I’m pretty sure Brenda Jackson writes romance.
I believe this was the Borders store on Sand Lake road, in Orlando. I could be wrong though, seeing as I went to quite a few.
Posted by Karen Scott · Trackback · |
Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 1:48 pm |
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I have to admit something Karen, I went into a Books-A-Million here in Wilmington NC… OMG! I was stunned by this. They had done this whole AA Lit section right smack dab in the middle of the store with no rhyme or reason right near the check-out counter just like this. It made no sense either except to segregate the material from anything else next to it. In California I was used to seeing the AA Lit shelves and then usually right next to it the Gay Lit shelves and then some other specification sorta defined by subject matter and/or buyer interest but it always seemed subject matter oriented not segregated just sales focused. It never hit me like Books-A-Million did. No class, just bam! We shall stick YOUR BOOKS here and that is YOUR AREA so stay there. They did not even have a Gay Lit section. Not going to shop there. So Amazon made some bucks. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 2:12 pm |
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Yep, Brenda Jackson is a romance writer, and a very good one I might add. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 2:45 pm |
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Alright, jumping in here. Having worked at both B&N and Waldens over the years, must point out that placement on the shelves by category is determined by head office. The individual branches have nothing to do with it. Often we’d look a the computer listing of a book and ask ‘It shelves there?’ And yes I wholeheartedly agree that shelving fiction (not just romance but mysteries, literary fiction, etc frequently get the same treatment) in the non fiction is nuts.. Most booksellers in the chains would agree. Customers get listened to. If TPTB got a hundred e-mails in one day, on this subject, that would get their attention. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm |
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My experience is that many emails over several years to Borders head office, and even a face-to-face meeting did not get a romance anthology I took part in out of the non-fiction sex area and into the romance area–and that was a book for charity to boot. I have found head office in this case did not even reply to these emails let along “respond”. |
 Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 3:51 pm |
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I think it’s probably going to be a thing of what the people spending the money want. Namely, those who buy AA…where do most of them want it shelved? It will take more than a handful of people asking about it to change something and chances are the change would come slow, if it came. But letting the people at Borders’ HQ know there is an issue is the first step. Dunno if there’s a direct email, but here’s a link to a customer care form |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 3:52 pm |
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They do place things into strange catagories. Keep in mind that they do this to increase sales. Many black people only want to read black authors and will openly tell you this in the store. It is in their (the bookchain’s) limited thinking that this helps people find what they want. Plenty of white and latinos shop in that section too. They come to the desk and ask for the author and are pointed to that section. This is more of a consumer issue than one brought by the stores. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 3:54 pm |
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One more thing,IMHO in a store, the only color they care about is green. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm |
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That’s just it, Shiloh–readers don’t agree. This argument has gone on and on for years now in regards to multi-cultural lit. Some readers don’t want the books they read segregated, but some DO because they want to know that if they go to one section, they’ll find the books they want without having to search through all the books they don’t. Until readers come to a consensus and vote with their $$$ (because like Stephi said, that’s all the bookstores care about) it isn’t going to change. Personally, I think all the books should be together–romances with romances…end of story. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pm |
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At Borders they also shelve LA Banks in the AA section. I would expect to find her in SF/fantasy or even horror. And the AA section is always really hard to find. |
 kirsten saell Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm |
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Okay, I’m against segregation, myself, but if they have to do it, why not put the AA romance authors together on a shelf or two of the romance section? Kind of in their own section, but there to be seen by readers who would not be likely to look in the AA section. Same with SFF. Heck, because African-American starts with an “A”, they could put all those titles first. AA readers would be able to find them easily, and the general romance or SFF readership would be more likely to see them and pick them up, too. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 6:02 pm |
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*if they have to* being the operative part of that, kirsten. My main issue with separating by ethnicity or race is that it encourages to think of oneself as different from everyone else–for better or worse. Separate by genre, by subgenre, by topic–fine and dandy. Separating by author’s race????? aaaacccckkkkk!!! |
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Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm |
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I know this. It’s a divide and Borders is going to do what seems to make them the most money, without taking much risk. Businesses probably aren’t real keen on taking risks. Unless the majority of readers convince Borders they need to get rid of the AA section, it will persist. Shelving in both places, both AA and in whatever genre, be it it SF, horror, or romance, isn’t likely to happen unless it’s a big seller. Shelf space is at premium in bookstores and double shelving just isn’t likely. |
