What Is It? :
- The When Black Women Fall promo features romances in the contemporary, historical, paranormal, science fiction and fantasy, and erotica genres. The two requirements for inclusion are that the heroine must be of African/African-American descent, and she must fall in love: same race, interracial, LGBT, aliens, cyborg—doesn’t matter to us, as long as it’s a black woman falling in love!
For the week leading up to Valentine’s Day during Black History month, Heartspell Media is spreading the word about “When Black Women Fall” — a week-long promo featuring romances with African-American heroines.
When is it? :
- February 8-14, 2016. The week leading up to Valentine’s Day during Black History month.
I recently read this story about how bestselling middle-grade author Rick Riordan (of Percy Jackson fame) had no recourse when several of his international publishers whitewashed the covers of his books and portrayed a black character as white. He complained but even for an author of his stature and sales, the correction took far too long.
A day or two later an author in a Facebook group lamented that her cover was whitewashed by her small press. This is in no ways new and it never stops being infuriating.
I turned on the TV yesterday and caught a clip of some movie where Blaire Underwood was being beaten by the police for literally no reason. The movie was set in the 1950s. My husband and I just looked at one another — no words needed to be said. It seems we’re still fighting the same battles over and over.
I’ve been told that I was very “courageous” for putting black faces on the covers of my books. This made me indescribably sad. Will white readers feel like my books aren’t “for them” because they don’t feature people who look like them on the covers? Have I ever felt like a book wasn’t for me because of the lack of diversity on the cover? That I wouldn’t be able to relate or enjoy it? Of course not. And my philosophy is to start as you mean to go forward. As an artist (and a control freak) I want to create and through my work begin reshaping the world in the way I want it to be.
I made decisions regarding my covers that many believe will impact sales for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I just like seeing black people on my covers. And having my covers represent the characters in my books. To quote a Twitter poster “the melanin is winning.” And since I self publish, I can do whatever I want. I don’t have to shout into the void and not be heard like Riordan or Ursula LeGuin or the many other authors whose books have been whitewashed over the years and continue to be so.
One day representing my reality the way I live and perceive it will stop being “courageous” and just be normal. Until then, I’ll put whoever I want on my covers and be grateful I have the freedom to do so.
To turn the cover and read a great love story, check out L. Penelope’s "Angelborn" on the When Black Women Fall promo tour at whenblackwomenfall.com.
About the Author :Leslye Penelope believes love is magic and likes her romance with a healthy dose of imagination. She writes new adult, fantasy and paranormal romance with multicultural characters.
Equally left and right-brained, she thinks puzzling out a programming problem is fun and has a quote from The Matrix tattooed on her arm. She lives in Maryland with her husband, one eighty-pound lap dog, and a semi-feral cat. Her website: http://www.lpenelope.com
Giveaways!! :
Celebrate this special promotional event! One lucky winner will receive the entire prize pack including:
- A $50 Carol’s Daughter gift certificate … to get your beauty on
- A Kindle Fire HD … to get your read on
- Ebooks of groundbreaking romance novels featuring Black women by: Beverly Jenkins, Sandra Kitt, L.A. Banks and Zane
- A $30 Amazon gift card … so you can keep getting your read on
And EVERYBODY Who Enters Will Get a FREE digital copy of our exclusive When Black Women Fall excerpt book, featuring story samples from our participating authors.
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