JESUS GOD IN HEAVEN KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Dear Bloomsbury,
Don't pee on our leg and tell us it's raining.
For reals,
Le R.
P.S. This is hilarious, though. And this is awesome, and we are very pleased someone has said it for us already, because JESUS CHRIST PEOPLE LET'S GET IT TOGETHER WE ARE GETTING A LITTLE TIRED OVER HERE, we are trying to WRITE A BOOK and it is VERY DISTRACTING when our fellow white people keep FUCKING UP ALL OVER THE PLACE.
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"Do publishers even read the book when they make the cover? Do you really think your teen readers are that stupid and shallow that we will not read books with people of color on the cover?" ~Ari
I'd like to know the answer to these, too. But I can probably guess.
And seeing the two "Liar" covers side by side... wow, what a difference. I wonder how many hands it passed through and got an "okay, looks good." WTF?
I was JUST about to send you a link on this. Just in time for MLK Day! Sigh.
RIGHT?!?!? Of ALL THE WEEKENDS to pick. Like, why don't you just poop in everyone's coffee while you're at it, Bloomsbury.
*Heavy Sigh* I'm adding having to stress out about a cover to my ever growing list of things to do to get my novel published.
Seriously, what are they thinking over at Bloomsbury?
What a horrible message to send to the readers, especially the young black readers who, apparently, don't exist. *fades away into nothingness*
I mean really, Bloomsbury, STOP telling us that we're not good enough for covers and that our skin tone is so horrifying that it'll scare off the so-called 'average' book buyer from buying the book! Okay? Can we?
Sad thing is, there are people who would act as though the book had some sort of protective force field around it if it had a person of colour on the front, particularly a dark-skinned one. But doing stuff like this just validates that behaviour and perpetuates it. Then people just get used to it because it's what they know.
But there are so many thousands of readers out there that are ready and WAITING for something different and it's about time we start acting like we're in the 21st century and give it to them.
I wonder how applicants of color fare when they apply for positions at Bloomsbury.
My school today watched this talk: It made me think of you and Moonrat. It's called "The Danger of a Single Story" and a Nigerian woman's take on growing up reading American and British children's literature. Highly recommended!
"http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
The article makes a good point, though, in that boycotting the book will punish the author, and it's not her fault. I think the best thing we can all do is try to publicize this incident.
If you read Janet Reid's blog you'll know what I'm talking about here. She linked to a letter Dr. King wrote from the Birmingham jail to some religious leaders who were criticizing his protest movments. He spoke, in the letter, about the point of protest being to bring tensions to the surface, expose injustices to the light of public indignation, so that those who are abusing their power will have to choice but to address the grievances against them.
I think we can apply that principle here. Spread this story. If you have a blog, link to it as Le R has done. Shine a light.
Sorry! That was supposed to read "have NO choice".
*Shakes head* Apparently, racism is a live and well. It's just been cleaned up, glossed over, and told to keep it's voice down. As long as it follows those stupid rules, it can have whatever it wants in marketing departments all over the world.
You'd think if a person is intelligent enough to enjoy reading for entertainment, they'd be smart enough to not care if their main characters were a "photo negative" of them. But no! Racism: It's not just for the trailer parks any more!
And worst of all, to me at least, is this is going in the YA section, where being exposed to people/characters of other races could do the most good. Where the readers are still young enough to possibly not be as prejudice as someone whose lived their whole live having incorrect ideas about people who don't have the same skin color as they do. What is this supposed to be? Get them while their young and indoctrinate them in silent hate/fear as quickly as possible?
Kudos to the writer for writing a character that isn't white, but BOO! on the marketing department. One of the links you posted mentioned that the author isn't far enough along in their career to have the clout to do anything about the cover, which really stinks. What we need is for established writers, one's who have enough say-so, to start writing YA fiction about other races. Then they can stop this from happening. If enough books get out there with black people (or latino, asian, ect.) on the cover, enough to make it common place, it won't be as shocking to the eyes of WASP suburbanites. I say J.K. Rowling give us a black wizard story. My white ass would buy it.
I wonder if these publishers who change the ethnicities of the characters on book covers are the same ones who ask for multicultural manuscripts.
I get that Bloomsbury doesn't care to see darker faces on their covers. What I don't get is that they would allow something as stupid as their personal preference affect their bottom line.
Bloomsbury, you need to do a little research!
Communities of color are not only glad to see themselves represented, we go out of our way to make sure that representation succeeds. In my world, mothers are dying to have the children read books in which they are represented. Since they don't have time to read every book on the shelf, they will readily snatch up a book which the cover looks more like their child. Not only will they purchase one up for their child, they will often buy several copies to send to friends and relatives. Then they call and email everyone they know to tell them what they have found. And these people will buy several copies.
Bloomsbury, are you nuts?! You have made the mistake of ignoring the dollors in the communities of color. Sheesh! What you don't realize is that we will buy our children books instead of that extra trip to McD or the latest toy. We strive to give our children every advantage, and that means education and reading. This doesn't even count the mothers not of color who want a fuller life for their children
You, Bloomsbury have made the mistake of believing your own foolish ideals in which you use stereotypes as marketing research. Boy, how dumb can you be. You don't even realize that this behavior has cost you millions, literally.
