Interracial Romance: Fad or the Future

One might wonder why I would bother to ask such a question given the proliferation of interracial/multicultural romances with the last 10 years. If you are wondering if this is a fad or a harbinger of things to come, let me begin with this hypothesis: Mainstream literary agents and some publishers have two perspectives.

One, they consider this a fad; a recent boom coming from minority writers who dwell within our urban landscapes. They see the scores of self-published fiction on Amazon and elsewhere, and since this literary trend seemed to "come out of nowhere", it may fade as quickly it rose.

Two, they see it as the future. Yet because interracial (or "IR" as it is known in the trade), is a sub-genre within a sub-genre, my hypothesis is that it is still far too esoteric to be profitable. After all, the great amount of IR romance involves black women and white men; and because we always read about a heroine with whom we can relate, why would a white female want to read a romance wherein the heroine does not reflect her? Fair enough.

And we know that the largest demographic of romance readers are white females from the southern half of the United States, so it stands to reason that a literary agent who looks to the marketability of a good story first is going to decline representing a project that they perceive has limited sales potential. After all, this is business.

Yet I would like to add in a third variable which in no way impugns those in the business of representing authors for a living.

Might it not be that the many rejections that go out from long-established mainstream literary agent houses are because of a failure to fully perceive the rapidly changing racial, cultural, and "inter-relational" world around them? That from the competitive realms of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and other literary strongholds there lacks a visionary outlook which says, "We should represent more of this kind of literature"?

In part, I say, yes. Interracial romances are not a fad, and are not only here to stay, but they are going to grow and flourish. It is the future of romance much in the same way music like rap and hip-hop (once an anomaly of the urban fringe) have now gone mainstream.

I look to Kensington and Harlequin Publishing houses whose IR imprints do sell, and sell well enough for these giants to see profits generated from stories that feature non-white protagonists. Sadly, the reality is that by virtue of numbers in the population's demographic, white men/white women will continue to dominate mainstream romance submissions, acceptance by agents, and will end up on book shelves from publishers from now until romance writers go extinct.

But as the hearts and minds of people progress toward greater understanding and acceptance (notice, I did not say tolerance), of love across color lines, I do hope more agents realize they stand to profit by taking a chance on an ever-escalating trend.

Or perhaps I should reassure them that there are more than enough fans of IR romance; readers like me who would make it worth their while.

The Ides of March

Unlike Caesar, I don't believe I should be wary of anything except the ever expanding mud puddles forming in my front yard.

Yes, the weather is changing, and as the Sun grows warmer and the days longer, I feel that sense of incubation so prevalent in the final stages of winter. Call it the end of a hibernation? Not really.

Dormant, I am not. The winter for me is a chance to regroup, renew, and prepare for a "coming out".

What do I mean?

I am not sure, to be honest. Perhaps it is an anticipation of results after spending much in the way of  sweat equity, and other investments into my future. Right now, the investment I am making in my writing will, I pray, result in the acquisition of a book contract. It has been a long slog through piles of rejections, requests for chapters and manuscripts, and still more rejections.

I do take heart that my editor, author, J.J. Murray (who I also count as my mentor), keeps encouraging me to stick with it--something I intend to do, since the only way I can fail is to give up.

So write on, I say! Write, read, reflect, incubate, and write some more. I know that I have great stories to tell, stories that come from hard knocks, tough experiences, from pain and glory, and from the heart.

Is all that enough to sell a book? I shall be able to tell you that once one of my books is sold. And that will happen since I am not about to give up.

March has arrived. And it's snowing outside my window. I could lambasted this situation by hurling explicatives at the heavens, but would no nothing to influence the snow itself. I move on.

A recent comment from a fellow authoress bid me to consider venturing out on my own and self-publish my very excellent books. I am giving this some serious thought. Why?

Partly because after nearly three years of querying and receiving rejections for a genre that is a little too "fad" or marginal (I write interracial romance) for most agents; and in part because I get tired of waiting the months it takes for agents and editors to review my work. Why can't they just shove the gargantuan piles of queries aside and read mine first? Too much to ask? Really?

I believe the time has come to grab the creative bull by the horns and Kindle my way to success.

Yes, I know. There is no guarantee that success will fall into my lap--but if I seize it, hold it in my clutches, never let it go--yes, that's it... I...

Oops. Sorry. Don't know what came over me. Ahem!

Yes, self-publishing. It seems like a quick fix and a whole lot of work. Then there is the marketing, the need to get the word out in order to stand out. Internet access, blogs, book signings, media outreach; yep, a whole lot of work.

I could just wait and allow time to be my best friend. An agent does the footwork of getting the book sold to a publisher. The publisher does the leg work of formatting, printing and binding, or formatting and uploading, and some marketing. There's contracts all along the way, which nibbles at the take home revenue, but hey, they have to make a living, too. Right?

With that in mind, the thought of self-publishing look ever more appealing. After all, I believe in my work. I want the public to have access to it, I don't mind working for my success--not one bit!

Perhaps it is best to consider entrepreneurship, self-determination, and grabbing that bull.

And I've wrestled with enough bulls on this publishing quest to know enough to watch out for those horns!