Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

What I have found interesting is that most of the time, when an interracial couple is written, it is a white man and a black woman. Yet most of the interracial couples I know in real life, are black men married to white women…  I think sometimes interracial relationship books are hard, because the interracial part becomes THE book… and if I am reading a romance, I want a romance, thank you very much… I have read some good ones in the last year, but I think I will be happy when there is a day where an interracial couple in a book isn’t that big O deal…

IMO the larger publishers are afraid of them, don’t know quite how to handle them, and therefore leave the whole issue to smaller imprints to deal with.  In addition, the practice of shelving AA authors seperately makes them difficult to find and purchase.

I love any well written romance, and interracial can add an interesting and fun element to a book.  Like many other readers I have heard on this subject, we don’t like preachy and we don’t like the race issue to be the only plot.  Tried to read Brenda Jackson, but her approach was so titty-fingered that I wasn’t really sure about the interracial aspect (or maybe the cover was just wrong).

Crush by Crystal Hubbard is good.  Champagne Rules and Hot In Here by Susan Lyons are awesome!

My belief is that interracial romances are harder to pigeonhole, so bigger publishers aren’t too enthused by them.  As for the readership, I think that is growing, as are the number of interracial couples.  Maybe it’s because I live in New York, but I see all kinds of pairings that make you wonder how these people even met.  LOL As far as black/white pairings go, bw/wm is on the rise.

I also agree that interracial stories that are only about race are not enjoyable reading.  By the way, what does this mean?

Tried to read Brenda Jackson, but her approach was so titty-fingered that

Confused minds want to know.

All the best,
Dee

I see the African American section at the bookstore, I always wonder why theose books aren’t integrated into ALL the books offered. Especially the fiction, non fiction I can understand it having it’s own place on the shelf.
People are people, I wish they were all together and I think once they ARE all together then we’ll find more interracial stories where the story is more than race.
I don’t know if I’m saying it well, I just think that it sets us back a few years to have segregation in bookstores when in life we’re much more diverse and integrated.
Regardless of race,  romance readers are way ahead of a lot of the world in that we want good stories, prejudice isn’t an issue.

If you write it, we will read it.

In general, I don’t tend to read ‘Black’ romance, or novels for that matter, because once they get categorized in that way, it gives off the vibe that it’s going to be a book about Black People, rather than a novel where the characters just happen to be Black.  And this, as I see it, is a step away from equality rather than a step toward equality.

The day that we’re all truly equal, regardless of skin colour, is the day that ‘African-American’ will only be a section in the bookstore as a subcatagory in the history section.

If there’s a book that looks interesting to me, and one or both halves of the couple just happens to be non-white, I’ll pick it up.  But I’m not going to join Oprah’s book club.

we don’t like the race issue to be the only plot.

Yep, I’m in this group.  I tried a couple and had that problem.  I’m sure there’s interracial books out there where there’s sustainable conflict but I don’t really know how to pick them out.

I agree with sallahdog; if an interracial romance becomes more about the “interracial” and less about the “romance,” I don’t think that would be a book I would want to read. Well, I would read it, but I wouldn’t be able to deal with a steady diet of it. Perhaps because I don’t want to deal with the unpleasant aspects of interracial romance, such as hateful bigots? My brother (white and Hispanic) and his wife (black) have had to deal with a lot of scary, hateful people on some military bases where he has been stationed. I would just be afraid that any interracial romance novels I picked up might have some frightening scenes in it that would give me nightmares—because some of those books will have to deal with hateful people, prejudice and the scare tactics that some bigots use to “run people off.” Just as I avoid romances that involve brutal rape, I would want to avoid interracial romances with hate-filled antagonists. Those things are just too real to me, and I don’t read romances so I can be reminded of all the horrific things that people do to others—I want to read about love.

Wow, and the word “hate” showed up in there a lot. Hate is absolutely frightening to me; there’s enough of it in the real world that I don’t want it showing up in my free-time reading.

It reads like I’m assuming that dealing with prejudice would have to be a major theme of an interracial romance, and I certainly don’t think that has to be the case. And honestly, dealing with ignorance and prejudice is one thing—scary but doable—but dealing with prejudice, ignorance and active hate? Something else entirely. Not a theme that would make me feel safe in the book-world in which I choose to immerse myself.

Whew, long post. Hope it made sense. Thinking…like Shatner…now.

I recommend checking out Monica Jackson’s blog for more info on this topic. She has a slew of blog posts about this very topic, and as she is AA and a romance writer (though not strictly romance anymore-she’ll tell you why), comes from a viewpoint that I have not come across in any of the other blogs in Romanelandia (well, ok, I haven’t read EVERY blog in Romancelandia…). Some of what she says could come off as being..I was going to say mean, but that’s not it; it’s in your face, so be warned that it might make you uncomfortable (it doesn’t stop me from going back though); but if you really want to know about this subject, drop on by. http://monicajackson.com/blog/

I read recently a book, Object of Love, which was interracial.  I didn’t even know it until I was almost 1/3 into the story.  It was great, though, and I have NO problem reading them.

I wonder if the lack of them is because the vast majority of readers are white chicks, though?  This might not be the case (although judging from my year of experience hovering in the romance section, it bears out), but it’s a thought.

I notice, too, that there aren’t very many women of ANY other ethnicity, Asain, Black, Hispanic, etc, and rarely are there any Russian or Eastern European heroines, as well.  Is this for the purpose of easier self-identification with the heroine on the part of the reader (or author?)?

spamword somewhat69…NO!!  Definitely 69!!

Seriously!  End segregation now!  Anyway, it’s irritating that the bookselling world only recognizes two races.  What if you’re a Navajo with a soft spot for Polynesian girls?  What if you’re a Japanese chick and you really dig on Turkish men?  What if you’re a white American girl with the hots for Andy Lau?

Where’s our section of Barnes & Noble?

Oh, and I forgot to ask, what is this plot line you love “that is too embarrassing to mention”? Come on, you can’t throw a teaser like that out and then not tell! I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours…

I’ve been branching out lately and reading more romances (lots of great recommendations from this site - thanks!), but haven’t run across an interracial one yet.  Like others already mentioned, it’s more about the story than the skin colors. I work in a very diverse company and live in a tolerant community and have been in an interracial marriage (b/w) for 20 years. My brother’s wife is Chinese and I have friends and co-workers in interracial marriages of different type.

Probably it’s just the enviroment I live in, but I’ve never had any negative reactions to the fact that my husband and I don’t ‘match’. I did write an interracial relationship into a fantasy novel I wrote (not yet published), but the racial element doesn’t cause any difficulty for those characters.

Looking forward to more diverse characters to come!

less98? 98 less of what?

Well, my fiance is a full-blood Navajo, and I am the whitest woman ever.  Indian Romances, including those written by you-know-who, are certainly one very specific genre of interracial romances.

Elle

It seems to be a black/white issue in the US publishing industry, ‘cause I’ve seen numerous bestselling romances over the years with Asian/Anglo, Native American/Anglo (Thanks, Cassie!) and Hispanic/Anglo match-ups and no one blinks an eye.

It would be interesting to get feedback on this from someone in the industry, telling us whether any marketing work was done to determine the benefits or downside of shelving AA romances separately, or why we don’t see more B/W storylines.

I’m writing an interracial Hispanic/Anglo right now and I love to see that there is an audience for this plotline.

I agree, however, that if the interracial aspects consume the plot, I wouldn’t read it. The same way I steer clear of books about widow(er)s—because, in general, the plot tends to focus on how horribly guilty the hero/heroine is that they’ve moved on.

Living in such a racially diverse city and not thinking twice about interracial relationships, it would never have occurred to me not to include them in my books.  (WARNING: Blatant pimping ahead.)

Asian secondary heroine with Hispanic secondary hero
African American secondary romance
Caucasian hero with Asian heroine
Caucasian heroine with Caribbean black hero
Caucasian secondary heroine with African American secondary hero

There’s talk about how accurately authors portray various races, but I just write the people as I see them.  If race is an issue for them in the story, I’ll include it.  If it’s not, I don’t, and then I hope they come across as the characters I intended them to be.

Well, as a writer… Aside from any question of whether my pub would buy it or not, I feel that the racial stuff WOULD be an issue in the romance, though not much more than other social issues. For example, the high-powered lawyer falling for the mechanic or the older woman and the younger man. What will their friends/family think? Will both the h/h be able to overcome their preconceptions, etc.?

But for me, personally, as someone who was in an interracial relationship for four years, it makes me tired thinking about revisiting those particular issues with my characters.  It’s a minefield I spent a lot of time in, you know? But I’ve never been a shy heiress dating an intimidating stable master, so that still sounds exciting to explore. Ha! Does that make any sense?

All that said, Champagne Rules by Susan Lyons is a recent interracial romance I read. Good stuff! Great cover too.

I’ll be interested to see more comments here. I took on a related topic on at Romancing the Blog a while back, and not only did it drop a big goose egg, I got hate mail. (Having grown up in an urban area and living on the East Coast, I thought it was all pretty benign material, or that I knew what kinds of responses I would get. Ha!) I asked whether books in which the protagonists were African American were the exclusive territory of AA writers. And why that section of the bookstore was segregated. One type of response was that “it’s hard enough for AA to get published, so hands off” and another was “the segregation in the bookstore helps sell to the right market.” Not what I expected! It was a bloody mess at the end of the day.

But I forgot to mention that one of the ex-boyfriends of my contemp heroine is black. Actually, I don’t think I ever say that in the book, I just know it in my head. It would’ve been weird for her to THINK of him as her black ex-boyfriend, no?

This isn’t an issue confined to romance, either. Back in November, The New Yorker published a story, “Brooklyn Circle” that featured several characters that were the product of interracial relationships.  I remember thinking, “Huh. Now that’s something different!”

