{"id":100999,"date":"2022-06-10T16:29:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T21:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=100999"},"modified":"2022-06-10T16:44:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T21:44:04","slug":"netflix-bridgerton-romance-genre-publishing-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/netflix-bridgerton-romance-genre-publishing-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 boon leaves romance community wondering when genre\u2019s creators of color will get their due"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alyssa Haduck<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

The first season of Netflix\u2019s hit historical drama \u201cBridgerton\u201d treated more than <\/span>80 million<\/span><\/a> global households to a Regency-era romp, complete with compelling characters, eye-candy costumes, and excitement in both the ballroom and the bedroom \u2014 and in the library, on a picnic, against a tree \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

While season two of the Shonda Rhimes (\u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d) show progressed in a slow burn, the longing just left viewers wanting more, with the second season surpassing the first as Netflix\u2019s <\/span>most popular<\/span><\/a> English-language TV series of all time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Preparations for the third season of \u201cBridgerton\u201d are already underway and most notably include a <\/span>departure<\/span><\/a> from the sequential order of the bestselling romance novels on which the series is based. But this separation from source material is nothing new for the show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBridgerton\u201d broke the mold of typical period pieces by casting characters of color in roles representing early-1800s aristocrats. The characters in the \u201cBridgerton\u201d<\/span> book series are white. And while the romance genre has long offered diverse love stories for those who seek them out, the show\u2019s inclusive portrayals have further highlighted the literary genre\u2019s ongoing struggles to elevate diverse narratives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been desperate to make our voices heard, to represent our communities the best ways we know how, all while being told our stories aren’t relatable or aren’t meant for a wider audience \u2014 and then \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 goes and puts two South Asian women at the forefront (of its second season),\u201d said a Chicago-based South Asian romance author who writes under the pen name Suleikha Snyder. \u201cIt’s hurtful, and honestly might even be undercutting us in terms of being able to get our own stories out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The billion-dollar romance industry recently suffered a high-profile incident involving its leading trade group, Romance Writers of America (RWA), which many in the comanche community called out for insufficient backing of authors of color. The conflict showed that in many ways, it is an industry still catching up to its creators and fans who have proven there is an audience for more diverse storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Record \u201cBridgerton\u201d viewership drove a spike in interest in the overall genre, with U.S. print romance sales rising by <\/span>1.2 million<\/span><\/a> units in the first quarter of 2021 following the show\u2019s December 2020 debut, according to the market research firm NPD Group. But with more attention now being paid to elevating underrepresented voices in the genre, the romance community is demanding industry gatekeepers make much-needed progress \u2014 providing authors of color more opportunities to share their work, and giving these stories the marketing, promotion and overall investment befitting streaming\u2019s next great romance.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The one-and-done fallacy<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cBridgerton\u201d proved there is an appetite for diverse love stories on television, but that has not yet translated into more romance novels by authors of color. Experts and enthusiasts within the genre say readers want diverse narratives, too, but traditional publishing has failed to make these stories widely available.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, the industry\u2019s top romance novel publishers only distributed 12 books written by authors of color for every 100 books published, according to a diversity <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> conducted by The Ripped Bodice, a Culver City, Calif., bookseller that became the country\u2019s first romance-only bookstore in 2016. The study also estimated that nearly 92% of all romance books it surveyed in the past five years were written by white authors.<\/span><\/p>\n

While members of the romance community have recently <\/span>questioned<\/span><\/a> The Ripped Bodice\u2019s research methods, a New York Times <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> of fiction books released by major publishing houses reports similar findings: Just 11% of novels published in 2018 were written by authors of color.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn publishing, a lot of people of color in romance are constantly being told there’s no audience for their books, but then when you look at indie- or self-published books, that’s clearly not true,\u201d said Jennifer Prokop, a\u00a0Chicago-based romance novel editor and cohost of the romance podcast\u00a0\u201cFated Mates.\u201d \u201cPublishers will then say to authors who are querying, \u2018We already have our Black author for this year,\u2019 and so the pipeline is essentially one book wide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet even when publishers do decide to add more authors of color to their rosters, challenges for these creators continue. Many writers, like Ieshia Wiedlin, wonder if they have been selected for their talent, or for their race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wiedlin is a Chicago-based romance writer signed with Tule Publishing, a small publishing house that reported just 6% of its 2020 romance novels were written by authors of color, according to The Ripped Bodice\u2019s study. Wiedlin experienced the consequences of this disparity firsthand while editing her debut novel, released in February.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be phrases or situations that would get flagged in the editing process, and I would have to write a little note back to the editor to further explain myself,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a (lack of) clarity, which to me would be a signal for them to maybe add more Black editors to their editing pool, so when the next Black writer is signed, (editors) don’t have to question it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Publishing\u2019s diversity dilemma<\/b><\/p>\n

