Comments on: Black Authors on Writing in the Age of Obama

By: Black Authors On Writing in the Age of Obama « Literary Obama

Black Authors On Writing in the Age of Obama « Literary Obama — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:34:54 +0000

[...] Martha Southgate has written an excellent overview of last month’s panel discussion on “Black Writing in the Age of Obama.” Participants included authors Emily Bernard, Stanley Crouch, and James Hannaham at McNally [...]

By: Matthew Novak

Matthew Novak — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:52:41 +0000

I think it’s about promotion, if you can actually get the book published the first thing that needs to happen is reaching out to a community of people that will actually want to read it. We sell books like it is shoe polish or flour, the industry has to be put aside and it is up to the authors themselves to try to get their work out for now. I’m Chippewa and grew up in Wisconsin, you think anyone in New York or LA wants to read about Natives or the Midwest? Hell no. It’s a wacky world and if you want to succeed I think hope is the last thing that’s going to work. Hope don’t sell books. I could hope that someday yuppies in New York will want to read about the poverty faced by people on reservations but I’m not going to hold my breath. The voices are out there, we just need to find our niche. And as far as mediocrity is concerned it seems to be the only way to publish a book that gains momentum or sells, you try to get people thinking and you’re libel to hurt someone. Really the industry is the problem, we need editors and publishers to be more flexible, we have independent movies and music that flush out those industries with new ideas every few years, the same is needed for the book industry, but book people are a proud and pretentious lot. Self publishing lacks quality and independent publishers lack the ability to put out a tons of books or promote them in a way that makes them profitable. Like I said it’s all about promotion, we fix the way people find books and make it easier to get good quality writing and books out there, bam, we have an industry that can support new ideas and diversity. I guess that’s my hope.
Good luck.

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:25:37 +0000

No. I don’t think that because we have a president of African descent that it’s going to make black books more desirable for publishers. Neither did anyone on the panel. And I know the world is full of mediocre work–by people of all races. If you’d read this carefully, you’d know that. Calm down, would you?

By: Emersom Biggins

Emersom Biggins — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:34:03 +0000

Pointless, premature, unfocused, and boring. All hat and no cowboy. I don’t even see a correlation between Obama and black writing. And it sounds like you proved this very point by focusing on everything but Obama’s effect on black writing. Do you actually think that because we have a president of African descent that somehow it’s going to make black books more desirable for publishers? Be serious. Unfortunately, there are a lot of mediocre, uninteresting writers out there who really have nothing to say, some of whom are black. Obama can’t save them from there own mediocrity. The reason Obama is president is because he is anything but mediocre.