I think one reason for the dirth of interracial romances may be attributable to the authors. A lot of writers I know feel uncomfortable writing from another class or race perspective, so doing it well from two perspectives (at least one of which may be foreign to said writer) could scare some folks off from the task.

I think that though it’s not strictly romance, C.E. Murphy does a great job of writing an AA heroine in a realistic way that doesn’t harp or preach in her Negotiator series (Heart of Stone, House of Cards). Her heritage is part of what makes Grit who she is, but it doesn’t define or confine her. And of course the hero is made of marble during the day so yep, pretty darned white.

I agree that if a romance is marketed as a black romance (or whatever kind of novel) I’m not interested. If it’s marketed as a romance and happens to have an interracial couple, that’s cool.

And I mean, come on. Different race/culture is a mainstream in romance. All those magically tall Greek Tycoons!

Huh. Never thought of this. I would pick up an interracial romance for probably the same reasons I’d pick up any other romance:

1) Someone told me it was a good book.

2) I’d learn interesting stuff about a time, place, or in this case, cultural situation.

3) It was funny. ‘Cause I love me a funny romance.

Marta Acosta’s books feature a Latina heroine and her very WASPY fiance (who is a vampire). I’m not Latina, and seeing the world from the heroine’s brown-skinned perspective added to my enjoyment of a great book. I think, if publishers are turning down great books about interracial couples because they think people won’t want to read them, they’re missing out on sales.

http://readerimarriedhim.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/thoughtlessly-consuming/

I haven’t been reading romance for that long, but I’ve been reading sci-fi / fantasy since I could hold them in my pudgy fingers.  This is also a problem over there - the only interracial romance in a sci-fi fantasy that I can think of off the top of my head is Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle - the protagonist is black (in fact, all the “good people” are black), while his eventual love interest is “white.”  The author has actually mentioned that she intentionally snuck it in there, because otherwise she didn’t think readers would accept and/or identify with him.  And then when the Sci-fi channel made it into a movie, they messed it up :/

Cobblestone Press also has multi-cultural romance. I actually just read one, and the cultural differences were NOT a part of the story at all. It was refreshing. You may want to check Cobblestone Press for your multi-cultural romance needs.

It seems to be a black/white issue in the US publishing industry, ‘cause I’ve seen numerous bestselling romances over the years with Asian/Anglo, Native American/Anglo (Thanks, Cassie!) and Hispanic/Anglo match-ups and no one blinks an eye.

Not to mention all the “sheik” romances . . . it’s a whole bloody subgenre, with a substantial readership (or so I’m told).

I was interested to see that no mention is made in the backcover copy of my upcoming book, LORD SCANDAL, that the hero is half-Turkish (and it comes up quite a bit in the book). It was nearly the only word that was removed from my suggested wording. *shrug* Guess they’re more worried about scaring off those it would an issue for than attracting those who are looking for it (and as the book is not “about” the racial differences, I don’t think it can really be categorized as something that would appeal to those looking for books that deal with interracial couples).

Interestingly, I was just in B&N;yesterday and when was checking out the whole backsplash was “Urban Fiction” (or, what Black Books Direct calls hip-hop fiction, ghetto lit or gangster lit). THONGS ON FIRE was prominently featured.

Writing interracial romance has the same pitfalls as writing Characters of Color in a fanfiction story. You have to keep the characters true to themselves, not turn them into “Julie Andrews in ManTan” nor make them walking talking ghetto stereotypes. Google “race in fandom” and it will cover the waterfront in terms of the debate.

I venture into it now and then, always with trepidation.  A Cherokee trucker here, a Barbados black man there, an Arabian dancing boy or a Greek rabbi who now runs North America.

As for segregated books stores, I have to agree that it’s purely marketing. If your audience wants something specific, they don’t want to have to root for it amid scores of books that are similar but not right.

Like you Sarah it’s not something I think twice about anymore in my day to day life. When I was in high school yes a little, but not with my daughter’s generation or the friends I have now.

But this is a very timely topic for me because I recently finaled in a RWA chapter contest in the historical category with an interracial romance. I mean I guess it is.
He’s European and she’s half European half Caribbean Indo-African. Would that still make it an interracial romance? Is it considered an interracial romance if, believe or not, her heritage is not the one of the major conflicts the story line is based on? (Great amounts of Money and a rather lawless setting can overcome many obstacles for your characters) Should I be worried that I’ve given the book a death sentence in terms of ever selling to NY by making the heroine who she is? Honestly that never crossed my mind. Damn was I hopelessly naive?
It’s my hope that I wasn’t naïve but on the cutting edge of a trend that will become more and more popular.

I love Marjorie Liu because her books are probably the most diverse of any other writer out there.

Book after book of white characters is pretty annoying, to me, because it doesn’t reflect the reality I live in.

And also, I would really love more romances with Asian characters. Asian heroes, Asian heroines—whichever.

I think what you see in books is a reflection of what popular culture is producing.  How many sitcoms and dramas that you watch on a regular basis have interracial couples?  Heck, how many have AA couples at all (apart from CW’s line up)?

Am I saying that it’s okay?  Heck NO! But don’t go thinking that Romancelandia is behind the times or anything.

Humans are so depressingly brilliant at creating problems where none really exist, aren’t they?  The very concept and definition of ‘race’ (as at least a couple of you have already indicated) is so unbelievably sloppy, unscientific and nineteenth-century-class-conscious and imperialistic that it should be laughed out of court.

There are no pedigree humans around, thank heavens:  the closest thing we have are some royal and aristocratic European lineages, and they are no great shakes.  British citizens of Afro-Caribbean ancestry sometimes identify with Africa, though their own genealogies almost invariably also contain Europeans, Indians (from various areas of the sub-Continent - many different peoples involved) and Chinese (again, more than one kind).  Any country that had African slaves in the 18th, let alone the 19th, century (we gave it up earlier than the USA) undoubtedly has ‘African’ (usually west African) genetic material in some of the native-born-for-generations white population.  Africa itself is not all ‘Black’ (whether that means very dark skin colour or negroid physique):  Egyptians and Nubians, Sudanese and Somalis, Nigerians and Ghanains and Kenyans and Tanzanians and many different South Africans - all different peoples, with different languages, cultures, physical appearance, histories, religions, and admixtures, ancient and modern, of other peoples - no more like to each other than all the multifarious peoples of Europe and the Middle East and Asia. There are fair-skinned, blue-eyed, blond Algerians, and handsome Nubians, black as jet but with aquiline features, high foreheads, narrow noses and lips.  What possible meaning and definition does this idiotic term ‘Black’ have?  As far as I can see, in modern America and to a lesser degree in Europe, the term is purely a socio-cultural one, and one that is intentionally and provocatively divisive, from within and without.

I am not trying to dismiss the issues that have been raised here:  they are perfectly valid subjects of discussion.  I understand that some people of limited understanding and education have strong atavistic feelings of fear and discomfort about the idea of mating with somebody of a different so-called colour.  I am just trying to point out that they should be taught some basic scientific method, some principles of genetics and physical anthropology, and snap out of it.  We are not in the Victorian age any more (though sometimes I wonder whether people are trying to go back there, or even further, to the Middle Ages).  We are not even in the 20th century.  How long is it going to take the single, undivided species Homo sapiens to grow up?

Coming back to novels, on the one hand, many of today’s readers of fantasy romance can apparently cheerfully stomach shape-shifter books in which women mate with members of other SPECIES, while on the other, some of them have a fit of the vapours at the thought of associating with another human being who has a different skin colour.  Call me old-fashioned, but much as I admire wolves, when it comes to sex, I’d rather get it on with a black human male than with even a part-time canid.

One despairs.

I think, also, that authors may fear writing an interracial romance, because most of them (the authors) are one race or another, or are perceived as such, and that means that they are opening themselves up to an immense amount of criticism of their portrayal of a topic that is not (probably) one they know well themselves, and is a sensitive one for many people, and one about which feelings tend to run high.  I think I think the issue is the most pronounced when it comes to Black/White relationships—as other have noted, there’s the entire Sheik thing, and at least in what I suppose one could call the cowboy subset of romance novels, there’s a significant Latino presence; however, Black/White is rare, and I think Asian/White is, as well.  And combinations which avoid White altogether (e.g., Black/Native American, or Asian/Latino) are effectively nonexistent in mainstream markets, are they not?

I am a white woman, and at least in part because of where in the country I live, I have never been in a long-term mixed-race relationship, because there are relatively quite few nonwhite people (and even fewer nonwhite men) in my area—for example, in my workplace of roughly 150, there are, best I can figure, eight people who identify as nonwhite, of which one is male.  Anyway.  If I write a book in which I simply portray a mixed-race relationship, no matter how careful my research, the odds are, I will manage to trip over a stereotype that—even if I have asked for feedback on my portrayal of the race dynamic, from people who I have found who I think would have a meaningful opinion due to their own personal or academic experience with the topic—will generate outrage.  I can’t write it simply, most likely, without race becoming an issue.

For instance.  If my nonwhite primary character is Black, and is, oh, say, a mechanic from a background of blue-collar workers, I may find that some readers believe this is a representation of my racism, that I believe all Black people are inherently not capable of managerial or academic professions.  However, if my Black primary character is a college professor from an upper-class background, I may find that readers object to my unrealistic portrayal (which ignores the very real problems that some people have which stem from long-standing prejudices about skin color).  If s/he is a college professor from a difficult background, I may find that readers believe I do an inadequate job of discussing what the journey for this character, to get to this situation, may have been like.  If s/he is a professional athlete, I am almost certainly going to be criticized for perpetuating a stereotype. 