Publishing\u2019s reluctance to expand diverse storytelling likely stems from its own lack of inclusivity at all levels and specializations \u2014 from literary executives and book agents, to sales representatives and interns. In 2015, 79% of publishing industry professionals considered themselves white, according to a diversity <\/span>survey<\/span><\/a> from independent publisher Lee & Low Books. In 2019, the survey showed a marginal improvement to 76%.<\/span><\/p>\n

A need for increased diversity in publishing becomes even clearer when the industry\u2019s demographics are compared with those of \u201cBridgerton,\u201d which features color-conscious casting that is a hallmark of producer and Chicago native Rhimes. And while there may not have been any Black dukes dancing around Regency-era estates, the inclusive casting choices in \u201cBridgerton\u201d reveal a greater truth about the minimization of the Black experience in mainstream historical fiction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBlack people didn’t just drop out of the sky onto a slave ship in the early 17th century,\u201d Chicago-based romance enthusiast Pamala Knight said. \u201cYou can look through Roman times, the Tudors \u2014 they’re in England, and other places as well, outside of Africa. It\u2019s just that no one was telling those stories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Knight is a member of Chicago-North Romance Writers and co-chair of the organization\u2019s biennial conference, which took place April 28-30. The group was once a chapter of the larger RWA, but a 2019 incident involving a prominent RWA member prompted the section to secede.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, Heidi Bond, a New York Times bestselling romance author who goes by the pseudonym Courtney Milan, was serving as the chair of RWA\u2019s ethics committee when she <\/span>publicly critiqued<\/span><\/a> the social media activity and writing of two other RWA members. Among other criticisms, Milan, who has Chinese ancestry, <\/span>described<\/span><\/a> one member\u2019s work with a half-Chinese character as \u201ca f—ing racist mess.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

RWA issued a one-year suspension of Milan\u2019s membership in the organization and a lifetime ban from serving in leadership positions after <\/span>finding<\/span><\/a> that her comments were \u201cin violation of the organization\u2019s expressed purpose of creating a \u2018safe and respectful environment\u2019 for its community of writers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The move sparked outrage among the romance community, which calls itself \u201cRomancelandia,\u201d motivating many to denounce RWA. But these difficult discussions could be paving the way for progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For 37 years, RWA presented its annual RITA Awards, named for the organization\u2019s first president, Rita Clay Estrada. Author Kennedy Ryan became the first Black writer to receive a RITA in 2019. After romance\u2019s recent controversy, however, RWA now calls its top award The VIVIAN, in honor of Vivian Stephens, a Black editor and founding member of the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

RWA has also made it a priority to invest in the scholarship of Black romance, awarding one of its 2021 RWA Academic Research Grants to Julie E. Moody-Freeman, an associate professor in African and Black diaspora studies at DePaul University in Chicago. Moody-Freeman is researching and documenting the history of Black romance via the \u201cBlack Romance Podcast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A shift in the industry has been brewing for years, according to Isabeau, a romance enthusiast living in Chicago who shares her thoughts on the genre via the \u201cWhoa!mance\u201d podcast along with co-host Morgan. (Like many in the romance community, Isabeau and Morgan prefer to maintain an air of mystery, so they have chosen to withhold their last names.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore \u2018Bridgerton,\u2019 in the trenches of Romancelandia, people like Courtney Milan and others have been fighting the RWA institution for authors of color and been doing a lot of really good work on the ground that \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 was able to capitalize on,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I don’t think that \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 is the first part of the wave. It\u2019s catching the crest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And through Moody-Freeman\u2019s conversations with both experienced and emerging Black romance writers, editors and experts, she has found that no matter the era, this drive to diversify the genre will not diminish among authors of color.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know those things will ebb and flow, come and go, but to me, the writers are the activists that will keep pushing,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen the mainstream culture gets tired of the trends, this will still be going because these writers and editors have a passion for this, and the readers are always hungry. We will continuously read, and follow, and buy, regardless of whether they want to put romance (on screen).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Investing in authors of color<\/b><\/p>\n

