^ r 'day. September. 20(
Friday, September 1,2000
AGGIELIFE
Page 5
THE BATTALION
Publishing companies recognize work of African-American authors
5 I!!
finally learned to love African-American
^ f* 1 . mors?
^ 7/7 ^7 fJflQP ' n t * ie I xist y ear ' T‘ me Warner, Harper-
jv+il l/lwvl'ollins and Kensington Publishing are
junong those who started or acquired im-
ood tightly packed on tbjrints specifically to release books by
I a niosh pit. However, one African-Americans. The most recent one is
uple strayed from the crowd Stri vers Row, a division of Random House
iced slowly across the
'Us to all but each other and
>ic.
a Ians pressed themselves
igainst the stage and mouthed
is to all the songs in silentac
liment. This came as a stir-
the band which, having re
leased its first major album,
expect such recognition,
wer knew so many peopl
bout us." said bassist Mai
ey. “The last time we played
i. there were like sixorset
le there."
onstrating the momentum
ipularity. Blue Octobers-
Hired w ith a few of them
biggest names in several
cities, including Boston
phia. New Jersev ...
ve been touring off and <t
ast four months. We playei
v ith Stone Temple Pilot
ck and 311." Furstenfel
was cool, but I don't knon
ally in that genre of music
ole yet confident, the bars
tinue touring and develof
ader fan base with hope'
a spot on a large scale to.
lusicians more closed
to its own style.
lat begins publishing next winter.
African-Americans have long com-
dained the industry ignored them, that it did
lot believe they actually read books. Now,
Hth the industry apparently paying atten-
many say demand for African-Ameri-
:an writers has never been stronger.
1 am in a buying frenzy,” said Anita Dig-
a senior editor at Ballantine Books and
Srector of One World, a multicultural im-
jrint with a strong focus on African-Ameri
can writers. "It’s very exciting right naw 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 an
other 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 African-
American women sold millions of copies. It
proved not only that there was a large
African-American 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 is also room for mystery
(Walter Mosley), romance (E. Lynn Harris,
"It's very exciting
right now to be
African-American
and to be working in
publishing”
— Anita Diggs
senior editor at Ballantine Books
Eric Jerome Dickey) and self-help authors
(lyanla Vanzant).
The imprints, themselves, reveal the num
ber of potential markets. Strivers Row em
phasizes paperback first editions of commercial
fiction. Hyperion’s Jump at the Sun specializes
in children’s books. Time Wamer’s imprint will
focus on religious books for women.
“After Terry McMillan’s success, African-
Americans were buying books just because
of the novelty. Taste wasn’t really involved.
Now, a decade later, readers are more dis
cerning,” said Manie Barron, publisher of
Amistad Press, an imprint of HarperCollins
that publishes fiction and nonfiction by
African-Americans.
Many authors initially published them
selves, selling thousands of copies. Tawana
“TT Butler, whose novel Sorority Sisters came
out earlier this year from Villard, used to trav
el around the country on her own, relying on
African-American-owned stores to help pro
mote her. Early copies of Harris' popular In
visible Life were sold from the back of his car.
“When l first started publishing myself,
l 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 au
thor 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 nov
el about four drug addicts and a murder
they did not commit.
But they told Jones there was no market
for his book.
It is the kind of statement African-Amer
icans say they have been hearing since the
earliest days of publishing.
“I was just about ready to put out the book
myself,” said Jones, a writer with the
Philadelphia Weekly, an alternative paper.
Former publisher of
Providence Journal dies
NEWPORT. R.I. (AP) — John C.A. Watkins, the longest-serving
publisher of The Prov idence Journal and a decorated World War II fight
er pilot has died. He was 87.
Watkins died Wednesday of complications from a broken hip and a
stroke he suffered earlier, his family said.
He was credited with shepherding the newspaper into a new era of
journalism, building morning edition sales, buying radio stations and
cable TV systems and building a national magazine-printing subsidiary.
Watkins was publisher of the Journal from 1954 to 1979 and held
several other posts with the paper, including chairman of the board of
The Providence Journal Co.
He was among those who predicted the increasing importance of
morning newspapers and led a successful drive to double sales of the
morning Journal. The company’s Evening Bulletin stopped publishing
in 1995.
I Also under Watkins, the newspapers won a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for
national reporting when it broke a story about President Nixon’s small
tax payments.
s Watkins oversaw the company’s entry into broadcasting, overseeing
the purchase of its first radio station in 1948.
[ The company entered the television business in 1968, with the pur
chase of a small cable-TV system in Westerly; the business grew to serve
850,000 subscribers nationwide. The Journal also acquired its first TV
Station in 1978 and entered the cellular phone business,
i Also under Watkins’ leadership, the company in 1962 started a ro
togravure-printing business which included plants in Texas,Virginia, and
Illinois. It printed such periodicals as Time magazine and TV Guide.
Before joining the Journal, Watkins was a reporter at The Dayton
(Ohio) Herald and Journal and The (Baltimore) Sun.
Watkins’ second wife died in 1989. Survivors include three children
and a stepdaughter.
A memorial serv ice is planned for Sept. 14 at Grace Church in Providence.
s For
light
1 topping
.99
n. - Close
>w
iystems
■ SCHOOL
WF challenges Gore,
ush to step into ring
STAMFORD. Conn. (AP) — The World Wrestling Federation is propos
ing a matchup in the ring between the presidential opponents, Democrat Al-
jore and Republican George W. Bush. •
The Stamford-based WWF is offering each candidate five minutes to ad-
Iress the 12- to 34-year-old men who make up the majority of the audience
)f “Smackdown,” the Thursday night wrestling program seen in about 5 mil-
ion homes each week.
Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, a former WWF wrestler, has been asked
o moderate the discussion.
“We have such a strong presence in that demographic that both parties
lave indicated are difficult to reach,” WWFE Chief Executive Officer Lin-
la McMahon said Wednesday. “We are a public company and this is anop-
lortune time for us to give back, to contribute as good corporate citizens.”
Neither presidential campaign nor Ventura has responded to the
)ffer,said WWF spokesman Gary Davis. Neither campaign returned calls
or comment.
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