Marketing Minority Literature

The African American Market

Publishers and book-sellers discovered a large African American market during the 1980s. African American women in particular swarmed bookstores in search of contemporary fiction such as Tina McElroy Ansas Ugly Ways, Bebe Moore Campbell's Brothers and Sisters, and Connie Briscoe's Sisters and Lovers—all published in 1995. "Although women read more in general, there's a higher proportion of female readers in the African-American community," Clara Villarosa, owner of the Hue Man Experience bookstore in Denver, Colorado, said in 1995. "Black women want to pick up a book, sit down and forget about their troubles for the day." A frequent lament among critics, however, was that, as all American readers, African Americans tended to buy popular fiction rather than serious literary works. According to literary agent Denise Stinson, "consumers are continuing to read lighter fare; and not just African Americans, either. People like their literature like TV: entertaining. They don't want to have to think about it when it's over. They don't want to read books like [Toni Morrison's] Beloved.…" During the 1990s publishers tended to neglect serious writers of color, complained Martha Southgate, book editor of Essence magazine. "I've read too many books that are thin retreads of [Terry McMillan's] Waiting to Exhale"

The Hispanic Market

In the early 1990s American publishers became aware of the growing middle-class Hispanic market in the United States and began expanding their Spanish-language offerings, creating new series aimed at the more than 26 million Hispanics in the country. "Almost everyone in publishing has been on the verge of doing this," explained Kay Barrett of Vintage Books, a paperback division of Random House Inc., in 1995. "If you carve the numbers and look at purchasing power," said Shelly Lipton, president of Lipton Communications Group, "it suggests that there is certainly a multi-million-dollar business potential." Two volumes in the Alfaguara-Vintage Espanol series, Sandra Cisneros's House on Mango Street (1991) and Esmeralda Santiago's When I Was Puerto-Rican (1994), sold about fifteen thousand copies, and Loida Martiza Perez's Geographies of Home (1997) garnered critical acclaim. Despite these successes, some in the publishing industry remained skeptical that the bump in the sale of Hispanic books represented a long-term trend. Martha Levin of Anchor Books said in 1995: "I'm not convinced that we can make a go of it, which is why I'm doing it title by title."

Sources:

Kim Campbell, "Book Publishers Say 'Hola' to U.S. Hispanic Market," Christian Science Monitor, 20 April 1995, p. 9.

"Craft Versus Commerce," Black Issues Book Review, 2 (January/February 2000): 45-46.

"The Year of the Black Author," Black Enterprise, 25 (February 1995): 116.