The trouble here is that in order to fully represent all that a nonwhite character might be so that it doesn’t come across as either ignoring or perpetuating racism, I have to present, and make reasonably roundly-portrayed, an entire array of characters of color so that I can show that I do know that some of them are garbage haulers and some of them are doctors and some of them are librarians and some of them work at the 7-Eleven, that some of them have run into great resistance based on their skin and some have not experienced that problem the same way, that some of them are kind and gentle and others are nasty and mean.  To be clear, I believe this is not a trouble with individual readers or writers so much as it is a manifestation of a lot of hurt and injustice that exists and has existed in the lifetimes of people who might be irritated; I don’t want to suggest these readers are “oversensitive,” because that implies that I am the authority on what their level of sensitivity should be, but I do want to suggest that there may be slights perceived that were never intended, and that even an author with excellent intentions and pretty good research may not be willing to risk the perception.  I suppose in order to begin to change that, someone has to begin, but it’s in no way so simple as to merely make the boyfriend Black (which is a whole other problem: if I exoticize his nonwhiteness, making the story about his amazing differentness of skin, then it would be easy to perceive that I believe his value is about his skin, not his self; I am selling him as “other,” rather than as “Mike who is a smart stocker of supermarket shelves and volunteers at the public library one weekend a month and likes roast chicken sandwiches and whose favorite color is green”).

Anyway.  In order to portray all the many facets of nonwhite people so as not to oversimplify or perpetuate racism, and get it in the ballpark of fair, requires a large and fully-drawn supporting cast, and not doing so leaves one open to criticism not of the story, but of the author and her beliefs.  Frankly, if I’m going to have to write that entire supporting cast, it’s going to take up a hell of a lot of my storytelling energy, and at that point, maybe it’s just as easy NOT to add the white part of the cast and also the additional storyline of mixed-race relationships, which, unless I have been misled, have conflicts and difficulties that are both like and unlike those faced by any other couple.  All of which means that it’s not going to be a sweet little romance by the time I’m done; it’s going to be an epic, and even still, I and my editors may fail to do it well enough. 

I want to reiterate it is not my intent to suggest that folks who read a character of color and object to the portrayal based on their perceptions of how that character’s various traits tie into existing stereotypes and/or racist beliefs, are necessarily doing it wrong.  I’m only saying, this problem in writing about race exists, and probably serves as a deterrent for those who would like to include the subject.  And writing interracial romance, once you open the issue of race being relevant in the first place, is writing about race.

I’m black and I write interracial romances, I also happen to be in an interracial marriage if that’s relevant. I’ve been trying to get published since 2002, with little or no luck. My first book, Rock Star, was published by a small African American press. It’s done very well with almost 7000 sales. Given that I’m the book’s only publicity machine you’d think that would be enough to get New York’s attention. Not so much.

I get the impression that New York hasn’t a clue as to what to do with an interracial romance. It doesn’t fit into their carefully delineated niches, so they’re left perplexed and bewildered. I suspect they also fear the possibility of angering any number of groups. So it’s best to just leave them alone altogether.

Even something as basic as a cover becomes a political issue. At least one writer has been told that putting a white man on the cover of an IR book is a major no-no. White readers might buy it accidentally and then return it upon discovering *horrors* that the book involves Negro sex. (According to at least one distributor this has actually happens. As someone who has never returned a book I find it almost inconceivable.) Readers might be turned off by the interracial content, and so on. And, of course, a book by a black author must go in the Negro ghetto, even if only one (or sometimes none) of the characters are black. And the band played on.

It’s a sad commentary quite frankly. If my fan mail is any measure, there is a large and growing segment of the population that is clamoring for these books. That same segment is frustrated by the fact that it seems that the e-pubs are the only ones producing them. Even if one can overcome some people’s dislike of e-books, you also have to deal with the fact that many people don’t like the sensuality level in some e-books.

It’s a helluva Catch-22. We have weaker sales because of these factors we have no control over. But those same sales numbers are used to justify not picking us up.

In my first book, race was a triggering issue, but the heroine was mainly conflicted over living life in a fish bowl with a rock star.

In my second manuscript, which I just sold to an e-pub, (Yay me!) race is scarcely mentioned at all. Not surprising given all the other issues they’re dealing with. With the books that I’ve plotted for future manuscripts the degree of racial conflict varies from none at all, to fairly minor issues. Having been in an IR marriage for almost ten years I think it would be unrealistic for all my books to lack racial conflict. OTOH, I think it would be unfair and woefully unbalanced to present IRs as all sturm und drang. For the most part, I’ve found being in an interracial relationship to differ little from a monoracial relationship, and my characters have plenty of conflict outside of race.

I don’t think race has to be a primary conflict, but certainly it will probably come up from time to time. Especially in my first book where the characters are in a small southern town.

I think L’s and Roslyn’s comments contain many valuable insights (as do many - maybe all! - the earlier posts in this thread).  I know from a friend who is a very successful romance author (you would all know her name) that she is simply too nervous to include black characters as major players, for the very reasons that L. has listed, though she has never hesitated to include gay couples in her stories.

Can I suggest that maybe, perhaps, just possibly, there is a way out, but it has to come from the readers, readers who want to read about real relationships involving real people, who are simply not, in this day and age, always going to be from the same square mile.  The way forward is for white readers to buy books that are written for, and marketed to, black readers.

Reflect that in the 1920s and 1930s, music made by black American musicians went out on records that were sold ONLY in the black ghettos of American cities.  They were known, condescendingly, as Race Records.

But over time, white people started to buy some of these records;  they would go and seek them out, in the outlets where they were available.  Jazz (a wholly black genre at first) became trendy and eventually, even those Blues started to be important to music-lovers of all hues - because it was great, great music, that speaks, not only to the ‘Black’ condition, but to the human condition.  Eventually, an unsung hero called Sam Phillips started to record black and white artists TOGETHER - in the same studio at his Sun Records at the same time! Shock!  Horror!  And a white boy called Elvis sang songs that brought together cultural threads from Africa and Ireland and heaven knows where.  The middle-class white parents of 1950s USA worried about Elvis not merely because of the pelvic thrusts, but because they could see and hear the black element in his art.  Perhaps their white ewe-lambs would be debauched.

The Blues, with its roots in the West African slave culture, and Country and Western, with its roots in Irish and British folk music, blended to produce rock and roll, and rhythm and blues, and all sorts of musics that bring these so-called ‘races’ together.  ‘Inter-racial’ music is one of the great achievements of 20th-century culture.

Could we take the power of music as an example, and see if it can be done with mere words, too?

I’m always caught out that anyone still gives a good damn about race. My family sure doesn’t. I think I’ve dated pretty much every option out there and while my parents and friends haven’t liked all of them, race was never the issue (in fact, my mom is still begging me to date one of my buddies who’s AA, or “black” as he prefers to be called*). Class is a whole nother issue though . . . my dad would soooooo not be happy if I brought home someone without a college degree.

*Someone said something earlier about not getting the “black” label, that AA was better, right, whatever. I have to say, most of my “black” friends don’t like to be called AA (anymore than most of the Native Americans I know like to be called “Indian”). To quote one of them: “I’ve never been to Africa. I have no ties to Africa. I’m not Obama for heaven’s sake, I’m just plain ol’ black.” *shrug* It’s like the Hispanic/Latino debate. Whichever term you use, the only thing you can be sure of is offending someone.

As a “Latina” writer who was once told she wasn’t Latina enough…and who had interviewers and publishers ask me to “prove” my Latina-ness, I totally understand why a girl like me wouldn’t dare write an African American main character.  What kind of questions would I have to deal with then?

I will read them.  Like everyone else, I don’t want to see racism as the main conflict, but if it comes up in the natural progression of the story, I don’t mind.  The key for me is to FIND the books.  The segregation of bookstores really has to stop.

we don’t like the race issue to be the only plot.

It’s weird, because this is actually why I want to read an interracial romance - especially a historical - because I find it romantic and empowering if two people basically say ‘fuck you’ to society and its massive stupidity.  It’s kind of why I like gay historical romance, too - it takes such a tremendous amount of strength to say “I’d rather be myself and love who I want to love” than to conform and play by the rules.

more of a “Interracial romance: what’s up with that? How come there’s not more of it?” type of random musing. So? Your thought?

My thought is that I just read a thesis on the topic of inter-racial (black woman, white man) and there’s a discussion of why the majority of romances described as “inter-racial” feature that particular combination) romances. It was really interesting and I think it might be helpful to you:

Blanding, Cristen. Interracial Romance Novels and the Resolution of Racial Difference. Thesis (M.A.)—Bowling Green State University, 2005.

Here’s the abstract:

This thesis is a study of the emerging subgenre of category romance novels that depict interracial relationships, specifically relationships between black women and white men. Employing textual analysis of twenty-six novels published from 1995-2005, by romance publishers such as Harlequin, Silhouette, and Genesis Press, and situating them as category romance novels targeted towards a black female audience and written by black female authors, this study argues that these novels constitute a new subgenre, and that the conventions and themes that are common to these novels conceptualize racial difference as the most salient issue in the depiction of interracial romantic relationships, while simultaneously arguing that romantic love is fundamentally apolitical.

The whole thesis can be downloaded from here.

Wave hands in the air for Jewish heroes! Hello? Anyone? Ok, I’ll get back to work. If you can’t find one on the shelves, you have to write one yourself…

From the top of the thread:

” What I have found interesting is that most of the time, when an interracial couple is written, it is a white man and a black woman.”

Well, I know for a fact that at least one major print line (that I worked for) REQUIRED that pairing—that is to say, the viewpoint character had to be a black woman (reflecting the target audience).  Sometimes one would “get away with” a mixed-race heroine.  (Or just give the heroine green eyes, creamy skin and butt length hair and SAY she was black.)  But more often than not, no.

