
New Pink Heart Society columnist, AlTonya Washington, is talking about diversity and romance covers...
Diversity in category romance is definitely a loaded topic. There are so many ways to dissect the subject-so many subtopics that can be fleshed out while covering it. I publish traditionally and independently. In both markets, diversity in cover art is a topic that generates as much discussion as it does upset.

Here, readers and authors come together for a robust and honest conversation about the state of the literary world with emphasis on Multicultural romantic fiction. This year, the cover art topic took the lion share of the conversation.

My views on how cover art relates to diversity in category romance, are primarily personal. I didn’t even realize they were an issue until I became an author and saw so many of my darker complexioned heroines portrayed several noticeable shades lighter on the covers of my books.

Okay…I’m calm, but it still baffles me that we can have so little cover diversity in a market that; by its very existence, should be improving diversity.

At this point, a comment was made about diversity as it relates to the hiring practices for traditional art departments. Score one for indie publishing-authors have a REAL say in their covers. Clearly, this topic is not a new one. What bothers me is that we’re approaching 2016 and little has changed. It is past time that solutions not only be discussed but implemented. The readers are definitely sharing their displeasure over expecting one thing and getting another.
We'd love to hear your opinions about diversity in category romance - and particularly your opinions on the covers. Join the discussion with AlTonya in the comments!
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Hi AlTonya,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a fascinating topic, and one that I will admit to not having necessarily picked up on previously. I think it's so important to talk about diversity in books, and I suppose it didn't occur to me to consider how that translates to representation on covers. Thanks for writing such an eye-opening piece!
Us indie authors do have more of a say in what goes in our covers but we're still dependent on the stock imagery we can find. I write historical romance set in the Spanish Caribbean and all my characters are hispanic-- you can imagine how difficult it is to find images that accurately represent what they look like!
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