In John Grisham's novel, THE RACKETEER it opens in a prison and the main character is black. Sounds like "urban fiction" to me, but it's classified as legal thriller and mystery. Just like, in James Patterson's Cross Series there is a black main character and takes place in the inner city of DC (in the movie it's set in Detroit). But that is also a mystery, not classified as "urban fiction". If you're an indie author and you upload your book to Amazon or any other site that requires you to classify it, there will be no "urban fiction" selection. It's starting to seem to me that "urban fiction" has to be set in the inner city, and written by a black person to qualify. Is this accurate?
I barely ever see Patterson or Grisham stocked in urban book stores, and these are two of the top-selling authors in the world. Certainly, their material is "urban fiction."
For my birthday in 2011, I had dinner with Walter Mosley, and I asked one very specific question regarding writing my mysteries with white main characters to attract a broader mystery audience. He was absolutely against that and said that he never did it. All of his mysteries have all black casts and he has never been asked to change that by his publisher. But all in all, he is a mystery author, and his mysteries are not stocked in the AA Lit section of stores, but in the mystery section. That matters because some authors, myself included, don't write books for Black people, I write for people that like mysteries and street lit. I write to cater to a genre, and not a race of people. In my opine, Street Lit and Urban Fiction aren't synonyms.
The content of some street lit author novels may easily be classified as thrillers. e.g. K'wan's novel ANIMAL. That novel is a thriller that just has an all black cast. But they could very well be an all white cast in Boston, as well. Reshonda Tate-Billingsley and Victoria Christopher-Murray's novel Sinners & Saints has an overwhelming black cast and is set in a city, but it's Inspirational/Christian Fiction. However, this novel is a comedic delight with a touch of suspense.
In the end, classify your books accordingly, my author friends. I can only speak for me, but I sell far more books to mystery book stores than the urban ones. They pay industry standard $9 on a book priced at $15. I don't even send Con Test to urban stores any more, because it just doesn't sell at them, but they sell well at mystery stores. Additionally, as a member of the International Thriller Writer's Association and Mystery Writer's of America I have been introduced to resources that I otherwise would not have had within my reach.
I barely ever see Patterson or Grisham stocked in urban book stores, and these are two of the top-selling authors in the world. Certainly, their material is "urban fiction."
For my birthday in 2011, I had dinner with Walter Mosley, and I asked one very specific question regarding writing my mysteries with white main characters to attract a broader mystery audience. He was absolutely against that and said that he never did it. All of his mysteries have all black casts and he has never been asked to change that by his publisher. But all in all, he is a mystery author, and his mysteries are not stocked in the AA Lit section of stores, but in the mystery section. That matters because some authors, myself included, don't write books for Black people, I write for people that like mysteries and street lit. I write to cater to a genre, and not a race of people. In my opine, Street Lit and Urban Fiction aren't synonyms.
The content of some street lit author novels may easily be classified as thrillers. e.g. K'wan's novel ANIMAL. That novel is a thriller that just has an all black cast. But they could very well be an all white cast in Boston, as well. Reshonda Tate-Billingsley and Victoria Christopher-Murray's novel Sinners & Saints has an overwhelming black cast and is set in a city, but it's Inspirational/Christian Fiction. However, this novel is a comedic delight with a touch of suspense.
In the end, classify your books accordingly, my author friends. I can only speak for me, but I sell far more books to mystery book stores than the urban ones. They pay industry standard $9 on a book priced at $15. I don't even send Con Test to urban stores any more, because it just doesn't sell at them, but they sell well at mystery stores. Additionally, as a member of the International Thriller Writer's Association and Mystery Writer's of America I have been introduced to resources that I otherwise would not have had within my reach.