In addition to the insightful comments already made here is the issue of minority readers who still feel that marrying/dating/boinking outside their race is a copout and a capitulation.

One of the things I enjoy about fantasy is that I can make up my own damn races. And mix them up at will.  Which is cheating, I know.  But I am constantly afraid of otherwise someday being pigeonholed on the “black” shelf in the back of the bookstore.  (At the moment I am tired and ineloquent and the caffeine has not kicked in, and so am not finding a diplomatic way of saying “America is not interested in the black shelf.”  I’d like to be more nuanced than that—I’ll try again later.)

(My sign-in is “girl46.”  I like the anonymity of that. God I need sleep.)

Carrie—I watched “Crossing Delancey” again the other night and remembered why I loved it so much.

Peter “Akiva” Decker from Faye Kellerman’s Decker/Lazarus mysteries is also quite the hunk, even though the books aren’t strictly romance.

Nita Abrams does some great Jewish heroes in her spy novels set during the Regency period.  And I had a Jewish privateer in one of my books, but he was the hero’s best friend, not the hero.

we don’t like the race issue to be the only plot

How about Karyn Langhorne’s Unfinished Business, which has political differences being the main source of conflict between the hero and heroine?

Black activist Erica Johnson wears her causes on her sleeve—literally. With her class of beloved fourth graders depending on her to represent their concerns, Erica’s ready to confront golden-boy conservative senator Mark Newman. And she’s willing to suffer through a night in jail and a battle of wits with a real-life war hero, if it will help get the children the money they need.

Mark Newman’s a worthy adversary. But there’s a more human side to the ambitious politician with the dreamy blue eyes—from the physical pain of his war wound, to his grief over his wife’s death.

Unfinished Business is an awesome book. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Never really considered a Jewish hero, but I can definitely see it.

What I have found interesting is that most of the time, when an interracial couple is written, it is a white man and a black woman.

Most of the publishers doing African American books are AA publishers. Presumably most of their readers are black women, so, of course, they would want a black heroine. As far as I know, most of my fans are black. Thus far out of 300+ e-mails, I’ve only had two who identified themselves as white. That’s a very unscientific sampling, but that’s all I have to go by. Also, I doubt there’s a huge fan base of white women wanting to read about AA heroes with white women, but I could be wrong. Some of the e-pubs have them, but I haven’t seen any from a New York publisher.

Someone said something earlier about not getting the “black” label, that AA was better, right, whatever. I have to say, most of my “black” friends don’t like to be called AA (anymore than most of the Native Americans I know like to be called “Indian”).

I think this is just the very tip of the very scary iceberg that keeps some writers away from writing interracial. Thoughts?

J.J. Murray is a white man (I think) who writes some pretty good black-woman-white-man romances. I enjoyed SOMETHING REAL, which perhaps leans a bit harder toward women’s fiction, but has a strong romance.
I enjoy interracial romances—Jade Lee’s done a number of Chinese heroes with English or American heroines. I’d like to read more of them. I’m still wary of writing them, though, for the very reasons L. listed… Then again, I do write fantasy…

I love Suzanne Brockmann and I kept thinking of her when I read this post because she writes diverse couples:
Harvard’s Education - bm/bf
Taylor’s Temptation - native american hero/waspy heroine
Into the Storm - Asian female/white male
Sam & Alyssa - white male, black female
Jules & Robin - two gay men!
Into the Night - hot sexy young man/older woman
and I get the impression that Frisco’s kid is also an interracial couple

As an Asian female who reads romance novels I enjoy reading books where the heroine is Asian too.  I’m not so much for Asian heroes, mostly because I’m not attracted to Asian men so much (exceptions will include Jet Li and Andy Lau).  Of course I married a white boy so that’s probably another reason why I enjoy AF/WM books. 

As a historical, Mary Jo Putney had the China Bride and I really enjoyed that.

Also, I doubt there’s a huge fan base of white women wanting to read about AA heroes with white women, but I could be wrong.

You wrote this seriously? I’m going to assume you didn’t mean that to come out the way it did.

Anyway, I am an AA author in an interracial marriage of nine years (as someone else mentioned, if that matters). I have to say I disagree with the comments on desegreation in the bookstores. IR is a genre. Face it. We wouldn’t be having this discussion otherwise. If you’re looking for an IR book, you wouldn’t want to have to search through the paranormals and the other genres to find it.

You wrote this seriously? I’m going to assume you didn’t mean that to come out the way it did.

I’m not sure what’s wrong with the way it came out? I mean, most romance authors are white. If they wanted to write books with black heroes, I would have to assume that they would. And as white women seem to be the bellweather for this industry, presumably they would be published. Given the dearth of them, once can only gather that white women aren’t interested in reading black heroes.

Indeed, when the topic of why white women don’t read black romances comes up, one of the key responses is that they can’t ‘relate’ to black books. What is one supposed to gather from that, other than that white women don’t want black heroes? After all, these same white women have no problems with sheikhs, shifters and any number of other species, but Negro sex? *horrors*

“R is a genre. Face it. We wouldn’t be having this discussion otherwise. If you’re looking for an IR book, you wouldn’t want to have to search through the paranormals and the other genres to find it.”

I think the very issue of this discussion thread (or one of them) is that Interracial Romance is NOT a genre, or at least not a large and recognized enough genre to be even a little bit easy to locate.  Possibly even floating the suggestion that it should be one?

I edit for an e-pub, and they used to call such romances Multi-cultural, which I preferred, but now they call them interracial.  I hate this term.  I’m also a teacher and it comes up in many a book discussion about educational issue, etc.  I really hate this term “race.”

I have no desire to disregard any part of who I am; why would I simply go by a description of color?  To my mind, I’ve read plenty multi-cultural romances.  To me, it’s anytime the hero and heroine are from different cultural backgrounds, not simply different “races.”  (My Big Fat Greek Wedding could be a simple example.)

Now, I know—that’s not the whole issue, particularly not in the US.  But I dislike seeing the idea of multi-cultural/interracial romances reduced to a B/W issue.  (There’s a whole other issues veering off from that general topic, but I’ll try to keep it to romance.)  What about the NR’s Stanislaski’s?  What about any author who’s written (with any degree of accuracy) about Cajuns?  Are those IR, or not?

If you’re looking for an IR book, you wouldn’t want to have to search through the paranormals and the other genres to find it.

What if the IR IS a paranormal? How does something become a whole ‘nother genre just because the two people are of different races? Yet this doesn’t happen except for when one of the people is black. Sheikh books aren’t housed in the ‘Arab’ section (if such exists). Why is that okay? Is it somehow beyond the scope of reason to believe that fans of paranormals would somehow overlook it if a paranormal IR somehow wound up shelved with others of the same type?

Perhaps I’m naive (and marketing assures me that I am), but I would like to believe that people who love good books would love them regardless.

As a woman who quite enjoys her “Negro sex” at home and would read about it if it was well-written and interesting, I’m going to half-way agree with Roslyn, in that I think most publishers and writers are generally swayed by “what was” (AKA the vast majority of romances from a WM/WF perspective), and it’s only “now” that we’re seeing the racial diversity embraced (almost) by our culture reflected in our romances.

I will say, however, that I had to overcome my instinctive hackle-raising at how I initially interpreted her words.

Also, for those out there looking for a good AF/WM, the incredibly hot Vampire’s Slave books (duo, hopefully soon to be trio) were incredibly smokin’ hot.

I’ll agree with the vast majority on this site, though, and say that, provided it’s a good story and well written, I’m down for whatever.  But I’ll jump off the raft if the plot gets to be TOO “race oriented”.  People are people, and people in interracial couples know this first and foremost…which allows their said interracial coupleness to flourish and develop.

Lots of interesting discussion here.  As a white girl who’s been with my black boyfriend for four years and counting, I would love to read more IR romances if I only knew where to find them and which ones were well written.  As for such books dealing with “issues”, I for one would be glad to read them as long as they feel real.  In my own relationship I have had to deal with the issue of my family being Christian and my boyfriend being Muslim (his family has no problem with this but boy oh boy, mine sure do), multiple cultures (him being from Africa, me nominally American but raised in SE Asia), multiple social contexts (him from one of the poorest countries in the world, me from one of the richest), languages (neither of our native languages are the same and we often rely on a third language to get complex ideas across), and so on.  Skin color differences seem like a trivial thing compared to the diverse backgrounds we bring to the table.  Granted, my IR relationship is not a typical American b/w relationship…more of an international one, but still.  There are issues.  I would expect them to figure into a story and would feel cheated if they didn’t. 

The world is a diverse place and that’s what makes it interesting.  I would be surprised if we don’t see more racial and ethnic diversity showing up in our reading material over time to reflect the shifts.

It’s weird, because this is actually why I want to read an interracial romance - especially a historical - because I find it romantic and empowering if two people basically say ‘fuck you’ to society and its massive stupidity.

It’s interesting Allie, my e-mail runs about 5/50 on this issue. Some think there was too much racial conflict. Others say there’s not enough. Of course, there are those who say it’s not realistic. Now, you’d think they were talking about the fact that a rock star falls madly in love with a small-town bookstore owner. No, they have no trouble buying that. They think it’s unrealistic that there would be no racial conflict between them.

I can’t wait until they see my next book. :D

Indeed, when the topic of why white women don’t read black romances comes up, one of the key responses is that they can’t ‘relate’ to black books.

Race doesn’t matter to me, but setting sure does. I LURVE me some Beverly Jenkins historicals!!! But I don’t find myself drawn to books categorized as “Urban Lit”. Not drawn to reading Chick-Lit about 20-something white chicks either, though for some reason Brit Lit (like those of Wendy Holden and Marian Keyes) is totally my cuppa. *shrug* I can’t explain it. But I will totally second Champagne Rules as a fab IR romance (BM/WF).

