So you want to be published? - includes a list of Black editors at various publishing houses - Career Opportunities

Black Enterprise, Feb, 1997 by Shawn E. Rhea

The market for black writers is hotter than ever. Here's your guide to landing, your first book deal.

FOR SIX YEARS, WRITER WALTER MOSLEY HAS ENJOYED a successful relationship with his publisher, W.W. Norton. All of the author's Easy Rawlins detective novels have been bestsellers. But in January, Mosley did something that surprised many: he published Gone Fishin', a coming-of-age novel that chronicles the youth of Easy Rawlins and his sidekick, Mouse, with Black Classics Press (BCP), a small black-owned publisher out of Baltimore.

"I want to prove I can publish with a black press and make the same amount of money," says Mosley. The writer chose BCP because he was encouraged by publisher Paul Coates' belief that successful black authors can help to financially strengthen black presses by publishing with them. "When you have [a writer like Mosley] you're able to move the rest of your list and promote other writers," says Coates. Even in an age when major presses have begun to address their neglect of the African American market, most black writers are still published through black presses, he notes.

In recent weeks, news stories about Mosley's decision to work with BCP have appeared in publications as diverse as the New York Times and Publishers Weekly. The existence of these articles not only highlights the unusualness of Coates and Mosley's deal, it also calls attention to the power and cachet that a select group of black authors has gained over the past five years.

Ever since the dawning of what some call the new black literary renaissance, writers such as Terry McMillan, Cornel West, Iyanla Vanzant and Mosley have become household names. But while the number of recognizable black authors has increased, and book purchases by blacks grew from $ 181 million in 1990 to $296 million in 1995, the black literary boom has not necessarily translated into greater opportunities for new writers.

WHO'S REALLY GETTING PUBLISHED?

The major publishers' increased offering of black-authored books has expanded the public's awareness and purchase of these titles, and created the belief that getting published has become easier for black writers. But it's important that we look at who is being published, according to literary agent Marie Dutton Brown, who represents authors Susan Taylor (Lessons in Living, Doubleday) and Herb Boyd and Robert Allen (Brotherman, One World/Ballantine Books). "There is an illusion that black writers are being published in great numbers," says Brown. "What we have to do is distinguish between authors and writers. A lot of people are under the impression that every author is a writer; it's not necessarily so."

Brown notes that many major publishers are offering books authored by black celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Dennis Rodman, but ghostwritten by nonblacks. These books, she points out, do little to add to the development of black literary voices. While celebrity authors and select writers such as Mosley are able to pick and choose among publishers, the vast majority of black writers still find that getting their work published is a long, challenging process.

It's unlikely that a new writer will be in a position to pick and choose a publisher. In fact, Brown, who has worked in publishing for 29 years, warns that any new writer who receives interest from a publisher--large or small--should consider themselves lucky. This is a reality that Rohan B. Preston, co-editor of the anthology Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence (Viking), learned first-hand when he tried to publish his first book, a collection of poetry entitled Dreams In Soy Sauce (Tia Chucha/ Northwestern University Press, 1992)."I had been sending out query letters and getting a fair amount of rejections. It took three years of actively trying to get the book published," says Preston. Eventually he ended up contributing a portion of the grant money he won as part of a literary award he received from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, to publish the book through an independent press.

Since many editors complete only 10 or 11 projects a year, they are limited in how much they can risk on new writers. In addition, an unofficial survey counts only 13 African American editors--the people most committed to signing black authors--within the ranks of the large houses. And, while most black presses are devoted exclusively to publishing African American authors, many issue fewer than a dozen titles a year. Ultimately, the number of black writers wishing to be published far exceeds the number of books issued annually.

CHOOSING BETWEEN A LARGE OR A SMALL PUBLISHER

While a new writer may not be able to pick and choose among publishers, he or she will eventually have to get someone interested enough to publish his or her book. It should be noted that there are some key differences between small black-owned presses and the large presses. One of the most obvious has to do with financing and how it affects a publisher's ability to offer advances, as well as market and promote a book.