The Wisdom of People on the Cover
Posted in Being A Reader, Blog
I have never commented on an Amazon review before this. I think it’s unwise to comment on one’s reviews at many levels. But I couldn’t resist this one.
Here’s the story.
This is original cover of my Harlequin Kindle novella, Merry Christmas, Baby. All the Christmas novellas by Harlequin authors have similar covers, with a wreath. Note there is no indication of the character’s race, and most other novellas with this cover have characters who are not black.
There were only two (count ‘em, two) reviews for that book. Here are the reviews.
Cute story! I miss Ms Jackson’s books. She’s a very talented writer. She’s a good story teller with a wicked sense of humor.
That review was fine.
Here’s the review I couldn’t resist commenting on.
I started the book, and liked the author’s style of description, but every person was described mostly in terms of race. It was way too much of a focus for me, and being white, I felt a little discouraged from reading the book because of the character’s attitude against white people. I chose to stop reading the book. Too bad Amazon doesn’t offer returns for digital content.
Really? Race is NOT the conflict or even an issue in this book. I did nothing but make some of my characters black.
Oops.
See, if there were black people clearly indicated on the cover, poor Doodle (who went to all the trouble to make an account for that one review) could have saved herself a lot of grief.
It is never a good idea for the author to comment on a review, but what the eff. This is what I wrote.
Methinks this person has never read a romance by a black person or with a black person in it. No black people on the cover for a warning. Poor Doodle. Race is not even the issue in the book at all, trust is. The entire family is interracial. Doodle must have read three pages, saw there were black people present, threw the book, screamed, and ran. Poor, poor Doodle. I apologize. This is why the publisher usually puts a picture with the race of the characters on the cover, or carefully indicates them in some way, to avoid this sort of thing. The original cover only had a Christmas wreath. The heroine is black, the hero is Jewish, but little ado is made about either.
I’m getting an inkling about why New York publishers are so adamant to put black people on the cover of a romance if there are black people in it. It avoids unnecessary trauma.
I hope the cover below isn’t going to traumatize more Doodles.
What do you think? I write within a niche, so it helps my books to be identified as a part of that niche so my niche buyers can recognize them and buy them. I understand that, especially with books in a bookstore. It also helps the Doodles of the world not be traumatized. Should books with black characters (or characters of any race for that matter) in romance have those characters clearly delineated on the covers? I wonder what people think about this? What about IR romances?
I’m very glad you’re posting again, Monica!
I discovered some more reviews for Merry Christmas, Baby on the Amazon page for the original volume, Takin’ Chances For The Holidays:
“Monica Jackson’s Merry Christmas, Baby completes the book with a sexy romantic/comedy that will have you bursting at the seams.”
“Monica Jackson’s Merry Xmas was funny I really enjoyed Sharyn’s mother’s character she was something else.”
“Heck, I’ve yet to see any Jewish people in romances, period. They must be there, right? Maybe I’m just missing them.”
There are some, but not very many, I think. There was a thread about them at Smart Bitches Trashy Books a while ago.
I’m so sorry you have to deal with these idiots, but I have to admit that when I *tried* to have my MC in the current novel be of mixed race (she referred to herself as a mutt) some of my pre-readers (all white) expressed concern, then, when later in the book the nasty neighbor lady argued with her and called her a nigger (which was totally in character for the old witch, and, frankly, symptomatic of some older people in rural America, God knows I hear it about our President often enough from our local retired population) my pre-readers got UPSET with me to the point that I pulled out all racial references in the whole book. I am trying to sell the dang thing and if every. single. reader. gets upset and threatens to quit reading over one word from a highly unlikeable character then I guess I’d better pay attention. But, damn.
Maybe I was too heavy-handed with the nasty neighbor lady, I dunno (she only said it once), but the uproar astounded me. I can’t imagine how you face this crap day after day.
If I get this kind of response from people who know me and like me, how can a white writer even *touch* on racism in their work? I can have likable and unlikeable characters cuss a blue streak and spew profane filth without anyone batting an eye, but one old bitch mutters the n-word and I’m the bad guy?
Again, I’m sorry you have to deal with such idiots. I wish I knew how to help.
@Laura,
Thanks for dropping by and giving me heads up about other reviews.
I was wondering about Jewish people in romance so much I asked a Jewish friend about it. What I got from her is that she feels totally assimilated with white America, but that’s just one person. I’ll go check out the SB thread.
@tambo
We’re not so far away from Jim Crow, but we think we are way above it. With all this denial comes a lot of taboo.
You’ve discovered the root of why white writers angst over writing authentic black characters. There is no such thing as an authentic black character, because black people are as different from each other as whites or anybody else. If you try to write a person according to some so-called racial characteristics, you will inevitably write a stereotype.
The one and only thing all American blacks have in common is the experience of racism.
The racial zeitgeist of America, regarding blacks, is so bad, thus so uncomfortable–it’s taboo to address directly. A black author writing for blacks doesn’t have to write in racism, because we don’t want to read that experience when we seek to be entertained. The white characters are the side kicks and bit players.
But a white author–writing for everybody without regard to their readers race–dropping in a black character or two with no reference to the ONLY thing that sets the black character apart from all the other characters rings false and patronizing.
Yet, they can’t mention racism (such as your character being called nigger–pretty realistic–I actually have been called nigger several times in my life) because this will upset everybody, both blacks and whites.
No win situation. Until the racial climate improves, authors will either leave blacks out or throw in black characters who ignore the one thing that sets them profoundly apart.
I read an urban fantasy set in an inner city with a drug addict protagonist. No black folks in that city. It obviously was in an alternate American universe where black people no longer exist. It made me sad. But if she wrote in black folks it would have made everybody, including herself, uncomfortable and affected the book sales.
I try really, really hard to write PEOPLE and I don’t give a flip what color their skin happens to be. It really surprised me that the one time I intentionally tried to make a point that racists are nasty, people got upset.
I honestly don’t know how you do it, Monica. Many, many {{huggs}}
“What I got from her is that she feels totally assimilated with white America, but that’s just one person. ”
Yes, I get the impression that not everyone would agree with her. Here’s an old post I came across which is “A Gentile Privilege Checklist.”
I have the impression that anti-Semitism and/or the lack of Jewish protagonists in romance novels aren’t discussed very often in the romance-reading community, but relatively recently there was another thread at SBTB, this time about Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy which did bring them up again. Sunita summed up what happened:
This right here is probably why I break out into sweat when I try to write fiction.
There are doodles everywhere. The last job before I got my present job, I was the only person of color on the premises and they worked so hard to not do color…it was a total white out…as though I didn’t exist. That was scary!
I have long given up on having covers actually represent the synopsis and story I read. This has been a pet peeve of mine, even when I was a Harlequin junkie as a teen. The character and pictures NEVER meshed!
Do I prefer to see a representation of the characters on the cover? HECK YES! Will I trash the book because it doesn’t? HECK NO! A good book, is just that…a good book.
On the other side of the equation, I prefer a populated cover, so that I can ascertain that this is an IR novel without having to read an excerpt. So sick of having to seriously dig to figure out if a novel is IR or not.
I see how clearly indicating what sort of IR romance on the cover would be useful, not only for the reader, but for an author interested in reaching that market. I suppose the covers with the white male only could be romance with a majority heroine rather than a black one.
Love your come back on Doodle. She should have read the book. She makes me feel like any race out side of White are not allowed to be in a romance book.