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kirsten saell Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm |
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I agree, AL, but I don’t think we’re going to change the minds of the PTB over this–especially not when they have many readers and several authors supporting this kind of segregation. Looking at it from a “right-or-wrong” perspective, I hate the very idea of it. But looking at it from a “harm reduction” perspective, where those authors who oppose separate shelving are arguably being harmed financially by not being put in front of a broader readership, I think there could be a compromise like the one I suggested. And who knows? If those AA authors continued to sell, or *gasp!* sold better on a separate shelf in the romance section, maybe it could be a precursor to full integration. Baby steps. |
 JenB Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 8:59 pm |
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In my Borders the AA section is off in a dark corner on the same shelving unit as the GLBT section (which is even more pathetically tiny than the AA section). Content matters not. Romance, fiction, non-fiction, or biography. Person of color on cover –> AA. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bookstore that didn’t shelve AA books in their own section. Borders, B&N, Half Price Books…there’s an AA section in all of them. Half Price Books even has a subcategory for AA romance, usually at the end of the romance section near the serials. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 9:07 pm |
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I think every book store I have ever been in has an AA section. While I do think it is wrong race should never be a factor in anything, I think it is a lot of peoples fault. Talk show hosts refer to books as African American literature as opposed to just literature, there is a University of California devoted to it, & millions of others out there with the intentions of classifying books as AA, even authors & publishers who title themselves that away to get better sales. I think as we evolve it is something we will see less of but it’s probably going to stick around for a few decades. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm |
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I doubt that this segregated shelving approach does maximise sales, and will continue to doubt it until some hard comparative data appears. I buy work by black romance authors and constantly have trouble finding it at all. My search pattern goes something like this * I wonder if Laurinda Brown’s new book is out I don’t see this as helping Ms Brown’s sales and so have trouble seeing how it helps Borders sales unless mainstream shoppers find chancing upon a black lesbian romance so horrible it stops them from ever shopping there again. |
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Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 10:29 pm |
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It isn’t that from what I’ve put together. It’s that some readers only buy AA. They only want to buy AA. They don’t want to search for the books they want to buy. These are the more ’sure’ sales and bookstore probably like those ’sure’ sales. And some authors like being in their niche. Not all, and it’s not fair to other authors who write AA. But until readers and authors can present a united front, I suspect bookstores are going to continue to stick with what they have seen as profitable. edited |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 11:01 pm |
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I have heard that claimed–but I have not seen any chain even suggest they tried to collect data in support of their assumption. It sounds, to me, like an excuse. |
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Posted: Oct 6th, 2008 at 11:52 pm |
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As an outsider, I think that some authors have been convinced that it is in their best interest, sales-wise, to be segregated. They’ve been sold on the “target audience, sure sales” BS. Come to think of it, some store managers have probably been sold on the same thing. |
 Nicole Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:24 am |
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JenB, that’s just your particular Half Price Books. I work at one here in Iowa and we put AA Romances in with the romances. And LA Banks goes in Horror. We don’t have a separate section for them. Brenda Jackson’s in romance and her categories are in the category romance section. The Kimanis go in the cat. section, too. And the Kimani TRUs are in the YA section. There just is no AA fiction section. But if you want Sister Souljah (as I’m asked a fair bit), those just doesn’t come in much. Sorry. But what I do get is AA customers coming in and asking where the AA fiction section is. So apparently some of them DO want them in a separate section. And these are just the ones who speak up. but I’m all for keeping them in whatever genre the book is in, not a separate section. And all HPBs are set up different. On a related note, yes we’ve got a separate GLBT fiction section that’s tacked on to the end of the GLBT nonfiction section. But no AA section tacked on to the AA studies section. |
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JenB Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:29 am |
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Nicole - Yeah, it’s my Half Price Books…plus the other six within a half-hour of my house. It may be a Dallas/Fort Worth thing, but it’s certainly not a single-location idea. |
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Nicole Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:39 am |
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It could be. I should check out the Minnesota or Chicago ones if I head that way anytime. But at least at my store we don’t. |
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Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:45 am |
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I haven’t seen studies, but I have met a few AA authors that want to remain in a separate AA section. So if there are some authors wanting that, I imagine there are also readers who want the AA section to stay as it is. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:48 am |
