Dear Romance Publishers, Please Stop Giving Readers The "Okie Doke"

Let me start this post by saying that when I first started blogging years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to only write on topics that I felt positively about. I never wanted to be the kind of blogger that was always spewing negativity. This has become even more important to me while writing book reviews; however, there's a trend that I I've noticed that I just can't ignore any longer. That would be the issue of false advertising in the interracial romance genre.

I've already discussed in previous articles that I am a HUGE fan of boxed sets. I have found more fantabulous authors and stories that I can shake a stick at through this medium; however, I've also noticed that there is more than a little false advertising with boxed sets.

First lets clarify what I expect from a genre search. When I tune up my trusty Kindle App and type BWWM in the search box I expect that all of the results will fall into this category. I have seen the occasion where BBW will also be included in the sear results and that's cool too as long as the leading ladies in these romances are women of color. Don't get me twisted, I am an equal opportunity steamy romance reader. I discriminate against no one, but, If I'm in the mood for something in particular I expect my search results to be accurate. I have also mentioned in previous articles how much the cover art plays an important role in my book selections. So it would stand to reason that If I do a BWWM search, I expect to see evidence of that on the cover.

So let me get back to this boxed set thing. recently I did a BWWM romance search on my app and a boxed set turned up,  (I'm not going to list the title because I don't want to get sued) any way The cover looked great gorgeous Sista with a serious dark haired hottie. Ok, I make my purchase and start reading....first book...as I go along a red flag goes up, no description of the lead female. There's no mention of her beautiful chocolate, cafe au lait, or even golden skin. Not even a side note about her hazel eyes (I have no idea why most Sista Gurls in romances have hazel or light eyes, they just do). I get to the end of the first book in the set and like I suspected the leading lady WAS NOT a BW, she was a BBW, but not a BW BBW. Ok....so I let that one slide.

So on to the second story. So how does it start? By straight off the top describing the leading lady as a petite, raven haired Caucasian curvy woman. All that's well and good, but that wasn't what I was looking for. At this point I just started paging through the stories realizing that story after story was anything but BWWM romance.

I'll be honest with you, I was straight fed-up! Like I said, this isn't the first time this has happened to me, but the sad part is that this won't be the last.  So for all of you publishers and marketing specialists, please stop giving readers the Okie Doke.

Give readers what they ask for. Tag your publications appropriately. You should want readers to be happy with their choices AND want to read more of the authors whose stories you included in your set.

Much Love,

Pandora