Fans of Interracial Romance discussion

I'm currently working on an IR SF romance and I am writing with a 75% intention to self publish. For other writers, when you write do you decide to self pub a book at e beginning or do you go the trad route first and then consider self pub?

I decided to self-publish after a few years of having publishers tell my agent they loved my work but it would be "hard to sell in the Midwest and the South" because of the interracial storylines. My agent encouraged me to self-publish and she helps me with brainstorming, etc.

I always wanted to self-pub even though there was stigma attached to it. My decision was based on the fact that I NEVER see the type of books I write (IR featuring Black women as heroines) in the traditional bookstores. In addition, I had some serious self esteem issues about my writing... I don't think I would have been able to handle the amount of rejection that writers must face to find and agent and a publisher. I was too much of a chicken.

Self publishing also felt most comfortable to me politically. I'm very liberal minded, and I'm hesitant about big chains and corporations. I'm a member of IndieBound, and I support local everything, including local bookstores.

It's the same for me. I love reading women's fiction, chick lit and mystery novels--and there are too few featuring black women as the main characters.

I decided to self-pub after I began to notice an influx of new and interesting story-lines in romance (bikers, fighters, rock stars, IR) that were all coming from self-pubbed authors. Mainstream romance had been boring to me for a long time and the new wave of indie romance got me excited to write the book I'd been marinating on for a few years. As I was writing, I considered submitting to Harlequin, but I wasn't interested in tailoring my style to fit their guidelines. Now I'm so glad I self-pubbed!

Kim wrote: "I decided to self-publish after a few years of having publishers tell my agent they loved my work but it would be "hard to sell in the Midwest and the South" because of the interracial storylines. ..."

This pisses me off, sadly it's true though. I live in the South and IRR is my favorite genre, I live in a very liberal city but then there are places like my college town. Some people there didn't know colored wasn't an acceptable term anymore.

I'm considering it now for many of the reasons everyone else mentioned. For a long time I wrote with the idea of someday doing a novel and finding an agent & publisher. I worked for an epublisher for a time, submitted stuff, but not many places take IR or SF with romance so it was hard to find. I got a little discouraged for a whole & thought I was just a crappy writer. I did make my goal of selling a work & I have two more I will edit & send to the same epublisher, but as for my IR...it's sort of my long term project that's been simmering & I'm thinking it's worth investing the time to learn about editing& cover art & formatting since, let's be real, especially for a niche 100% of the promo will fall on me anyway.

I'm sadly not surprised about the comments you got Kim. I thought 'Maybe, Baby' was fascinating because of the IR & unique setting etc.

mrsbookmark wrote: "I'm considering it now for many of the reasons everyone else mentioned. For a long time I wrote with the idea of someday doing a novel and finding an agent & publisher. I worked for an epublisher f..."

Thanks! I had a few people who claimed it was unrealistic because they didn't believe a black American woman would move to Scandinavia. Well, I can vouch for the fact that there are quite a few of us here.

Kim wrote: "mrsbookmark wrote: "I'm considering it now for many of the reasons everyone else mentioned. For a long time I wrote with the idea of someday doing a novel and finding an agent & publisher. I worked..."

I would love to visit that part of the world one of these days. I think people sadly have decided that a black American living abroad is somehow unrealistic. As if it's not possible. It's so great to have books like yours.

You just made my day. :)

Kim wrote: "You just made my day. :)"

I haven't read your book yet, Kim. Is it available on Kindle? I'm going to get started on it today if I can.

Yes, Maybe Baby and the companion novella, Maybe Tonight, are both available on Kindle.

What I find interesting is that publishers say my books won't sell in certain areas and yet they *do* sell there. I have a large number of white readers who are based in the south and the midwest, and they say they don't care what colour the heroine is--as long as it's a good story.

Anyway, I think self-publishing--once bookstores stop behaving like Amazon is the evil enemy and realise that they need to learn to coexist--is where even more readers will turn to look for new authors and the stories they want.

I write traditionally and Indie. Went Indie after my traditional publisher passed on book 3 of what went on to be a 21 book series thanks to the support and insistence of my readers. I continue writing Indie because I enjoy the freedom of exploring those ideas that don't fit into a nice neat box and having a platform to share them ;-) Writing traditionally helps me hone the skills to police/be critical of my Indie work.