Connect to your account and we’ll send your message to Twitter.
Twitter Account: Not authorized (update)
Celebrating ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’
In honor of the opening day of New Moon, the latest film in The Twilight Saga, we thought we ...
The Cheryl Behind the Cheryl
Known to many as the long-suffering (ex)wife of funnyman Larry David, the man behind Seinfeld, ...
BlogTalkRadio Host of the Week: Alfred McComber from...
By Christina Blodgett In our continuing effort to spotlight more members of the BlogTalkRadio ...
http://www.blackpearlsmagazine.com
Country: United States
Language: English
Follow on Twitter
Visit on Facebook
Visit on MySpace
Add to Friends
Send Message
The Black Authors Network (BAN) is dedicated to providing information to help black business owners and authors gain access to the global consumer and to helping promote the growth of black businesses and literature. The Black Authors Network, is here to bring people together, to create a dialogue, and share valuable resources. Our goal is to serve the unique needs of African American authors, to improve literacy and strengthen the image of the African American community. Join us each Monday and Wednesday night for the most stimulating and empowering conversation on the planet. We welcome callers to the show to share their Gifts of Knowledge. Email Ella Curry the producer to become a guest on the show: edc_dg@yahoo.com
Date / Time: 2/12/2008 3:41 PM UTC
by Felicia Pride -- Publishers Weekly, 2/11/2008Read the article at it's sourcehttp://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6530750.html
Among African-American consumers, 33% buy five to 10 books a year and they generally decide what to buy through word-of-mouth, according to an e-mail survey of 1,285 consumers.
The African-American culture survey was conducted by Global Market Insight Inc. (GMI), a marketing intelligence firm based in Bellevue, Wash. It surveyed book-buying habits in 2006. According to Jensen Gadley, PR specialist for GMI, the questionnaire was sent via e-mail to a subset of the company’s African-American specialty panel.
The survey also asked respondents to select possible reasons why more African-American–authored books have not gained large mainstream readership. More than 60% indicated that African-American titles were narrowly marketed only “to an African-American audience,” and 35% indicated that “most African-American authored books don’t appeal to a mainstream audience.”
The majority of respondents, 52%, said that the last book they read was not written by an African-American author, while 40% said their last book had been by an African-American. And despite the continued popularity of street lit/urban fiction, more than 50% of respondents said that themes of sex and drugs do not appeal to them. “I was surprised by many of the findings,” said Gadley, who noted that pigeonholing seems to “play a role in why many African-American–authored books don’t hit it big.”
The study also looks at economics, social status and interracial dating in the black community. The full results are available at www.gmi-mr.com.
© 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Shamontiel
2/12/2008 10:20 PM UTC
This was an interesting study. I recall another session talking about statistics from African American readers, so I won't repeat my previous points. However, I will say that word-of-mouth definitely goes a long way. It can help and hurt an author, and I've been on both sides of the equation, which makes me not underestimate it (and try to be on my Ps and Qs). Anyway, I do believe that sometimes there are readers who just don't KNOW about other authors. Last week, I asked a Chinese employee what is it that she thinks our company should do to celebrate Asian Heritage Month. I'd suggested the writers of the company getting creative and putting in different fortune messages in cookies and letting it be a group effort to make them. She shook her head and said that fortune cookies are an American custom. She suggested instead to have a raffle for popular Chinese authors. I stared at her blankly and didn't have a clue who they would be. Through her, I was introduced to authors I'd never heard of. I think authors should also do the same. If we see that a certain group is NOT reading our books and we'd like to expand our market, introduce it to them. One of the most beneficial book signings I did was with the National Association of Women Businessowners. The diversity in this company is so vast, and there were people buying my book that I can sign on the dotted line would've never heard of me before that day, and not one of my customers was Black.
You are not logged in. Please log in to write a comment.