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That’s cool, you know, not one single Gay writer I have ever spoken to has ever had a problem with the whole Gay Lit area. I like the convenience since I mostly always go to Gay Bookstores anyway so I can usually find out if the store even carries what I want from a quick look. It is still acceptable for even the major book stores to not even carry any Gay Lit due to “religious convictions” of the “locals” as I am finding out. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:55 am |
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“I have heard that claimed–but I have not seen any chain even suggest they tried to collect data in support of their assumption. It sounds, to me, like an excuse.” I worked in a small indie bookstore without an AA section and had to physically walk with an African American woman to search out African American authors because she would not buy a book by another race. She only knew two authors names so I had to take her through the mystery and romance sections. That’s not an unusual request. I now work for a chain. It’s the same customer need. So you can hear “it claimed” again. I can’t imagine too many managers not seeing the need in separating the sections if for no other reason than to keep everyone happy. I would like to see at least one copy put in the right section though. With shelf space, that isn’t going to happen. How’s that for an excuse? |
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Nicole Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 2:15 am |
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Crazy. We actually had to expand the GLBT fiction section, here. I never see anyone shopping it, but it sells. Well, either that or someone’s stealing it. I did get a bit perturbed that all the atheism books get stuck in the Sects section of religion (for lack of a better place), though. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 3:07 am |
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I wondered before during another discussion on the shelving issue whether posters with covers, authors and titles would help any. For example, what if you have the books shelved by genre, but keep listings of black/latino/whatever other ethnicity or group available to customers? So they can see it all together but browse around other authors as well? (did that make any sense?) |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 3:11 am |
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This has been an ongoing debate for quite some time. Some people like the books separated because it makes them easier to find. Others, like myself, would prefer if they were shelved by genre, i.e. romance, horror, mystery, etc. rather than by the color of the author’s or cover model’s skin. If it were done for all non-white books, than that would be one thing. But to me it seems that African Americans are the only ones singled out that way. I read whatever catches my eye. As an African American, I enjoy reading books by AA authors and as a fan of romance and horror, I enjoy books by those authors, regardless of the color of their skin. The Borders I go to all have the AA books segregated. The B&N in my area tend to have them mixed in with fiction and romance. As someone who reads different genres, I would prefer to go to the genre section to find the books. They don’t even put the Kimani books with the other Harlequin books. Does that even make sense? Either way, I don’t think this is a subject that you could get any one group to agree on so it’s probably going to stay the way it is. |
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kirsten saell Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 4:21 am |
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But Gay Lit is shelved according to subject matter, not the sexual orientation of the author.
Am I the only one who sees something really messed up about this? I mean, if I went into a bookstore and had an employee vet my purchases because I would only buy books by white authors, I can only imagine the looks I’d get. And the names I’d be called… |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 7:03 am |
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Political correctness has gotten a little TOO out of hand. There is absolutely nothing a bookstore could do with AA to make all the patrons happy. Some authors and readers want it segregated, others don’t. The side that isn’t catered to is going to post unhappy blogs. Not everybody wants to read AA, and most authors don’t want to write it. And some have decided to let you buy the book and then surprise you with it. Take my beloved Shiloh Walker, for example. Her book The Missing, (coming out November 4th…is *very* good..must buy after voting!) features a half black heroine. However, if you look at the cover of the book, you see what looks like a white woman with long, straight, black hair. I don’t know if the fog surrounding her or the spirit world is sucking the black off the chick, but neither the cover nor the blurb on Amazon will tell you that the book features a black heroine.
Personally, I didn’t find race important to the story, but when I was encouraging a black friend to buy the book, she didn’t understand why you have to read the book to find out that a rich white guy falls in love with a poor black girl while on summer vacay. (of course, the book goes on from there, but that’s the beginning). And where do inter-racial romances get shelved anyways? PS: I’m still loving the chocolate nipples. Those rawk! |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 8:03 am |
