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Rules for commenting: Lia Silver is an open, public pen name of mine. Please do not name or drop hints regarding other pen names of mine. Just trust that I have them, and the characters are as I say they are. Same goes for other authors. No outing. You don't need to know Milly Taiden's real name to discuss the fact that she is 1) an enormous bestseller, 2) totally ignored in all these discussions, 3) most or possibly all her heroines are Latina.
I put this up as a comment at Kirkus, where it was completely ignored. Probably because I brought in that least respectable of authority doings,* self-publishing. However, if anyone would like to discuss my point, please discuss.
[* ETA: I have no idea what that was supposed to mean, other than "things authors do." I haven't slept in three months and am on lots of drugs (medication, not recreational) and autocorrect isn't helping. It recently informed me that I need a socialist. I need a specialist. My country needs a socialist.]
Kirkus article on why the reviewer can't be bothered to read books featuring anyone other than white or straight characters
My comment: "I self-publish romance under pen names and while I don't know the readership of traditionally published books, the readership of self-published romance has a huge - possibly majority - contingent of people of color. In particular, there are a LOT of black women who love romance, and they read widely - not just African-American romance. Also, white readers who read self-published romance seem 100% fine with reading about heroines of color, in my experience. There have been no differences in sales of my books with heroines of color vs. white heroines.
Milly Taiden's heroines are all (or almost all) Latina, and she is HUGE - currently # 6 of Amazon's PNR (paranormal romance) authors. She is definitely not just read by Latina readers. Terry Bolryder (# 3 on Amazon's PNR bestsellers) has heroines who are mostly African-American. Zoe Chant (# 12 in PNR) has a number of heroines of color, plus some heroes. Or just look here.
Not looking at self-pubbed authors gives a very skewed picture of racial demographics of both readers and writers of romance. I enjoy paranormal romance so that's mostly what I'm looking at, but check out the top paranormal romance authors on Amazon. Many are self-published, and many have heroines of color. (Some heroes of color too, but not as many as heroines.)"
ETA: I forgot to add that while LGBTQ is obviously also a an issue of diversity in writing, it is a different one from the issue of the race of protagonists in romance. FF and MM romance novels are different genres than MF romance novels. While African-American romance can be a subgenre, the race of the protagonists does not typically change the genre of a romance novel the way that their gender does. For instance, Terry Bolryder's dragon menage books often have two white heroes and a black heroine. Their genre is "paranormal menage romance," and would be that if everyone was black, everyone was white, or the heroine was Asian and the men were Latino. If it was a MMM menage, then it becomes a different genre.
What this means, among other things, is that there are reasons why some readers might only read MM or FF or MF that have nothing to do with bias - they just aren't into the genre. If a reader said, "Hey, I love TS Joyce [an excellent PNR writer who usually or always has white protagonists], who else should I read?" I would rec them Marjorie Liu [an excellent PNR writer with multiracial protagonists] because the race of the protagonists should not make a difference in their enjoyment. I would not rec them a MM or FF writer with white protagonists unless they said they liked that too, because gender does tend to make a difference in people's reading enjoyment. It's a genre. If someone tells me they like historicals, I'm not going to rec them contemporary.
My experience with my own readers bears me out on this. Readers who like my MF romance books with white heroines like my books with heroines of color. (I know this because sales are identical regardless of the heroine's race, while other factors make a huge difference in sales. For instance, heroes who shapeshift into amusing tiny animals don't sell anywhere nearly as heroes who shapeshift into large manly animals.) But readers who like my MF books often don't even read my romance books with FF or MM main relationships. And vice versa. Different genres; I like all three, but I am probably in a minority there. Most people I know only like one or two, or at least have a strong preference for one.
However, if readers like my fantasy and sf (as opposed to paranormal romance), I'll rec them other fantasy or sf that's similar to mine with no regard to the genders in any subplot romances, because in those cases the romances are secondary to other elements and most readers won't care what genders are involved. Readers who love Swordspoint (which has a primary MM relationship) are probably responding to it being a fantasy of manners, and will enjoy books like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or Sorcery and Cecelia, which have primary MF relationships but are also fantasies of manners.
In other words: the people who think the race or ethnicity of the protagonists in genre romance is a dealbreaker for readers are generally wrong. I guess unless the readers are unusually racist. I do not assume that readers are unusually racist, and I wish that mainstream publishing and reviewers would stop assuming that. (Yes, I am biting my tongue to not state the obvious conclusion.)
Anyway, the fact is that due to racism within the industry, romance readers are underserved when it comes to traditionally published romance novels with racially diverse protagonists, but they are gobbling up self-published romances with diverse protagonists. That may be the cause or it may be because self-published books are cheaper or there may be some other reason, but the only people who appear to be refusing to read romances if the heroine isn't white seem to be concentrated in powerful positions in mainstream reviewing and publishing. No wonder so few diverse romances are traditionally published!
