After Tupac and D Foster

[takumashii]

Brain and fingers are still runing at half speed, but for IBARW I wanted to write about some books by and about people of color -- especially in the wake of the controversy about the US cover to Justine Larbalestier's book Liar.

After Tupac and D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson, is one of those quiet quiet books where almost nothing happens, and then

Comments

[jinian]

Thanks for the lovely review. I've added it on the IBARW Delicious account.

[diceytillerman]

Thank you for the tip. I've not read this one yet but I love Jacqueline Woodson. (as obvs from icon)

[takumashii]

Well, my basic thinking with regards to the marketing stuff is that, it's my job to write the book. That's what they hired me to do. They hire cover design people and marketing people because those people, IN THEORY, know more about those things than I do. I could not sell popsicles in summer during a heat wave. Let other people do it.

I think that authors can be REALLY off the mark sometimes when it comes to the iconography and visual language of covers.

I also think that the job of a book cover is to tell you what kind of book it is and to catch your eye in the store, not to accurately represent any one specific thing about the book. Oh, it's a literary-ish YA novel, or an angsty fantasy, or the kind of book that would go over well at book club. Authors can overlook that at times.

But that can't be an excuse for being discriminatory about what publishers think will and won't sell. Because even if they are right, they're reinforcing a bad system.

[takumashii]

It would be great if I were a big enough name that I could have veto power over that kind of stuff, sure. Larbalestier doesn't, and Liar will be her sixth book, If I'm not mistaken. I'm lucky that I have an editor who's been very receptive to what I hsve to say, but that didn't add up to being able to keep the title --

And it's not that I'm desperate and willing to get screwed over. It's that I trust that I have good people behind me and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

By the way: I have heard some pretty magnificent stories of authorial ego. I could understand the publisher saying, no! Don't let them near the cover again!