April Random Ramblings

Welcome Back, Booklovers! This is another round of random ramblings where I ramble about all the topics floating through my head right now that I don't feel like filming a video or writing a full length blog post about one topic.

A lot of people are talking about respectability politics and the Black experience right now but quiet about how that manifests itself in books. So many of the lauded books by Black authors do engage in respectability politics in some aspect. It's the Black character whose appearance isn't described beyond curly hair and dark skin. Whose family members are off page the entire time despite the character claiming to be close to them because too many Black people in a book make a book a Black book which makes white readers feel uncomfortable.  Respectability politics is Black characters avoiding using Black vernacular, avoiding mentioning cultural dishes, lack of mention of superstitions or traditions. 

As someone who follows a lot of writers, interviews authors,  and is getting back into writing stories I enjoy observing and learning from various authors. There's so much discussion about author as a brand now especially as traditionally published authors take on more and more of a role of doing their own promotion. And it's very clear some authors don't know what their author brand is or how to reach their intended audience. Some people aren't even aware of how their publisher is marketing their book to the masses. I don't see enough resources addressing this with advice for debut or even established authors. Authors of color especially have to do the majority of the marketing themselves. 

For most authors a large portion of their book sales come from Amazon. There's just no denying that Amazon is a force when it comes to one top shopping. And with book prices being so high and there being such a variety of books on the market to choose from it's important to appeal to the online book shoppers. It's actually crazy to me when I see authors who aren't lead title authors do absolutely nothing even on a bare bones level to connect with their followers.

I find that romance authors are more in tune to what their author brand is and who their target audience is despite some publishers pushing the idea that everyone is your audience. If they know they're brand is Southern Black romance they make it known. If they know their brand is monster smut they narrow in on readers who love monster smut. They also promote their backlist

I see all the conversations around piracy and booktokkers returning books. It would be foolish of me to say I've never returned a book or pirated a book. In high school during business class I once printed out a full length novel so I could have a copy of one of my favorite books. I did buy books but since we didn't have a lot of money and I didn't have a job(not for lack of trying though) I bought books on sale and I read from the library. But there were a few times I read the pdf online. That was 10 years ago! I'm not surprised to see it's still happening. I call out the adults who have the means to buy the book but don't or have access to a good library and just don't utilize it because they'd rather donate a few dollars to a piracy site.  Attempting to lecture kids about how wrong it to promote piracy is a waste of breath.

And my final thought is that everything doesn't have to be written in a book. Because while writing can be very therapeutic, it's not a replacement for therapy. 

Trope Overload

Welcome Back, Booklovers! There's been a lot for discussion lately about trope first marketing. Recently I saw a thread blaming it on Tik Tok because trope first marketing but I don't think Tik Tok is to blame when these trope heavy books were written and developed before Book Tok took off.

Recently with adult romance I've seen people express frustrations about mainstream romance focusing more on tropes than the actual story and characters. And I've seen the frustrations over how specific tropes and formulas being overused has these books all reading alike. Sometimes it does feel like the author went down a checklist of what tropes people like and when certain events need to happen in the story. When a book does really well publishers try to replicate it's success. So we see an influx of books with similar plotlines and the same tropes. And after awhile you get trope fatigue and are yearning for something different. I like tropes in romance I don't like when a romance feels like the author had a checklist of all the tropes they wanted to hit in the story without it feeling organic to the characters.

There's this idea that's been pushed online for the past couple of years that we can't call tropes in YA novels overused if they're used by authors of color because this is the first time they've actually gotten to use those tropes. One that's not true! Books by authors of color have always been around and always existed even though they weren't mainstream. A trope is not automatically vastly different just because a non white author uses it. That doesn't mean that there aren't authors who are putting unique spins on tropes by utilizing different storytelling styles and settings. 

It's not lost on me that while there's a push for more stories by people of different backgrounds they're expected to follow the same standard tropes and cliches. In a lot of YA stories the parents are seen as inconveniences and are often missing in action so the teens can do as they please. 

Let's look at the love triangle trope as an example. The reason many readers don't vibe with love triangles is because many authors write them in a way where there is clear emphasis and bias on the one person will be chosen at the end. And we're all seen the running joke online about the two white boys who are supposed to be different in every way but look like carbon copies of each other just with different hair colors. But there are ways to write a love triangle and flip it in to something that feels fresh.

There's also this idea that if you don't like the current trope heavy marketing that you're some kind of literature elitist. When a lot of people just don't use tropes to determine their next read. Some people are more into picking up books based on setting. Some people pick up books based on plot. I think most people who read consistently probably have a favorite author they read from. It also varies by genre.

Every genre and age category uses tropes. They are a foundational part of writing. It's not the usage of tropes that's a problem. It's the way the trope is presented to the audience. To quote Audre Lorde, "For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt,". So it's up to the author to make the trope resonate with readers in a positive way. Tropes should enhance the story not be the story.

Random BHM Ramblings

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Today I'm using this space to express all my random thoughts about Black books and the book community during the month of February. Yes, this post will be a hot mess but it's better than tweeting it all at once.

There are not enough happy stories featuring Black friends on the shelves. And that's across age categories. Why does publishing hate Black friendships? I need more books like Wash Day Diaries but in prose form. And I'm talking about non romance books because these romance books that claim they're about Black friends too don't really incorporate the friends much. And people shouldn't only be able to go to romance when they want a happy story. When someone asked for a rec the other day I could only think about books published before 2010.

People claim to love dystopian novels so much while also mentioning how as Black readers those novels didn't love them back yet they don't read and promote the Black ones. They'll complain about the Black ones focusing on race. The white ones copies the racial struggles on non white people and applied them to sectors of white people. But people are able to digest racism better in SFF with white characters.

There are some books I love that deal with racism including a book I read this month. But some books are just so exhausting! And the way publishing things that racism is the number one thing on Black folks mind. We have more Black books in the mainstream than ever before yet the books full of self hate get the most hype and we have less books centered around the community. More nuance please! 

Indie children's publishing is working overtime to get some great stories for the kid out there. I've read some beautiful picture books recently from smaller pubs with great illustrations and fun plots. They're really doing something unique.

It's not Black Love Romance it's BLACK ROMANCE. I need people to stop trying to change the terminology just because people who can't read about Black women in a romance without white men being centered are feigning ignorance. It's always been Black romance and we don't need to change anything for them. Also acknowledge that romance between two or more white people is white romance.

Lots of editors and agents making business is business threads right now and stating they only buy what sells without fully diving into what that means. Yes business is business but business also involves a great deal of risk to grow. Those books that are held as the standard now offered something new to the market when they were released. So while pushing the same narrative over and over again provides steady predictable sales it can only be sustained but for so long. Another thing those conversations aren't going into is how much of a role marketing plays into what sells and how internal biases determine what stories get selected.

Look at all the African-inspired Black fantasies on shelves right now. Remember when publisher's and editors said those stories wouldn't sell until Disney took a risk with Black Panther and it ended up being a hit? Then everyone wanted to jump on the trend while still maintaining the idea that they could only have one each per year. And then Macmillan marketed the hell out of Children of Blood and Bone in a way we have never seen a Black YA marketed before and I have yet to see matched. And it sold.

Overall it's been interesting to see how the book community has approached Black History Month this year compared to last year. While I'm glad some of the performative people have simmered down because they can't ride waves for attention, I've noticed so many people not even bothering to engage at all this year.