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I like the idea of not having every single romance book in print use models to define the appearances of the main characters. That has always bothered me and formerly kept me from seeking out romance unless through word-of-mouth or recommendation. I tend to find category romance stuff I like by accident. (I’m into paranormal romance and historical romance, mostly.) Barnes & Noble doesn’t do this, but Borders does (near my home, anyway). Let me tell you, I do NOT enjoy finding Octavia E. Butler’s works anywhere but the SFF section. She’s writtern some of the best historical fiction, sci-fi time travel, horror and paranormal romance I know, and there’s no excuse for not splitting up the five or so copies of Kindred, for example, among sections if the stores are going to keep multiple copies of her onhand. Hypothetical questions: where do multiracial writers and/or multiracial stories go? If I write about two black protagonists in one book in a series, a white and an asian character in the next book, and two white (looking) people in the next one, are they going to be shelved in different sections? Will the bookstores just throw their hands up and paint all of them with one brush or separate them by the race of the cover models? Will they use my race as a determining factor? What if they can’t tell what *I* am, even if they had a photo of me? I have so many issues with this, I don’t even know where to start, so I won’t. I’ll just say I like the compromise idea suggested above in one of the comments: have separate sections at the front of the genre sections. |
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Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 12:44 pm |
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You’re a brat, Emmy. The covers online don’t show it as well, but my personal opinion…and yes, I’m prejudiced towards the cover, cuz I love it, but my opinion is that her color isn’t easily discernible. The heroine was deliberately ‘washed out’ in the image and made transparent. She’s not dark-skinned, either. So a light-skinned, half black/half white woman that’s also transparent isn’t going to be the easiest cover to judge skin cover. Sadly, interracial books get shelved probably depending on the author. It’s a flawed system, the way books are shelved, but a bookstore isn’t going to be able to find a workable solution that satisfies all the consumers and the authors. Because different things are desired. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 6:29 pm |
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Emmy, the segregation is based on the THE AUTHOR’S RACE. So, my interracial books go in the Negro ghetto. Presumably Shiloh Walker’s will go in Romance. I know that Sara Reinke and Suzanne Brockmann’s books went into Romance. Every black writer I know who writes interracial stories will find themselves ghettoized as well. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 6:42 pm |
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Oh, and this will show you how huge Brenda Jackson is, this link is for an ebay auction of her Silhouette Desire Delaney’s Desert Sheikh. Right now it’s listing for more than twenty dollars. I’ve been offered fifty for my copy, but would never sell. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 7:45 pm |
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Roslyn: I was afraid of that, but I wasn’t sure, since when I went into the Af-Am fiction section in Borders, it looked like they were separating based on the cover art. So in your experience, it’s based not on that but on the race of the writer and/or her characters? How would they even know what an author’s race is if one doesn’t explicitly state it? That’s a HUGE can of nasty worms, right there. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 8:01 pm |
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BTW, Shiloh, I LOVE that cover. LOVE IT. Good cover art sells a book so well! Emmy, the cover notwithstanding, (and please don’t take this as condescension or an attack or anything of the sort): Physical appearance (phenotype) isn’t a foolproof marker for someone’s race. My skin is paler than a lot of white people’s skin, my hair will never stay in curls, and I’m multiracial. People have twins where one is pale, blond and blue-eyed and the other is dark, brown-haired and brown-eyed; they’re both the combination of their parents’ races. Race is a social construct, a combination of phenotype, genotype (underlying genetic characteristics, as opposed to expressed traits or phenotypes), cultural heritage, ethnicity, genealogy, etc. I don’t remember who said it, but it bears repeating: “You could be in a room with a GBLTQ person or a person of color and not even know it.” |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm |
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Persephone, if you’re writing interracial books and you’re black there are only a couple of publishers, both black. I don’t know of any black woman (other than Brenda Jackson) who has managed to publish an interracial book with a mainstream publisher. And, like all the others, it was part of a series. Mainstream publishers generally don’t touch interracial books written by black women except for their specific black lines. Black lines go in the Negro ghetto. Pretty much all the mainstream publishers have a line that is specifically black. I assume they do that to simplify the ghettoization. Most of the white authors that I know of who’ve written black or bi-racial characters are already established, like Brockmann. So, it’s a simple matter to know that they ‘belong’ in romance. As for blacks asking for an AA section, is it possible that they do so because they’ve learned that most bookstores have them? Are they requesting the presence of one, or are they simply working within the parameters that we’ve all learned to expect? I rarely go to bookstores anymore. I used to love to spend hours in them, now they literally make me ill. I shop on Amazon, where I can find everything. Cyberspace at least is integrated. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 8:40 pm |
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I was shopping at Borders for the buy 4 get 1 romance sale and the Leslie Esdaile romance was coded as AA fiction, not romance like the spine says. I emailed the company asking them why it was and instead of them telling me what their policy is, they apparently told the local store manager that I had a complaint against the location. The Kimani books are shelved with the other Harlequins at my local HalfPrice Books. I don’t think there is an AA section. I spend all my time in the clearance aisle buying recent releases for a dollar. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm |
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Well…yeah, but you still like me despite yourself. Besides, hello? Princess Brat?
I vaguely remember learning all that in Anthropology, but the class was fucking boring. Don’t let the “A” I got in that class fool you. Actual retention= 0%. Besides, I *know*. I’m Black/Italian and nobody can tell either. The Cans think I’m one of them and start speaking Spanish to me. No entiendes.