But Obama is president now. Racism has vanished, like the Do-do!
I would like to add, as a White person, that me me me, it really matters how I feel about this, poor White people, but what about me, and also, me*.
* This sarcasm brought to you by the letter D, for D'oh!
What is so difficult about making the cover reflect the story? If they honestly did not want to use a dark skinned model(which is sooo beyond wrong and they should be boycotted for that) then why not use some sort of art work? Leave models out entirely.
Who makes these decisions at Bloomsbury?
Thank you for posting this, Le R!
Dear Lord, this pisses me off. I previously posted about the LIAR incident, but this morning I wrote to Bloomsbury and also posted about this on my blog:
http://rebeccaknightbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/white-washing-covers-please-get.html.
Thank you for helping us get involved! This kind of crap needs to stop if we're ever going to make any kind of progress as a nation.
Sigh... and here I thought my mission was a simple one. To never again see the word "heartwarming" describe the book THE HELP. Ever. Again. Never ever.
If only Kanye could put his mouth to use for a cause such as Bloomsbury's "Oops we did it again when you weren't looking but neither were we book tour." But, I digress.
Thank you, thank you thank you for posting this. Inquiring minds want to know. I just have to say it, Bloomsbury, WTF is wrong with you?
Bloomsbury on Liar: They are sorry the move was "interpreted by some as a calculated decision to mask the character's ethnicity."
Okay, fine, you weren't trying to hide the fact she was black. You were still trying to make the cover as attractive as you thought physically possibly so that people would be drawn in and purchase it. That still makes you an asshole.
It's interesting, too, the differences internationally. Jacqueline Carey's books, when recently released in Japan, were printed with blonde chicks on the cover because apparently in Japan, even being a brunette is inadequate. The world is such a pathetic place sometimes.
What in the world is wrong with people? As a teacher, blatant stupidity offends me. Get with the program, people!!
Man, that's sad!
And it's not like it could even be accidental, because the author protested so they knew!
Honestly, I think it's got to be just as much stupidity as racism. I mean there's a million other things you can put on a cover if you don't want to put a dark-skinned girl.
The argument that what's on the cover doesn't represent what's inside is folly and misrepresentation. If you went into a supermarket and bought a box with cereal on it, and there was rat poison inside, you'd sue. And I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Just because it's art doesn't give anyone he right to lead people astray.
http://aclairedawn.blogspot.com
What is so difficult about making the cover reflect the story?
The cover artists don't read the book--they read a really short synopsis of the book. Very few covers reflect the story all that well.
That said, there's a HUGE difference between something like John Scalzi's recurring "once again the cover depicts laser guns that do not appear in my book" cover grouches and this kind of racist pandering to racism.
Tl;dr: Covers generally suck at representing the book; these covers suck AND are racist, which is much much worse.
One point of clarification:
Bloombury is prejudiced, hopefully not actually racist. Prejudice is basing your decision on previous suppositions or experience, thereby prejudging the situation. Racist is the belief that one race is inherently, genetically superior to another.
Obviously Bloombury has some misconception somewhere that books with white folks on the cover sell better to YA audiences.
Where this really falls apart for me is HOW DO THEY KNOW? If they won't grow a sack and put the character in the book on the cover, then how do they know that white kids won't buy it? Since nobody puts PoC on the books, we know that black kids must be willing to read/watch entertainment that doesn't look like them. Why can't we expect the same from their caucasian counterparts? Or even better, why shouldn't we?
This is so lame, so stupid, and so wrong. Do they really think no one will notice?
Bass-ackwards.
It's always great to see people learn from their mistakes and grow. Oh, wait...
OMG this is APPALLING to us!
And btw the link said the mc of Magic Under Glass was a "dark skinned girl from the Far East". She looked like she was from about as far east as Boston. Ugh!
This is both repellent to the artistic integrity of the novel (does not represent the story and characters herein) and insulting to the reader (pale chicks can't relate to anyone with melanin in their complexions nor a different ethnic or socioeconomic background i.e. publishing wants our $ but thinks we are dumb).
On a totally unrelated note, does anyone else find that corset insanely creepy? Yeesh.
And NOW WE KNOW why we didn't get that job at Bloomsbury. They took one look at us and were all like, "Nuh-uh. Get a different one."
Um... yeah, that corset is something special. O_o
That's such a shame! Sounds like I won't be submitting to Bloomsbury.
........dhole
It was probably just some guy falling asleep at the printing machine. He accidentally switched the covers of two books and the cover of the soon-to-be-published book titled "Moira Fitzsimmons' Traditional Irish Cookbook" has a lovely young African-American woman on the cover.
All right people, break it up. Let's move along now.
Bloomsbury has agreed to change the cover.
http://www.bloomsburykids.com/books/catalog/magic_under_glass_hc_306
Best. Blog. Headline. Ever.
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