NEW YORK — Have publishers finally learned to love black authors?
In the past year, Time Warner, HarperCollins and Kensington Publishing are among those who started or acquired imprints specifically to release books by blacks. The most recent one is Strivers Row, a division of Random House that begins publishing next winter.
Blacks have long complained the industry ignored them, that it didn't believe they actually read books. Now, with the industry apparently paying attention, many say demand for black writers has never been stronger.
"I'm in a buying frenzy," said Anita Diggs, a senior editor at Ballantine Books and director of One World, a multicultural imprint with a strong focus on black writers. "It's very exciting right now to be African-American and to be working in publishing.
"It's very competitive these days," said Melody Guy, who heads Strivers Row. "A couple of times recently I've been looking over a manuscript only to find out that another publisher was already interested."
Most agree the turning point came in the early 1990s with the publication of Terry McMillan's "Waiting to Exhale." Her novel about the lives of four upper-class black women sold millions of copies. It proved not only that there was a large black readership but that a market existed for subjects besides "protest literature."
In the past few years, the market has broadened. Literary authors such as Nobel laureate Toni Morrison still sell millions of copies, but there's also room for mystery (Walter Mosley), romance (E. Lynn Harris, Eric Jerome Dickey) and self-help authors (Iyanla Vanzant).
The imprints themselves reveal the number of potential markets. Strivers Row emphasizes paperback first editions of commercial fiction. Hyperion's Jump at the Sun specializes in children's books. Time Warner's imprint will focus on religious books for women.
"After Terry McMillan's success, blacks were buying books just because of the novelty. Taste wasn't really involved. Now, a decade later, readers are more discerning," said Manie Barron, publisher of Amistad Press, an imprint of HarperCollins that publishes fiction and nonfiction by blacks.
Many authors initially published themselves, selling thousands of copies. Tawana "TJ" Butler, whose novel "Sorority Sisters" came out earlier this year from Villard, used to travel around the country on her own, relying on black-owned stores to help promote her. Early copies of Harris' popular "Invisible Life" were sold from the back of his car.
"When I first started publishing myself, I was advised against it because I was told the industry frowned upon it. But within the African-American community I saw lots of sales," said Harris, a Doubleday author with 2 million books in print.
Writers once passed over by publishers now have deals. Author Solomon Jones saved the rejection slips, all 50 of them. They had much to praise about "Pipe Dream," his novel about four drug addicts and a murder they didn't commit. But they told Jones there was no market for his book.
It's the kind of statement blacks say they've been hearing since the earliest days of publishing.
Next summer, however, "Pipe Dream" will be published by Strivers Row. It will receive a first printing of 25,000, a high number for a first novel, and it will be promoted throughout the country.