ETA 2: Feel free to link this! I would love to get more discussion going.
I put this up as a comment at Kirkus, where it was completely ignored. Probably because I brought in that least respectable of authority doings,* self-publishing. However, if anyone would like to discuss my point, please discuss.
[* ETA: I have no idea what that was supposed to mean, other than "things authors do." I haven't slept in three months and am on lots of drugs (medication, not recreational) and autocorrect isn't helping. It recently informed me that I need a socialist. I need a specialist. My country needs a socialist.]
Kirkus article on why the reviewer can't be bothered to read books featuring anyone other than white or straight characters
My comment: "I self-publish romance under pen names and while I don't know the readership of traditionally published books, the readership of self-published romance has a huge - possibly majority - contingent of people of color. In particular, there are a LOT of black women who love romance, and they read widely - not just African-American romance. Also, white readers who read self-published romance seem 100% fine with reading about heroines of color, in my experience. There have been no differences in sales of my books with heroines of color vs. white heroines.
Milly Taiden's heroines are all (or almost all) Latina, and she is HUGE - currently # 6 of Amazon's PNR (paranormal romance) authors. She is definitely not just read by Latina readers. Terry Bolryder (# 3 on Amazon's PNR bestsellers) has heroines who are mostly African-American. Zoe Chant (# 12 in PNR) has a number of heroines of color, plus some heroes. Or just look here.
Not looking at self-pubbed authors gives a very skewed picture of racial demographics of both readers and writers of romance. I enjoy paranormal romance so that's mostly what I'm looking at, but check out the top paranormal romance authors on Amazon. Many are self-published, and many have heroines of color. (Some heroes of color too, but not as many as heroines.)"
ETA: I forgot to add that while LGBTQ is obviously also a an issue of diversity in writing, it is a different one from the issue of the race of protagonists in romance. FF and MM romance novels are different genres than MF romance novels. While African-American romance can be a subgenre, the race of the protagonists does not typically change the genre of a romance novel the way that their gender does. For instance, Terry Bolryder's dragon menage books often have two white heroes and a black heroine. Their genre is "paranormal menage romance," and would be that if everyone was black, everyone was white, or the heroine was Asian and the men were Latino. If it was a MMM menage, then it becomes a different genre.
What this means, among other things, is that there are reasons why some readers might only read MM or FF or MF that have nothing to do with bias - they just aren't into the genre. If a reader said, "Hey, I love TS Joyce [an excellent PNR writer who usually or always has white protagonists], who else should I read?" I would rec them Marjorie Liu [an excellent PNR writer with multiracial protagonists] because the race of the protagonists should not make a difference in their enjoyment. I would not rec them a MM or FF writer with white protagonists unless they said they liked that too, because gender does tend to make a difference in people's reading enjoyment. It's a genre. If someone tells me they like historicals, I'm not going to rec them contemporary.
My experience with my own readers bears me out on this. Readers who like my MF romance books with white heroines like my books with heroines of color. (I know this because sales are identical regardless of the heroine's race, while other factors make a huge difference in sales. For instance, heroes who shapeshift into amusing tiny animals don't sell anywhere nearly as heroes who shapeshift into large manly animals.) But readers who like my MF books often don't even read my romance books with FF or MM main relationships. And vice versa. Different genres; I like all three, but I am probably in a minority there. Most people I know only like one or two, or at least have a strong preference for one.
However, if readers like my fantasy and sf (as opposed to paranormal romance), I'll rec them other fantasy or sf that's similar to mine with no regard to the genders in any subplot romances, because in those cases the romances are secondary to other elements and most readers won't care what genders are involved. Readers who love Swordspoint (which has a primary MM relationship) are probably responding to it being a fantasy of manners, and will enjoy books like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or Sorcery and Cecelia, which have primary MF relationships but are also fantasies of manners.
In other words: the people who think the race or ethnicity of the protagonists in genre romance is a dealbreaker for readers are generally wrong. I guess unless the readers are unusually racist. I do not assume that readers are unusually racist, and I wish that mainstream publishing and reviewers would stop assuming that. (Yes, I am biting my tongue to not state the obvious conclusion.)
Anyway, the fact is that due to racism within the industry, romance readers are underserved when it comes to traditionally published romance novels with racially diverse protagonists, but they are gobbling up self-published romances with diverse protagonists. That may be the cause or it may be because self-published books are cheaper or there may be some other reason, but the only people who appear to be refusing to read romances if the heroine isn't white seem to be concentrated in powerful positions in mainstream reviewing and publishing. No wonder so few diverse romances are traditionally published!
ETA 2: Feel free to link this! I would love to get more discussion going.
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