I would love to read more IR romances if I only knew where to find them and which ones were well written.

You might want to join the MSN group for interracial/multi-cultural readers/writers. Here’s the link:

http://groups.msn.com/InterracialMulticulturalRomanceReaders/general.msnw

Right now they’re going nuts over books with Japanese heroes, but I’m sure they can point you in the direction of books with pretty much any combination you desire. Most will be e-books, of course.

Thank goodness I write sci-fi and can skip the race nonsense. I give almost everyone tan skin and let the reader decide what they look like. My MC (hero) for my present WIP is described as being tan with blonde-white hair. I picture him as the perfect Polynesian boy with huge muscles and white hair, but he has a Russian name so maybe he has Mongol ancestors somewhere? Still, romance is one of the few places where I think race is still a huge issue in writing, that and historicals.

But, if you think back a few hundred years, it was taboo to have an Englishman marrying a French woman, they were at war and marrying across borders was not welcomed in some circles. Further back (or maybe not) marrying outside of your social circle was forwned upon. Romance worked past those problems and we regularly have Duke’s marrying the cinder girl. It’ll go mainstream soon enough :o)

I haven’t all comments, so I’m just responding to what SB Sarah wrote.  I’d buy an interracial romance no problem. (in fact I have as I own Suzanne Brockmann’s books with Sam and Alyssa).  I honestly shop for the storyline and if it interests me. I wouldn’t care what ethnic background the characters are.

My parents best friends when I was growing up was an interracial couple (Hispanic man/white woman).  Never thought anything of it. Seems completely normal to me. In fact, I spent my teen years fantasizing that I married their HOT son! LOLOLOL

I’ve seen how an interracial marriage can work. It’s not without it’s struggles with the rest of the world, but every marriage has it’s struggles, just different ones.

I apologize if one of the 58 comments that precede this has said the same thing. I suspect that there is a strong desire in women to pair with exotic men (or to put it more bluntly, the other), but that the prevailing culture still sees it as taboo (irrespective of how many mixed race marriages we are able to say we know about personally). I think this is why there are so many Spaniards and the like out there. I also suspect they are made billionaires to make them even more acceptable.

Why should it matter what people read or want to read?  Reading romance (and other fluffy by the poolside genres) don’t have to be about political or social correctness.  They have to get your rocks off or scratch the proverbial itch.

It comes down to what consumers want to read and what writers want to write about.  If no one is writing it because no one is really interested in it then it shouldn’t matter.  I hate it when people push a racial or sexual issue just because no one wants it.

I don’t think it’s taboo or that there is a desire for the exotic.  I think it just doesn’t occur to writers to put it in their books.  Romanceland tends to lean towards the traditional trope.  And when it deviates from that it also tends to do so conservatively.  Is there something wrong with that?  Not at all.  ESPECIALLY from this genre because it is meant as a comfort food and entertainment, not as a political statement.

The best examples of interracial romance books are the ones which deal with the characters’ races almost as an after-thought.  It’s not as if it’s a prerequisite for a reader to know the race of the characters before reading a book.  A good example of an author who totally disregards race as an issue in constructing her books is Marjorie M. Liu.  Of course, she’s dealing with the paranormal, and if the reader can accept a gargoyle as a hero, why can’t they accept a different race of human?

What if the IR IS a paranormal?

What if a mystery is a fantasy (e.g. The Dresden Files, which I have seen in both sections at different libraries)?  What if a Romance is SF?  Sometimes things are in more than one genre.

There isn’t an IR section at my library, but I can tell you why there’s an AA section: because before we had one, people came in and asked where they could find it.  Do people who are browsing the general fiction possibly miss something that they would like because it’s shelved in AA?  It probably happens from time to time.  A person browsing Fantasy might also miss something she’d like in SF.  A person who never heard of The Dresden Files who browses the fantasy section might miss it if that library considers it mystery, or vice versa.  We try to make things easy to find based on how we think people are most likely to look for it, but sometimes there are two categories that fit a book equally well.  In an ideal world multiple copies would be split between both places (which is often done for many of our AA books of which we own multiple copies).

As one member of an interracial couple, I have to say that I’m not sure it’s enough of a subject to carry a romance.  Most of my friends are in interracial or inter-cultural relationships/marriages.  The issues, however, that make relationships difficult/challenging are mostly not related to race.  The couples I know who’ve had problems - have the usual gambit of problems (money, infidelity, etc.,) so I don’t know if it’s enough to carry a romance, but it would be interesting in the sense that I could see a reflection of myself in a romance.

One interracial romance that I read recently was: The Tao of Sex by Jade Lee (though I wasn’t a fan of the book, too abstract for me).  Then there have been a sprinkling of ‘mainstream’ (read Harlequin) books over the years where the hero was 1/8 or 1/4 native American - and recently A Scent of Seduction by Colleen Collins with a (NOT MY WORDS) ‘Native American hottie’ - hero.

I’m also one half of an interracial couple (he’s black and I’m about as white as you can get), and maybe it’s because of where I grew up/currently live (Seattle), but it seems fairly normal to me. I agree that novels specifically about interracial couples tend to focus too much on race, but I think it’s more out of a want to be sensitive to the issue than a reflection on real life (at least my life - I can’t speak for anyone else). Out of all the issues my bf and I have had, race has never been one. We’ve talked about it, obviously, but it was never an obstacle or a factor - other than it’s part of the way he looks, and I kinda really like that :). That is not to say that racism doesn’t exist, or to disregard the experiences people have had with it, but I look at it much the way I look at the color of his eyes or the way he smiles - it’s just part of the person I love, and one of the reasons he is who he is. I’d love to see that reflected in a novel.

Also, can we all have a cheer for Sam and Alyssa? One of my favorite novel couples of all time, bar none! Hmm, it’s been a while since I re-read that one…

As an author of black and bw/wm romances, I’m thrilled to see all the messages from readers saying that you’d read these books.  However, if print books are your cuppa, you’ll have to go to the black section to find most of them.  Genesis Press and Parker Publishing are two small print presses who regularly publish bw/wm.  As others have said, may epubs do too.

shameless plug—my last release was part of an anthology What White Boyz Want, released in March—end shameless plug.

As for why black books are shelved where they are, might I direct my fellow RWA members to your May RWR, starting on page 15?  I’ve said plenty on that subject on my own blog, Monica’s blog, here and at Dear Author, but the RWR has it in a black and white keepsake edition, pun intended.

Roz has already mentioned the MSN group.  They are voracious readers who love books with bw and non-black men in them.  They’ll be more than happy to give you recommendations.

Race is acknowledged in some way in both my full length IR books.  In No Commitment Required, the hero and heroine don’t have problems with color (they’ve got bigger issues) but their friends and some minor characters do.  In Three Wishes,  they discuss it and move on (heroine is black and Vietnamese, but identifies black) but again secondary characters have issues.  No issues in WB.  I know Amazon reviews are suspect now, but I’ve only ever once asked someone to post a review there.  Dear Author gave NCR a B, if that helps.

Allie:
may I offer gay interracial pirates?Kestrel on the Horizon

Carrie: Nikolai has an observant Jewish main character (not the title character, but his mentor). Watch for “Burning for Eight Days” from Ellora’s Cave’s Exotica line.

working71. Yep, pimping myself. That’s work.

The best examples of interracial romance books are the ones which deal with the characters’ races almost as an after-thought.

Oh yes. I’m a firm believer in drawing on universal emotions (especially when writing outside my own eastern European background) and adding in cultural elements as needed.

I work hard to get things “as right as I can” and the response has been good, but I admit that it’s frustrating at times to have to work around genre expectations.

It pained me to have my samurai hero tell the British heroine he loved her at the end of a novella instead of letting the fact that he kept her with him make the point.

So why arent there more interracial romances? Short answer: because the majority of (white) people in this country are socialized to feel uncomfortable with discussing race or ethnicity.

In general, I don’t tend to read ‘Black’ romance, or novels for that matter, because once they get categorized in that way, it gives off the vibe that it’s going to be a book about Black People, rather than a novel where the characters just happen to be Black.  And this, as I see it, is a step away from equality rather than a step toward equality

.

I am a woman of color. I am a woman always. I am a person of color always. I cant separate that. So if I fall in love I am a woman of color falling in love. Ss if you write a story about me then it must be a story about this particular woman of color falling in love.

As some of the posts on this thread indicate people are socialized to say all the PC things that they would love to read about other races/ethnicities. In reality the majority of romance readers only really do so only when its “safe”.

I agree with sallahdog; if an interracial romance becomes more about the “interracial” and less about the “romance,” I don’t think that would be a book I would want to read. Well, I would read it, but I wouldn’t be able to deal with a steady diet of it. Perhaps because I don’t want to deal with the unpleasant aspects of interracial romance, such as hateful bigots?

Safe means no uncomfortable feelings generated by reading the novel. The novel shouldnt force you to think about your unearned privileges, inequality, prejudice or anything uncomfortable. It doesnt matter if the love story is compelling and the characters are well drawn.

Like many other readers I have heard on this subject, we don’t like preachy and we don’t like the race issue to be the only plot.

It doesnt matter if the love story deals with love AND race. That little inkling that you might have to deal with confronting race privilege then it becomes unsafe. Read about bloodsucking killer vampires and shifters in paranormals? Sure. Read about serial killers and abusive husbands in romantic suspense? Yup.

