Guerrilla Marketing Tactics.

Gay and Lesbian titles can be more tough to sell to black book retailers than to customers

In 1997, I published does your mama know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories. I'm not ashamed to say that I hustled my butt off. I knew there was a market for my book because I knew so many black lesbians -- out and not so out. I approached independent women's bookstores because they had posted my call for submissions; I wanted to give back. Independent bookstores have a long history of selling independent publishers' work, thus ensuring our combined survival.

Yet when I called black bookstores to place the book in their stores, I was frequently met with hostility: "That kind of book won't sell here." That phrase was repeated so often that I decided to concentrate on the women's and gay bookstores. Qevin Oji of grapevine press agrees: "In my humble opinion, black bookstores are the greatest and most unexpected censors of black gay and lesbian publishing, by refusing to stock books for lesbian and gay customers. There's nothing on the shelf that speaks specifically to who we are. "I put myself on a book tour: I went to women's and gay bookstores in the cities where my books' contributors lived and I mailed flyers to anyone I knew living in that particular city. I called local women's, black, gay and mainstream newspapers; I did radio interviews; I posted the book signing information on e-mail lists and bulletin boards. I contacted local black lesbian social groups. I anonymously generated conversation in online chat rooms (no, I'm not ashamed!). And the women came out to hear us read. I traveled to 18 cities that summer. The book went into a second printing, and then a third. (There are 8,000 copies now in print.)

The Bull-Jean stories, I followed the same marketing strategy; she read at house parties and black lesbian groups, as well as women's and gay bookstores. Bull-Jean is now in a second printing since its first run in 1998 (4,000 total in print).

My experience is echoed by others marketing gay and lesbian books. "Thank God for the Internet," says Ricc Rollins, co-owner of Ishai Books, and author of Like Breathing and Breathe Again. We have to depend on creative means, like e-mailing and reading reviews on bookseller sites and sending e-mails [asking if they'd review Ishai Books]."

But G. Winston James, author of Lyric and editor of Other Countries Press, says that he sells books by "readings, readings, readings. Nothing else seems

to matter much. Word of mouth spreads faster it seems if a voice is heard as well as seen. That doesn't always seem like as much."

Focused marketing is necessary even for black gay authors who are published by mainstream presses. Keith Boykin, author of One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in American and Respecting the Soul: Daily Reflections for Black Lesbians and Gays, says, "I found that the publicists at the big houses were well-intentioned but didn't really know how to reach the black LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] market. I think black LGBT writers need to be very aggressive in developing their own marketing strategy that takes into account their own knowledge of the community." Boykin made sure that his publisher knew names of potential reviewers, names of black LGBT magazines for sending advance copies, and names of bookstores that feature black LGBT work. He also scheduled readings around black gay pride celebrations in such cities as Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. "I tried to do a signing at a black bookstore, a gay bookstore, and a 'mainstream' bookstore, if possible," Boykin says.

Word of mouth is the gift that keeps on, giving. "It amazes me that people hear about my book, even now, four and a half years later, and they continue to buy it that makes publishing and marketing RedBone Press books worthwhile."