Thanks to Bernice McFadden

[Kola Boof]

Thanks to Bernice McFadden coining the term "seg-book-gation" last year

.....and challenging the industry to stop their practice of placing books by

Black Authors in one segregated area.....I have become one of the first authors

that Barnes & Noble stocks in "GENERAL FICTION."

In a way, I'm very nervous about it.

I think not being in the Black Section might hurt book sales. But on the other hand

I'm delighted that "The Sexy Part of the Bible" was chosen for Barnes & Noble's

new experiment, based on strong reviews of the novel.

Publishing is changing immensely right now and black authors are truly suffering

and losing leverage for the most part.

The UK Guardian did an article on black fiction's ghettoization and gives props

to Bernice for her heroic efforts. *Here's a link to that story:

http://www.guardian....iction-american

[Troy]

Hey Kola, the Black section in stores was partly due to customer demand -- people wanted to know where the book written by Black writers were. Folks wanted to be able to find them more easily so they were grouped together. There were so few published this was easy to do.

Today I'm not convinced this is still not such a bad idea -- it really depends upon the store. If a store has a good database, knowledgeable sales staff and an intelligent readers. the book should be grouped by genre/subject.

[Kola Boof]

I agree, Troy.

I personally prefer to have the Black books in one place where I can shop faster

without looking all over the entire store.

I'm also nervous about sales.

One thing is happening, though....on GOOD READS it's mostly White People reviewing

my book. And I get so many emails from Whites now who loved the book and find the

subject (Colorism, Skin bleaching) really new & fascinating. So that's a plus.

But I'm still nervous about sales.

Kola

[Troy]

Kola I hear you about your concern regarding sales. But you are developing a readership beyond Black folks and you got the promotion thing down. So things bode well for you regarding commercial success.