Read about interracial romances? Not so much. Before you say what about all those Asians, Latinos, Native Americans. Yes they are in romance. But these are essentialized Others.  These are Others that are made safe. Safe as in the noble savage of Cassie Edwards, the powerful martial arts practicing Asian a la Liu or Stuart. So why arent there any essentialized versions of black people in romance? Cause for the most part the archetypes of black folk are negative. Think of what you see on the news, TV and film. But there arent any safe images of black folk that would fit in romance. The archetypes of the black female are the oversexed, angry and lazy black woman or the hardworking, nurturing and asexual mammie. Black men are hypersexual, masculine and and violent. There is no place for the asexual mammie in romance and the oversexed angry female is too scary. Popular culture flirts with the tall dark and handsome black male with an edge ( think of Denzel) but rarely if ever is he the romantic lead with any sort of deep exploration of the relationship with a woman. He is too masculine and violent to be a romance hero. So the mainstream houses ( as do the majority of the white romance readership) dont see anything that would sell (or that they would want to read).Why? Because its too scary if you have to explore what the couple actually has to go through.  If you have to deal with some real world stuff ( stuff I cant run away from on daily basis) then the white majority romance readership doesnt want to read it.

In the same way that little boys are socialized to read all stories as male stories; So we see that more men like to read stories about male protagonists. On the other hand girls are socialized to read male stories but also seek out stories where there are female protagonists. The corollary is that the white majority is socialized to read all stories as stories about white people; so we see that the white majority of romance readers read stories that deal with white protagnists falling in love. People of color read mainstream romances while at the same time seeking out stories about folks of color.

I think there is a large group of readers out there who really want IR’s but for some reason NY isn’t getting it. I’m a writer with 1 IR available now and 3 coming out next year, in an IR relationship, and am a member of IR yahoo groups and message boards. I think readers want the books its just finding a way to get NY to realize it. That being said, in my personal relationship race as never been an issue. Not with friends, family or our community unless it’s behind closed doors. That is how I write my books as well. Sure the H/H are of different races but it isn’t the conflict or a major issue in my book. There are so many other iussues out there other than race. I think that also helps the books to be more relatable to people of every race. I think a lot of people want to read what they can relate too and not everyone can relate to an race issues in a relationship so it might make the book harder to get into for them. I’m not saying thats the case, just a possibility. Love that you brought this topic up. Hopefully if we keep talking about it the bigger publishers will see and start to publish more IR books.

Also, my publisher, Parker Publishing has a line of books about people from races that aren’t written about a lot. Someone mentioned that in a post. The Lotus Blossom line has books about races that you don’t often read in other romance books.

(To start, I’m referring almost exclusively to historicals below)

I’ll tell you what strikes me funny… women do want to read about inter-cultural romances.  I can’t conveniently count the number of books I’ve read where the white hero was raised by a culture distinctly non-white.  Sheiks, Navajo/Apache/etc., Barbars.  The theory seems to be as readers it’s okay if a writer wants to cross a cultural barrier, but don’t you dare put the heroines lily white skin next to someone of anything more than a working tan.

The norm seems to be that if a person of x origin is raised as a person of y and paired with another x. It’s still and xx pairing.  But xy is… well not taboo, but the next closest thing.

So it doesn’t seem to be that [whoever makes these decisions on the reader’s behalf] has an objection to a cultured/savage paring.  It is almost strictly a colour issue.

Wow, thanks for the kind comments about my Champagne Rules and Hot in Here, the first two books of my Awesome Foursome series.

When I started the series, I knew I wanted to write about four 20-something girls (kind of a younger Sex and the City, set in Vancouver). I knew they couldn’t all be white, and couldn’t all have romances with white guys. That’s just not realistic in Vancouver. So, the heroine in Champagne Rules is white and her guy is African-American - the child of a single parent immigrant mom with big aspirations for her kid - and partly as a result of that, he’s kind of a workaholic super-achiever. The race thing isn’t an issue for the heroine and hero or their families, but his workaholic tendencies are. She wants a man who puts home and family first - and he has to re-examine his priorities.

In Hot in Here, race is more of an issue. Not for the heroine and hero, but for their families. Hers is Chinese and very traditional - and dating a white guy is taboo for them. She’s torn between being the good respectful daughter she’s been raised to be, versus being a modern Western woman like her friends and being able to date - and fall in love with - whatever kind of guy she chooses.

So, in these books, race both is and isn’t the issue, if you see what I mean. Although both couples are interracial, I see the issue in Champagne Rules as being his workaholism, and in Hot in Here it’s her problem re respecting her parents versus being true to herself. However, both those problems happen to exist because the CR hero and the HiH heroine aren’t white, but live in the middle of a predominantly white society.

A very interesting discussion!

You might want to join the MSN group for interracial/multi-cultural readers/writers. Here’s the link:

http://groups.msn.com/InterracialMulticulturalRomanceReaders/general.msnw

Thanks so much, Roslyn.  I’ve marked the link and will be checking it out.  :)

You know, I think it should be made clear that a Hispanic/Latino character with a white character isn’t INTERRACIAL.  It’s intercultural.  There are white Hispanics, black Hispanics, brown Hispanics, Asian Hispanics…being Latino isn’t a race, it’s a culture.  I think I was even misleading in my own post.

So in other words…that’s a whole ‘nuther topic.

Verification word: fear26.  Should I fear the controversy?  Nah.

1) The mainstream (NYC) publishers have been/still are squeamish about putting out interracial romances (or any other kind of cutting edge romance such as gay romances) because they
a) would rather not get into fights over distributing/racking/selling them in certain locales, and thus lose money, and
b) feel they don’t know how to market/to whom to market such books, and will thus lose money.

Both are legitimate fears, but time has ameliorated each situation to some extent. Things truly have changed in our country. And publishers have more diverse staff (not just editorial) with less hidebound perspectives. There is no reason to suppose things won’t continue to change for the better.

2) Not a lot of interracial romances were written and submitted to romance publishers in the past. Very, very few. There may be more now, but they still face the same statistical battle for publication as any other kind of romance, plus the issue that any new type of romance (usually defined as a subgenre) has to find an adventurous editor to test the waters. If and when the subgenre hits, nearly every publisher will take it on. 

3) Chick lit (which you can claim isn’t romance if you feel you must, but I think it is) finally opened the door to Jewish heroes, Italian families, and other recognizable ethnic groups. Previously, nearly all romances were about white bread middle American heroines, with some glamorized Irish blood or the occasional macho Italian hero thrown in. Since most Americans are a product of some ethnic mix, all romance readers except Barbie herself have had to willingly suspend disbelief in order to bond with heroines who are not exactly like them and who have romances with Texas oil barons, British lords, billionaire Italian counts, French wine producers, Spanish or Mexican aristocrats, and so on.

Bottom line: Publishers are in business to make money and if you show them they can make money publishing your kind of book (for instance, by being epublished and being a hit, the current paradigm), they will. Regardless of who or what it is about.

I’ve been monitoring this discussion with interest. I too am a member and an assistant mgr of IMRR, Interracial Multicultural Romance Readers. I encourage anyone interested in learning more about such books to visit our site and apply for membership http://groups.msn.com/InterracialMulticulturalRomanceReaders  The books we discuss and promote celebrate love in all of its many creative hues.

Now that being said you’ll find that there are some who insist that IRs should feature racial conflict because that’s the reality. But you will find even more, such as myself who argue that it’s only one reality and it certainly isn’t mine. I too have been in an IR relationship for the past 21 years and at no time have experienced any of the racial conflicts depicted in some of the IR stories published. That’s not to say that such things don’t happen, but it is not everyones reality.

There appears to be a move now to take racial conflict out of IRs as the driving factor in a story and instead focus on other problems. I’ve always argued for that and I think the voices on this thread support my thoughts.  That is most women who buy a romance want just that. A well written romance regardless of the color of the protagonist and not social commentary. Who wants to read about how much one peoples hate another? After awhile it just gets old.

The second thing is the way these books are shelved, I for one would want my book shelved so more people would be likely to come across it and buy it.  Cause isn’t sales the point? Shelving it in anything other than romance if that’s what it is would be ridiculous. Yes there are some books that cross over genres, sci/fi romances, but it’s still not that hard to figure out. If the romance drives the story it’s a romance, if the romance is merely ancillary to the sci/fi storyline it’s sci/fi.  Odds are if you can’t be sure it’s a romance.

I feel very fortunate that I met with no resistance or qualms whatsoever from Kensington when I submitted my paranormal romance, “Dark Thirst” to them two years ago. In it, the hero is white and the heroine is black. I’ve had mixed reader response to it—some folks think I downplay the racial issue too much, while others say just the opposite, that I play it up too much, but when I was writing the book, I simply tried to be practical and realistic, based on my own experiences and observations. To me, the focal point of the book and the relationship with the h/h was always that they fell in love, the way(s) and reasons they fell in love, not their race. But I felt to simply ignore the race factor would have been not only inappropriate, but a disservice, because it is something I think a young couple in similar circumstances would face and likely address. The whole “the hero is also a vampire” thing aside, of course, LOL.

For me, one of the most interesting parts of working on this book was talking with my friend, Maxine, who is black, and from whom I gleaned some of the anecdotes shared by my heroine in the story. For example, in the book, the heroine, Lina, talks about how her mother recalls that some cousins could go to the circus in their youth, because they were fair-skinned enough to “pass for white” especially in a dark circus tent, but Lina’s mother, who was darker-complected, couldn’t. That was based on a true story that Max shared with me.

Max’s father was also a police officer at a time when integrated police departments were something new and novel. She and her family really were brave and overcame a lot of racial obstacles to build lives for themselves. I admired the hell out of that and wanted to express that in my book in some way.

Anyway. I’m babbling. It’s late on a school night and I’m whipped, LOL. The sequel to “Dark Thirst” comes out in September—“Dark Hunger.” My agent is reviewing my pitch for a third book, “Dark Pasison,” and in it, the hero is black. We’ll see how that goes. Again, I have to give kudos to Kensington and my editor for not balking at all off the premise of “Dark Thirst” (because the hero is also deaf and mute—yeah, this book had a lot of challenges going for it, LOL).