Knight, of Chicago-North Romance Writers, notes she has seen an increase in deal reports involving authors of color post-\u2018Bridgerton.\u2019 However, she isn\u2019t yet willing to count the uptick as an indicator of lasting change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For diverse narratives to reach peak potential among readers, publishers must fully invest in the authors and their stories, she said. More than just making these books available, it is important to market them in a way that resonates with the right audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a tendency to jump on that (diversity) bandwagon, but to not necessarily give those authors (of color) the support and time they need to be successful, instead saying, \u2018OK, well, we tried. Let’s go back to the status quo,\u2019\u201d Knight said. \u201cI hope that doesn’t happen. I hope that \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 can be a good thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chicagoan Kathy Douglass is also cautiously optimistic given her personal experience as an author of 12 books with HarperCollins\u2019 Harlequin, a romance publishing powerhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think publishers are becoming more aware that if you’ve made a good book, people are going to read it \u2014 Black people are going to read it, white people are going to read it, brown people, Asian people, whoever,\u201d she said. This, though, comes with a caveat: \u201cYou have to have the book there, and you have to let people know the book exists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To ensure her titles are reaching the right readers, Douglass has enlisted the help of Honey Magnolia, a book packaging and promotion company that focuses on supporting underrepresented creators. Founder Keisha Mennefee started the business after releasing a few books of her own and finding that more could be done to amplify diverse voices beyond publishers\u2019 efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always the idea that everything\u2019s one-size-fits-all, and that\u2019s not the case,\u201d she said. It takes a diverse team of marketers to understand the best ways to highlight the work of an author of color. \u201cReally knowing your audience, knowing the client and being able to sell that is (a space where) I really want to help bridge the gap.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since launching in 2018, Honey Magnolia has worked to elevate the stories of hundreds of romance authors, including RITA winner Ryan, as well as USA Today\u00a0bestselling authors Naima Simone and Andie J. Christopher. But Prokop, of \u201cFated Mates,\u201d emphasizes that readers must also do their part to invest in diverse stories and storytellers \u2014 beyond simply bingeing \u201cBridgerton.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBuy the books you want to see in the world,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

A DIY approach to diversity<\/b><\/p>\n

Outside of publishing and promotion, some other members of Romancelandia have taken matters into their own hands when it comes to uplifting diverse voices, working directly with readers to make a change in the genre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verve Romance<\/span><\/a>, a Chicago-based search engine startup, connects readers in more than 150 countries with works by self-, indie- and traditionally published authors, ensuring all stories and writers have the opportunity to thrive in the Verve network. Users can browse Verve\u2019s extensive catalog by keyword, which enables the company to connect readers with a range of stories from a host of authors, all while sticking to the tropes and themes that most resonate with the searcher.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely our responsibility to reflect all of romance, not just one piece of romance \u2014 that would be missing the beauty of the genre,\u201d Verve Romance founder and CEO Tracey Suppo said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Promoting diverse love stories isn\u2019t just happening online, but also in good old-fashioned brick-and-mortar retailers too. In the Chicago area, romance enthusiasts receive a similar experience in person at Tinley Park\u2019s <\/span>Love\u2019s Sweet Arrow<\/span><\/a>, the country\u2019s second romance-only bookstore.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother-daughter duo Roseann\u00a0and Marissa Backlin opened Love\u2019s Sweet Arrow in June 2019. Their intimate knowledge of both the store\u2019s inventory and the romance industry allow them to make precise book recommendations readers may not have considered themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just read about people like you,\u201d Marissa Backlin said, \u201cthen you’re never going to be able to empathize with other people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Netflix has not yet revealed a release date for the show\u2019s third season, the Backlins will continue to keep \u201cBridgerton\u201d books stocked for fans who frequent their shop. However, they also plan to direct customers to stories similar to \u201cBridgerton\u201d and written by authors of color. With any luck, they will help build the fan base of Netflix\u2019s next hit romance.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alyssa Haduck is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow her on Twitter at\u00a0@Alyssa_Haduck<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alyssa Haduck Medill Reports The first season of Netflix\u2019s hit historical drama \u201cBridgerton\u201d treated more than 80 million global households to a Regency-era romp, complete with compelling characters, eye-candy costumes, and excitement in both the ballroom and the bedroom \u2014 and in the library, on a picnic, against a tree \u2026 While season two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":827,"featured_media":101000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5251,5061,5282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-chicago","category-featured","category-spring-2022"],"yoast_head":"\nNetflix\u2019s \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 boon leaves romance community wondering when genre\u2019s creators of color will get their due - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How did the hit Netflix show \u201cBridgerton" affect the romance novel genre? 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