American Fiction Film Reflects Publishing Today

  

Many authors would kill to make good money writing books, to see their books land with a real publisher, and to gain some notoriety. In last year’s Oscar-nominated movie, American Fiction, a Black writer struggles to have any of this, despite putting together quality literary works. Then, one day, fed up by seeing what he views as low-brow books getting industry attention and huge commercial success, he asks his literary agent to peddle a sub-par manuscript filled with stereotypical depictions of Black people as a joke.

He soon finds out the white establishment book industry is eager to embrace his gangsta-in-da-hood, ghetto-style book. He is reluctant to have it published and is further disgusted to see that such books are what gets published and not the quality literary content he has produced.

The academician peddles a farcical “black novel” that gets eaten up by guilt-ridden woke whites who think the black experience is only poverty, racism, violence, and broken families. But sadly, publishing is looking not just for the next great American novel, but also the next greatest LGBTQ novel, Black novel, woman’s novel, and novel’s of every group.

Book publishing now recruits to publish authors of books that meet its DEI targets. Whatever happened to a standard, not of race, but simply quality?

The movie is a satirical expose on publishing, takes a look at racism, and offers commentary on relationships: marriage, parents, siblings).

I agree with the movie’s overall concept that book publishing’s gatekeepers often fail to publish worthy gems while green-lighting garbage. It also shows it has a racial blind spot. But it also reveals the news media and reading public as being just as dumb as the book publishing industry.

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.