Sara

I wanted to add as well that my book isn’t classified as IR. It’s shelved in the romance section. There’s nothing on the cover or back blurb to indicate it’s IR, just like there’s nothing to indicate the hero is physically disabled in it. Which is the way more books should be, I think. No one has contacted me to complain about the unadvertised IR content, which leads me to suspect that other IR books would be similarly received, even when the content was known aforehand. I agree completely—if the romance drives the story, the book should be shelved with romances.

Your book is very good Sara, I eagerly await the sequel. I’m not surprised your book wasn’t segregated. Brockmann’s wasn’t either. Publishers shelve based on the race of the author, not the characters. White women can write multi-cultural as much as they like with no fear of being placed in the Negro ghetto. It’s most unfortunate.

Thank you to Seressia, Roz and Kelley Nyrae for mentioning IMRR. Our group of more than 600 members focuses on IR/Multicultural Romances and as each of the ladies mentioned above know so well, there is a demand for them and the readership will hunt you down for them.

There is a demand for IR books that go beyond the boundaries set by the sheikh and “indian” romances. Readers are eagerly seeking them and there are many of us quickly writing them.

Virtually anyone can write an IR romance regardless of their complexion or ethnicity through the power of one tiny thing….Research.

If you as a writer can write about the regency era, then you can write IR.

You’re living in the 21st century and can only write about it (the Regency Era, Civil War, whatever) based upon what you’ve read about that time period. You don’t fear messing that up, why would you fear messing up or offending ethnic readers because you’re not the same complexion or ethnicity as your heroine?

Shoot, most of you aren’t men either, but that doesn’t stop you from writing about them as if you were. Trust me on this. Kate Douglas and JJ Murray both write IR and do them well while living this life in “white” skin.

And if you’re truely terrified of offending readers, then locate readers that read IR exclusively and they’ll tell you if what you’ve written rings true or if it’s just one stereotype after the other. Shoot, email me and I’ll tell you.

Sara,

I disagree that it’s a disservice to not include racial conflict. Disservice to whom?  Yourself if you have never experienced it or to your friend’s mother because she couldn’t pass for white. I think we stretch the reasons too far. I find it a disservice to the romance and to the storyline, if it’s included just because the writer feels it has to be present simply because the relationship is an IR, as opposed to the story calling for it. Your story sounds very interesting and like it had more than enough going on. I’m on my way to Amazon to check it out.

We are all products of our experiences I find it a disservice to portray all IR relationships as being rife with conflict. Mine has never been and mine is not alone.

Isis

I have notice a lot of main stream author rear away from interracial romance/erotica books. Most authors who I email state, they are afraid to write IR or no one wants to buy them. My reply to them they are souly mistake because there are many readers who are willing and able to purchase these books. What I understand it is the publish company who has basely denial authors. Because publish company believe there is no market for interracial romance book. I applaud ebook company for taking stand for this type of genre.
I personalty love to read interracial romance/erotica books, especially between black woman/ another ethnicity male.  OHMYGAWD that is so hot. I want to read how they overcame adversity, fell in love, and having great sex. I just can’t believe how single mind publish industry in this day and time. Don’t they understand how broad mind readers has become they want more than WW/WM, WW/Indian Man, Or WW/AM. The common theme white woman. Please! I and the readers want more diversity. White woman isn’t only person on this planet who falls in love. Broaden your horizon you be surpise what you will learn. I support IR. I for one love them.

they used to call such romances Multi-cultural, which I preferred, but now they call them interracial.  I hate this term.  I’m also a teacher and it comes up in many a book discussion about educational issue, etc.  I really hate this term “race.”

I had a teacher in college who argued that there is no such thing as race.  There are only different cultures, different skin colors.  No biological differences, as the term suggests.

I’m white, my husband is not, and this has never been an issue in our relationship.  My romances tend to have characters from different backgrounds and cultures, but I never see this as a conflict or a problem the couple has to overcome.  Perhaps because of my personal experience, my upbringing, and where I live (San Diego is very diverse).

My agent once referred to one of my books as a “multicultural romance” when she was pitching it.  I remember finding this odd.  To me, it was just a romance.

Sara, I read your book and while it’s been more than a minute since I read it (shortly after it came out) I don’t feel that race played much of a part in it at all. Fact is, his so called disability was more of a plot point than anything else. Race was way, way down on the list…and Isis, get that book ASAP, you’re going to enjoy reading it.

The “why” question I think is a pretty basic one in all the genres - why is our fiction so damn segregated and how come so many kinds of people get used as safe others (all those historicals full of brutal, barbaric, uncivilized, very different…scottish people) while the question of race can’t be touched directly at all?

I had to stop reading historicals with American settings completely because they were either about Native men who it turned out had gone to Harvard/were actually half white (always their fathers because that’s the IMPORTANT half)/were actually orphaned settler boys). Or they took place in places where slavery definitely existed and yet…slavery did not touch the book at all.

I was SO EXCITED when I saw Roberta Gregory’s A Respectable Trade on the rack at our grocery store, and then by the next week it had completely disappeared. I am sure someone complained. And it wasn’t even really a romance novel, I don’t think - once I finally tracked down a copy I looked at her other stuff and it seems to not be marketed as genre.

Anyway, I think I might try a string of Black-marketed romances. It fits in my “only cheerful books” vow for this year, and they should be pretty easy to come by (though from what is on the shelf, I think our library only stocks Christian romances with Black heroines.) Thanks for the post, and the links & titles in everyone’s comments.

Harlequin Superromance is publishing an interracial romance in a few months—it was originally an Everlasting Love but was moved to Superromance after the line closed.  I don’t remember the name, but it’s by Geri Krotow.

My first Harlequin Spice Brief, No Apologies, was about an interracial couple, as well, but it didn’t dwell on the fact that they were different races.  It was simply a romance with two people of different colors—he was black, she was white. 

  The world is made up of many different kind of couples—I don’t understand why romance shouldn’t be as well.

The IR aspect must also be looked at from the author angle. Like Roz said, and as Monica has been saying for a while, the color of the characters don’t matter, the color of the author does. Even though the world is multicultural, this society is still stratified by “race” (and on that note, religion: don’t see very many devout Muslims or Buddhists or Jewish or even a practicer of a non-World religion as a protagonist), which enables the majority to dictate what is an acceptable fantasy.

The way I see it, non-black authors writing non-white characters is a good thing, but their ability to experience success in ways a black author (or another minority author: I don’t see Jade Lee’s awesome historicals getting as much buzz as some of the all-white historicals that have been released recently) is unable gets my goat. Sort of reminds me of the casting for movies like Pinky, the 1959 version of The Imitation of Life, and various cases of “yellowface” and “redface” in Hollywood: the majority likes dramatizing people of color, but only if they’re assured that behind the “color” is a white person.

For all the declarations that “race” doesn’t matter, I feel this statement is used to keep the romance genre “safe” from anything truly uncomfortable. Which in turn makes me feel that who I am, and what my experiences are as a black woman in America, are unwelcome because it is “uncomfortable.” That I must shield a portion of what has formed my personality in order to maintain the status quo—something I find completely unfair and wrong.

I know there isn’t enough IR, multicultural, etc. romance on the shelves. And you ought to be in Canada to see how much worse it is here. But I do think things have improved a lot in the last few years, and that trend is going to continue.

I’m with Kensington and I honestly haven’t got any sense that they give a damn about the race/culture of the hero and heroine. They’re looking for a good story.

They did say, for my first book (white female, black male) that they had a heck of a time finding a stock photo for the cover. But they ended up with a gorgeous one. It’s romantic and gentle and I love the sense of connection between the man and woman. The back cover blurb doesn’t say a word about the IR aspect, but the cover photo pretty much gets that point across.

When RT BookReviews reviewed hte book, they didn’t label it as IR or include that fact in the review. Nor did they with Hot in Here (which has a racially neutral cover, and again no mention in the blurb). I’ve never had a fan comment negatively on either book (i.e., no-one has said there’s too much or too little of a race issue). I have had women in IR relationships comment that, from their perspective, I got it right. That’s very gratifying for an author. Of course there’s no such thing as a “typical” IR relationship, but it’s wonderful when characters ring true with readers.

Susan www.susanlyons.ca

Trumystique: love what you said.

Yes, race is a social construct, but the context it’s been created and maintained in doesn’t just go away. Race relations don’t just magically get better because we want to hold hands and sing for peace.

I don’t mean to sound completely flippant. (I’m very tired right now). But I grew up in LA and race played a huge part of my childhood. Being white in a white neighborhood had different connotations than when I was white in other neighborhoods. My friends of color all have stories to share, and while most are different some of them have very similiar underlining threads. While each person has a unique set of experiences and personality and history and whatever, race does play a part. (Being white means I get a lot more priviledges than some of my friends). Considering most relations get started on the first impression, the looks (and therefore skin color, while maybe not race- I’ve had friends who look white and friends who are considered something else because they look like another “group”) of a person do add to the overall impression. Just because someone wants to ignore race doesn’t mean they really can.

To get back more on multiracial romances rather than just race, I don’t need or even necessarily want a romance to only talk about racial issues. (Though again, if a book’s well written, gimme gimme). OTOH, I personally (this is all my oh so humble opinion) find it weird when race is brushed over. Not so much in paranormal, but in contemporary or historicals or… And OTOH again, I don’t want to be bashed on the head with it.  To use an example from just Suz Brockmann since someone mentioned her above: Alyssa and Sam’s story line had a huge racial component- Sam’s background, Alyssa’s perception of him as a “texas boy” (and therefore racist and homophobic), etc etc.  For Into the Storm, I felt Lindsey’s race was more forced into the plot rather than flowing, like “hey, don’t forget she’s Japanese folks”. (Still love her story though. But Suz just rocks).

