European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sci Geks or Black writers breathe we into Market by Hillel Talie the associated press a they expected was a Best  the Spring of 1992, Viking Penguin began shipping copies of Terry Mcmil Lan s waiting to exhale. Her previous novel disappearing acts had sold More than 30,000 copies and with Luck the publisher thought sales for the new Book might top 100,000. That goal was reached within Days. After three months the Book was in its seventh printing. After six months sales had exceeded 500,000, two years later the figure is 2 million and Mcmillan is work ing on a screenplay with rain a i writer Ron Bass. Credit part of this Success to aggressive promo Tion. The charismatic author appeared on today and Oprah Winfrey and toured 20 cities her readings attracting hundreds even thousands of fans most of them Black women. She also made a dynamic speech that year at the convention of the american Book Sellers association. Credit it also to something on which none of the experts even Mcmillan had counted the size and strength of the Black Market. I was just hoping we d sell out the first printing so Viking would t feel embarrassed Mcmillan re called. I wanted to get on the Best seller list just once. I knew if i could just get my name on the Best seller list i d make sure to Frame it for  there has always been a Market. It s not that ail of a sudden there were 750,000 people that did t exist before said literary agent Marie Brown whose clients include Susan Taylor and Gwendolyn Parker. It just indicated there were people who wanted to read fiction and Good stories by a Good storyteller about something they were interested in. There just really had not been a Book by a Black writer that talked about contemporary  since the release of waiting to exhale Best Selling Black author have included Maya Angelou Tina Mcelroy a a the late Arthur Ashe Bebe Moore Campbell Sisters Sarah and Elizabeth Delany Toni Morrison Gloria Naylor Jill Nelson Alice Walker Iid Cornel West. The Success in t just commercial. Angelou read a poem for president Clinton s inaugural and Rita Dove is America s poet laureate. Morrison was blackboard Sheds ight on authors. Ead the new York times or publishers weekly Best seller lists and you la have a hard time finding names such As Tina Mcelroy Ansa Don Spears and  Moore Campbell. Read blackboard and you won t be Able to miss them. Blackboard tracks sales of Black books by Survey ing 55 general and speciality stores in 30 major Urban markets monthly newsletters showing the top five fiction and nonfiction books in hardcover and paperback Are then issued to thousands of stores. The list compiled by blackboard african Ameri can bestsellers inc. And the american booksellers association was started in 1991 by Faye Childs an awarded the Nobel prize Yusef Komunyakaa won this year s pulitzer for poetry and Ernest Gaines won the National Book critics Circle award for fic Tion. If these events can be likened to a movement they quickly Are being transformed into an Industry. Two Black mail order clubs and the quarterly Black re View of books a Magazine have been started. An alternative Best Sellers list blackboard tracks sales of Black books. Several companies have formed the National association of Black Book publishers Nabb. You had two things said Clare Villerosa owner of the Hue Man experience Bookstore in Denver. You had a Book waiting to exhale and you had distribution of the product. It then captured the interest of the consumer. Once the consumer read the Book that Book created an appetite that had people saying i have read waiting to exhale. What do you have just like that ". It s like the 60s happening All Over again said Annette Vandrey Leach a Brooklyn resident who last year founded a mail order service called the Black literary club. She already has seen her mail ing list jump from 5,000 to 50,000. Having caught on to this new and exciting world larger publishers Are Rushing in to claim territory. Author who lives in Columbus Ohio. She had completed a novel of her own and was dismayed when she could t find any Black authors on the main Stream lists. I thought about All that time i had gone to a grocery store or department store and saw that big rack corresponding to the new York times Best sell ers list. And i thought wait a minute. There s Noth ing to choose from. We re not there " Childs said. I went to the Public Library and i got out about 22 yellow pages from 22 different cities and i wrote Down five stores and i called those stores and said would you help me Check Black books and i got a lot of support. They said it was something that was  blackboard includes the expected names Terry Mcmillan Toni Morrison Alice Walker but also lists such lesser known authors As Ansa Campbell and Spears. They Don t Benefit from Large Advance printings the kind that help authors make it to the times or publishers weekly list but from steady sales generated in part by a willingness to promote themselves. Nelson author of Volunteer slavery received a six figure Advance from Putnam for her next  whose novel ugly ways sold More than 50,000 copies received More than $500,000 to write two books for Doubleday. This year dozens of books by and about Blacks Are out or coming out. Among them Are memoirs by Nathan Mccall Brent Staples and Henry Louis Gates several first novels a boxed set of Morrison s works and a biography on the late James Baldwin. Publishers Are always looking for new markets. And this is a new one said Dawn seferian Mcmil Lan s editor at Viking. It s also just the competitive nature of the Industry. There s not a whole lot of Good books out there and a lot of Blacks Are writing Good  to target Market news a Chicago based monthly newsletter that covers Black consumer marketing Blacks spent $178 million on books in 1992, More than they did on video games. They also spent nearly $500 million on newspapers and $177 million on magazines. Still economic Power does t ensure economic Security or fair treatment. Authors and Industry Fol Lowers spoke of problems the publishing of so Many books in february Black history month resulting in some titles being overlooked. Staples whose Memoir parallel time was published by pantheon books in february Calls the month a  Villerosa notes my custom ers Are Here All the  the relatively Small audience for male fiction writers. The major Book buyers Are female and that also carries into the Black buying category. We Haven t had a Black male fiction writer on the list in Ages said random House s Manie Baron a Tele marketing sales representative for Black stores. The threat of superstores to Independent stores Black owned included. They offer discounts on the new books i can say definitely i be lost sales said Black books plus owner Glenderlin Johnson whose Manhattan store is within walking distance of a bar nes & Noble franchise. The difficulty Black publishers have in getting their books into Barnes & Noble and other chains. Nine and a half out of 10 of their books Are coming from the major publishers said Paul Coates chair Man of Nabb and the publisher of Black classic press. You have to fight like hell. You Hope you come away with something. The smaller White presses have similar problems " the As w6 1 Ca inner City books monster Theam 0blographyofanl.a. Gang member an Mccall i makes me Wanna holler that Many be Heve reinforce negative stereotypes. I hate those kinds of books said novelist and Ansa for instance is a Georgia based writer who copies a. The african american Book buying Market real  n make copies and stuff our Bass with it i. Hillel Italie _ Page 24 sunday August 21.1994 3 it i i