Would this be a bad time to point out that Amazon categorizes their romances by genre as well, including a “Multicultural” section? Just because you can browse past it online doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. |
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Posted: Oct 7th, 2008 at 11:29 pm |
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In my local bookstore - in N.Ireland - they do something very like that with Irish authors. You won’t find Marian Keyes or Cecelia Ahern on the main shelves - they’re only shelved in the Irish section. Has the oddest mixture of books, and I do wonder if it works. |
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Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 8th, 2008 at 3:10 am |
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Snort…Emmy, the fact that you are a brat is WHY I like you…not despite or in spite…*G* Brats have many redeeming qualities. Or so I keep trying to tell my husband. And he must buy it, or I just have him really fooled. |
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Shiloh Walker Posted: Oct 8th, 2008 at 3:12 am |
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As much as I’d love to, I can’t claim credit :). I can only smile in satisfaction. edited…as always |
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Posted: Oct 8th, 2008 at 6:33 pm |
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I was at M&M this weekend and totally missed this post. Probably a good thing. RE: Black people only wanting black books. (I don’t know any black people who only read black books, and I’m glad) Are those readers picking up romance? Or are they picking up Baby Mama Drama? Or are they picking up the biography of MLK? Or are they picking up all three? That section will have all three jumbled together willy nilly on the same shelf, just because they’re written by black folks. That’s the only identifier. So books about black folks written by non-black folks go in their respective genres. Alex Cross, anyone? Secret Life of Bees? (can’t wait to see that movie, and now must go get the book) So to say it’s because people want it that way is a cop out. I’m willing to bet that people want paranormal romances separated out too so it will be easier to find. I know I do. And I got to think there are more readers of that genre than there are of readers who only want to read black regardless of the subject matter. I think that as more non-black authors mainstream black characters and garner more sales on the basis of shelving and more non-black readers accept those characters, black authors will come to a realization that their careers are dependent on having the largest possible audience. (Unless of course, making a living from writing isn’t the priority. I know some people, particularly some dedicated to writing only IR, who think that way.) My bottom line is that it’s discrimination. Benevolent, voluntary discrimination, but discrimination nonetheless. And that makes it wrong. But perhaps I see things as too black and white. |
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Posted: Oct 8th, 2008 at 6:41 pm |
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I don’t think all African Americans want to read books strickly by African Americans but it is a trend by the vocal groups in the bookstores. I know because I see it. If you don’t like it, complain to the bookstore. As I said before, they only see the color green. I think it’s racist by the readers that can only see the color of the author. |
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kirsten saell Posted: Oct 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm |
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Of course it’s racist. Segregation is segregation, whether it’s promoted by those who want to exclude others, or those who’d rather “stick to their own kind”. The whole idea of it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. My first consideration when buying a book isn’t the color of anyone’s skin (author’s or characters’). It’s whether or not the book will be any good. |
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Posted: Oct 8th, 2008 at 11:15 pm |
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Yes! In fact, the best experience for me is when I don’t even remember the characters’ race–they are people, period, and I either get lost in their story or not. |
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Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 12:04 am |
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Uh no, wish it was that exact but not really it is usually based on publishers identification or authors identification. |
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kirsten saell Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 1:40 am |
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Well, that totally bites, Teddy. Maybe we should all go into our local bookstore and demand that white authors be shelved separately. When store managers act all horrified, we can say, “Well, that’s what you do with gay authors and AA authors, so we want our own section, too. Or is one form of discrimination acceptable, while others are not?” Sometimes it takes a shock like that to make TPTB realize discrimination and bigotry are equal opportunity character flaws… |
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Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 2:59 am |
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“Maybe we should all go into our local bookstore and demand that white authors be shelved separately.” They already are. |
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Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 3:09 am |
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Seressia, I’m with you. I want everyone shelved together by GENRE, not by the race, color or ethnicity of the author or their characters. Genre is the only qualifier that should matter. |
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kirsten saell Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 4:10 am |
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But they’re not. As far as I know, white, hispanic, middle eastern, asian and aboriginal authors are all shelved by genre. It’s only AA and GLBT that get their own sections. |
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Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 4:39 am |
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I actually just read a Brenda Jackson book and was rather bemused by the fact that except for the cover, and descriptions of “mocha colored skin,” it read exactly like every other ruthless tycoon/blackmailed bride category romance. |
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Posted: Oct 9th, 2008 at 7:02 pm |
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Which is an example of why the statement that readers “can’t relate” to AA romance totally boggles my mind. Maybe it’s because I’m not inserting myself into the book. I started with sci-fi fantasy, (well, comics and Bar-bar the elephant actually) and I never put myself in the place of an elephant in a three-piece suit or Betty or Veronica or Underdog. By the time I found historical romances in my late teens, I’d already had a steady diet of other worlds and epic fantasies. Historical romances were just another form of fantasy, just with hotter guys. Hhm, maybe my disconnect is because I “can’t relate” to romance heroines–that could be why I’m mostly reading paranormal now. |
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and naturally, since I love the cover, if anybody wants to see…. *G* 
