific experiences of the authors you mentioned, but I’m willing to bet they, too, had to keep mum on their race if they wanted to write “white” content.[/quote]

Again, these women are AA-authors who are not always, if ever, writiing white content.

[quote]This isn’t an opinion, this is fact. There are unspoken rules in publishing. Blacks expected to write black, for other blacks, is one of them. As a white author, you never have cause to be affected by them, that’s why you can be so annoyed by Monica’s expression of what it feels like TO BE affected and work under that reality.[/quote]

I’d really like to know why you and Monica think I’m an author who doesn’t know anything about racial issues, or that I have no idea what it’s like to be discriminated against. I have stated, on this forum, that I’ve been the only minority kid in an all white school. I’ve stated that I don’t deny any of my races. I’ve called myself an ethnomutt.

How much clearer do I have to be? I’m not going to trot out my background or bloodlines to prove myself, but for pity’s sake. Do you not understand how insulting, dismissive and hypocritical it is to have people who are screaming about being marginalized and discriminated against do the same thing to me?

[quote]Like I said before, her situation only seems like an exception because she decided to fight the status quo, fight what’s expected of black authors. .[/quote]

And like I said on my blog, I’ve not yet made it to New York, but I’ve nearly gotten there several times. I have met some of the agents and editors I’ve submitted to. And I have never been told that I have to write to or for a specific market or that I can’t write what I want to write. I’ve never been questioned about my race or the race of my characters.

Which is why I keep asking questions about those of you who say that it’s happening. It’s difficult for me to believe that this happens all the time without more of an uproar.

Perhaps you could take a minute to look up these authors’ websites, show your interest in them as AA authors, and then you’ll see that they are not writing white content. I can understand you perhaps not being familiar with authors who write for category lines such as Blaze (Mia) or Special Edition (Shirley) or Desire (Brenda), but Kayla Perrin writes big women’s fiction books for houses such as Avon and St. Martine’s. I’m surprised you wouldn’t be familiar with her work.

Alison, no, I’m actually not familiar with their work. I responded on an assumption that Sara brought them up because they wrote “white content” and therefore had no hinderances in that regard because they were black.

I do think it’s important to note, that none are NY Times bestselling authors. In fact, if there are any AA authors on the Times List with “white content” (equal to the likes of Tess Gerritsen, an Asian author writing “white content” to reach the mainstream audienece) I’ve never heard of them.

I messed up my quote on the above comment, so what I’ve highlighted here is my response, the rest of the words were ones I was referencing.