My biggest luck was the Terry McMillan era, because what happened after the phenomenon of 'Waiting to Exhale' is that publishing woke up. They said, 'Wow. Black people do read.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I did a book in 1996, an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century.
I think at places like 'Slate' or the magazine where I work, there was a really poor record of hiring African-American writers. It was really that simple. And I think with the proliferation of the Internet and Internet media, it has been a little harder to maintain that gatekeeper position.
At one time if you were a black writer you had to be one of the best writers in the world to be published. You had to be great. Now you can be good. Mediocre. And that's good.
I always crave to see more stories about and by people of color, particularly new work by young black writers.
I'm not an overnight success. My early publishing history, through my first five books, was unfortunate in many respects, typified by a couple of short anecdotes.
I think that black fiction authors have to work very hard to avoid being typed as seeking only a black audience.
I remember going into a bookshop, and the only book I saw with a black child on the cover was 'A Thief in the Village' by James Berry, and I thought, 'Is this still the state of publishing?' Then I thought, 'Either I can whine about it or try to do something about it.'
It did occur to me that certainly African-Americans are not underserved in picture books, but those books are almost all about specifically black experiences.
Somehow, I realized I could write books about black characters who reflected my own experiences or otherworldly experiences - not just stories of history, poverty and oppression.
I always had good recognition from the Southern writers, but the publishers never took any notice of that.