And thanks for the link to Interracial/Multicultural Romance Readers. Looking forward to some suggestions.  And all the titles throughout the comments. And my TBR pile gets bigger…

Also, Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman is a really interesting YA novel with a black heroine and a white hero; the difference though is in her world, what it means to be black or white has been reversed. I think it’s the first book in a trilogy, but I’ve only read this one so don’t know how the rest go.  (Uh, warning and slightly spoilerish- while it is a romance, it doesn’t have an HEA).

Black and BW/other male romances are just like white romances in some respects: there are good writers and bad writers; there are stories where class/race is an issue, and some that aren’t (how many boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks stories are out there that keep driving the point home over and over?)

I just got back from the Romance Slam Jam, a convention that celebrates black romance.  Black romance authors and bookclubs get together every year (think of it as Celebrate Romance for black folks) to enjoy the world of black romance.  This includes interracial, paranormal, inspirational, and chick lit. (Please don’t ask why this conference exists, because if you don’t realize the answer….)

This year was the 13th year.  THIRTEEN, people.  A conference where my worth as a writer is easily and obviously noted and appreciated.  This conference eases the sting of being shelved differently, marketed differently, given smaller print runs and generally ignored by the larger romance reading community. 

That conference is such a high that I don’t even mind the comments here saying how there’s a dearth of multicultural romances, when I know Arabesque and Genesis romances have been around for far longer than erotic romances (as a named genre.)  When Parker is celebrating its third year in print.  When ebooks by and about multicultural people are being constantly released (ask Bridget Midway and Shiree McCarver).  When Sandra Kitt’s Color of Love is 13 years old.  When ENTWINED DESTINIES by Rosalind Welles, arguably the first black romance, turns 28 this year.

Kimani romance releases four titles a month.  That doesn’t include Tru, Arabesque, or New Spirit.  No idea how many Sepia or Strebor or Dafina or other lines release.  If you can’t find MC (read: black) romances, it’s because you don’t notice them.  They just aren’t on your radar. 

How many of you who “care about the romance, not the race” actually go into the black fiction section and look for romances?

Damn, now I’ve done steamed myself up.  It’s obviously time to go to bed.

Paid61—yeah, wish I got paid what a low level white author gets paid, but I’m not bitter.

This is such a great post. But I’ll have to come back to it. A friend mentioned Loving died today - but we covered that this semester, and today was my con law final and it could have gone better. So.
Crazy how some “old school” things didn’t happen all that long ago.

In general, I don’t care about race/culture differences between the h/h as long as it isn’t the overriding theme of the story. I’m married to a man of a different culture and we’ve had to deal with that. I know my situation wasn’t always a more normal one, like literally being the only non-white person in a town with a pop. of 69, it’s not something I like to rehash for recreational purposes. I also like to be able to relate to the characters. I like learning about different cultures and seeing situations from different viewpoints, but if I don’t understand the characters, then I’m just wasting my time. Some authors are good at getting there no matter the characters cultural differences to the reader, while some fall well short of the mark.

If you can’t find MC (read: black) romances

But see right here you are saying that MC = black and that’s just it. There are other cultures out there. When some people talk about the dearth, they may be referring to the variety of cultures as well as the general availability of interracial romance.

I’ve read a few black romances, my favorite to date is Last Bride Standing by Patricia Anne Phillips which I found at the library in the library completely unsegregated from the rest of the romance books, and like you said, there are good authors and bad authors like anywhere else. I think what keeps most people giving them a try is the belief that they won’t be able to relate to the characters due to cultural differences.

For those who don’t think that the majority of Romance readers want to read interracial or non-white Romance, how would you explain the success of, say, Suzanne Brockmann?  IIRC, Sam and Alyssa’s book was—up to that point—the most highly anticipated of the series, and it marked the transition of the series to hardcover, as well.

Robin, as many others have said, the “race” of the author is more important than the “race” of the characters. You can’t tell me that Brockmann got where she did without the benefits of white privilege in this society. While I can’t say she wouldn’t be successful if she was nonwhite and writing what she does, but she’d have a helluva lot more mountains to climb and hoops to jump through to attain the success she has if she were nonwhite.

You can look at the bookshelves and see the presence of many black authors writing historicals, contemporaries, paranormals, womens fiction—anything comparable to nonblack writers. But do they get the breaks their nonblack peers get? I don’t see readers gushing over Brenda Jackson’s Damaris family, when many nonblack romance writer who have created an extensive family series tend to shoot to fame. If paranormal and erotic romance is so popular, why didn’t the “Creepin” anthology get any love from the readers who gobble up anything paranormal and/or erotic?

If there is no problem, why did H/S’s experiment to place their black authors (from their acquisition of the Arabesque line) in their existing lines garner horribly low sales, AND why did Brenda Jackson become first black author to write for a major H/S line in 2002? If “race” doesn’t matter, where are the Billionaire Jamaicans or Chinese tycoons?

Jilll Sorensen said:

I had a teacher in college who argued that there is no such thing as race.  There are only different cultures, different skin colors.  No biological differences, as the term suggests.

Exactly right.  This is what I was trying to say umpteen posts ago.  It is, as Orangehands said, a social construct, more in some societies than others, and one that has its roots in societies whose status hierarchies were organised very differently from our own.  It is an outmoded concept.

I find it profoundly depressing that it is still even possible to have such an earnest discussion on the subject in 2008.

Exactly right.  This is what I was trying to say umpteen posts ago.  It is, as Orangehands said, a social construct, more in some societies than others, and one that has its roots in societies whose status hierarchies were organised very differently from our own.  It is an outmoded concept.

As an anthropology major, of course I know that “race” is a social construct. But the only people who have the ability to ignore (and benefit from) this stratification are the ones for whom it was created. I wouldn’t go as far to say that it is “outmoded”—outmoded for whom? Race was constructed for some purpose and its purpose is oh so apparent when I do something as simple as say, read a book.

As an author of interracial romance in the big, wide, wonderful world of epublishing, I can tell you that the vast majority of my fiction has interracial relationships, however, I do not make race the issue. Considering the previously mentioned court case (Loving vs. Virginia), in Virginia where I live, interracial relationships are so commonplace now. We’re a large Navy town with lots of races and nationalities here all of the time. So I write what I experience. What I’ve experienced is a melting pot of people who love each other regardless of color.

Now, as far as the big pubs being scared to publish I/R, to a certain extent, you’re right. I remember distinctly pitching one of my I/Rs to a publisher last year. At the time I was on the cover of Romantic Times BOOK Reviews Magazine where I lamented the fact that publishers and agents seemed scared to push an I/R work. After I pitched my story, the publisher got this strange look on her face and asked me if my story was I/R. I told her yes, because I hadn’t made it obvious in my pitch. Honestly, I didn’t think I needed to since race wasn’t the conflict. I just referred to my characters by their jobs. Then she told me that she would have a hard time selling my book. I told her not to worry. That I know how to sell I/R because it’s all I write and I have a pretty good fan-base. Then she said she didn’t know where to shelve my book. I guess the romance shelf was all full. Then she asked me to do something that I’ve never been asked to do in a pitch session before. She asked me to do research on the I/R genre and come back to her with sales numbers BEFORE I send her my story. After she sees the numbers, she’ll let me know if I can submit. Needless to say, I didn’t do any research, nor am I submitting to her publisher.

I’m not sure why publishers are so afraid to publish I/R. Romance is romance is romance. Period.

BridgeT
www.BridgetMidway.com

Robin, where was Suzanne Brockmann’s book shelved? Was she placed in the Negro ghetto with all those dozens of black authors who’ve been writing IR romance for more than a decade? Or was she placed in ROMANCE, with the others of the same genre.

Of course her book sold better than those of black authors who’ve done the same. I think it goes without saying that if readers have to seek out books in some segregated ‘African-American’ section of the book store it’s so not going to happen.

Brockmann, Reinke and any other white woman who chooses to write an IR romance will have a leg-up on any black woman doing the same because their books will be mainstreamed while ours are still segregated. And then people wonder why black authors are hostile when a white woman decides to write an IR book.

As someone still hacking away at ye olde Great American Novel, it’s interesting to come into a discussion and see readers and writers discussing the various issues of interracial/multicultural romance.  It didn’t even occur to me, really, that I was writing anything interracial until I stopped and thought about it. My main character’s Indian heritage is very, very prevalent in her life, and shapes who she is, but it’s not an issue between her and her potential love interests (one is white, the other is Korean). The secondary characters are all interracially involved as well! And it’s mostly just a reflection of my own group of friends here in New York.

So, I’m just trying to get the darn thing finished, but then, given all the discussion here, it hearkens back to my deep fear of “Okay, it’s done, but who would publish it and who would read it?” (Aside from the five friends I’d send it to with pathetic pleas.)  Where do you shelve a Chicklit or romance that not only doesn’t have primary characters who are white, but also doesn’t have primary characters who are black? Who’s going to take that on and market it?  I know Poonam Sharma went through Red Dress Ink, but I can guarantee that my slightly less ambitious Indian heroine bears no resemblance to her more high-powered ones… and therein lies another problem. Does anyone want to read interracial Chicklit about relatively normal, every day people who don’t drink Cosmos and can’t even spell Manolo?

Ugh. It’s scary out there in the publishing world!

Oh, and I must point out that Big Spankable Asses, which you snark so deliciously below, all three stories are interracial. So really, we must ask, are you looking for interracial stories? Or, are you looking for interracial stories written by white women?