Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Diversity in Romance books...A Bad Marketing Tactic?

This post was on Carmen Fox's Facebook Timeline. She rocks and you should read her. Anyway, her findings were incredible. Here you go:

We’re trying to interest readers in our Sigils and Spells box set, which celebrates diversity. I employed my author alter ego to beat the drums and noticed something shocking. Engagement, i.e. likes and shares etc., was higher for my winter-themed romance set than for my urban fantasy diversity set.
Coincidence? Maybe romance simply kick UF’s butt? Or could it be something else?
It was time for an experiment. I posted two posts containing almost the same blurb—in one, I introduce Ali, in the other, I slip in that Ali is an Indonesian-American.Engagement was roughly 22% higher in the one that refers to plain old Ali without referring to his multicultural background. Maybe this was down to social media algorithms.
Then I rewrote the blurb with the name Alec instead of Ali. I got another slight but noticeable bump for Alec over Ali.
I ran both experiments on my pen name’s accounts, whose reach isn’t huge, and consequently, my sample set (Facebook and Twitter) wasn’t representative by any stretch of the imagination. Still, it makes you think.
We have strong titles in our set, and the stories remain our focus. We certainly do not preach. What we did do was naively think that setting events in true-to-life situations with true-to-life heroes would win the day. Readers would rush to support our set. After all, box sets are still going strong.
Wrong.
We’re not a charity. We didn’t set out to change the world. We’re just a group of authors who thought bringing a bunch of varied characters under one hat might be fun.
But in a world that actively encourages segregation of ideas, politics and religions, diversity is a lightning rod.
Again, small samples like mine are statistically insignificant. It is likely I’m reading too much into the results. Just thought I’d share my observation.

As Carmen mentions, this may not be the most scientific test, but often small measures help us understand the big picture. And, God, I hope this changes.

I write diverse characters. Because I live close to Indian Country, I write about people I see daily--Crow, Cheyenne, Assiniboine, etc.  And I've been living in a bubble where I didn't realize that others wouldn't want to read about diverse characters. I do want to read about diverse characters. I really, really, REALLY want to read about diverse characters. (Yeah, I bought the book Carmen mentions in multiple formats.) So please read from authors who write them. Not just me, obviously. :) But if you do want to read my work, thank you.

OH! When I asked Carmen if I could post her findings here, she told me a story, which I have to share here too:
 BTW, I love the feminist romance angle. I had a chat with a friend the other day who says he’s feeling attacked by the increase of attacks by women who begin to blame all men for all the evils in the world. I said I hadn’t seen anything like this. He insists it’s out there. I said I don’t think that’s right either, but in light of my being a woman who has been under attack all her life, my sympathy with men has to wait its turn. Once I feel that men truly suffer more hardship than women, that’s the day when I’ll be happy to listen to him “nag,” which I believe is the verb men associate with this particular kind of conversation. He didn’t speak to me for the rest of the day. 🙂 

Isn't Carmen the best! Go buy her book. Help her out. And let's figure out how we can stop bias in our marketing plans. Or how to fight it.

2 comments:

  1. Human beings seem drawn by nature to those with whom they feel a connection or familiarity. That means diversity is going to be a tougher sell--until....until diversity becomes the norm. This is where books can help lead the way, just as television so often has. For all the flaws of a number of television shows I can name, the powerful impact was that people saw individuals and families more like themselves than different and attitudes began to change and at least some people began to interact with those they might otherwise have ignored or felt uncomfortable with because they seemed too different. I know--this doesn't help with the issue of sales but sometimes sales aren't the only thing that matter and the good thing is that ebooks can have a forever shelf life. That means that what might not sell well now may do so in the future as attitudes continue to evolve. In promoting the books, for now, perhaps the emphasis in the description could be on the universal EMOTIONS evoked in the stories.

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    1. See, this is where I feel like an idiot because I thought diversity WAS the norm. I mean, yeah, the movies and TV shows don't have enough of it, but I live in a world full of it. And that's what I see. That's what I know. I feel like an idiot for realizing that others don't see what I see. I guess, viscerally I already knew this, but it hits me in the gut when I realize it fully.
      So that means there's more work for me to help others to see what I see. :)

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