Australian-born, New York based young-adult fiction writer Justine Larbalestier is adept at handling controversy. In August news of Larbalestier’s demand for her publisher Bloomsbury to change the cover image on her latest novel Liar from a white to a black girl lit up every literary blog and captured headlines across the globe. Not only did she speak openly about her dismay at her publisher’s decision, particularly as the main character is, in fact, black. The outcry secured a victory even she didn’t think possible – a new cover of a young black girl while the book was still in hardback in the US. Anyone familiar with Larbalestier’s work will know that many of her main characters aren’t white. In an exclusive interview with Words of Colour, she tells Joy Francis about Bloomsbury’s U-turn, racial politics in publishing and why Australia losing the Ashes to England has influenced her travel plans.

September/October 2009

Justine Larbalestier

What inspired you to write Liar and to make the main character Micah a young black woman?

All five of my novels have main characters who aren’t white. The protagonist of the first three books, a trilogy, is Reason Cansino who has a white Australian mother and an Indigenous Australian father. The character of Reason emerged out of my experiences living on indigenous settlements in the Northern Territory of Australia as a child [Larbalestier’s parents are anthropologists]. It was the strong response to the trilogy from non-white teen readers that led me to write further books with non-white protagonists. I've lived in New York City – on and off – for ten years. It’s a very diverse city. It seemed very odd to write a book set there that was all white. It never occurred to me to do so. My friends and colleagues aren’t all white so neither are the characters in my books.

How difficult or easy was it to risk your professional relationship with your publisher by demanding that the cover image of a young white girl be changed to a black girl?

It’s always difficult to find yourself disagreeing with your publisher, but it’s also fairly common, especially about cover images.

Are you pleasantly surprised or shocked at the international attention your decision, and Bloomsbury's swift action, has attracted?

Both. I hoped that after my efforts to change the cover had failed, that readers of the Advance Readers Copies of Liar would notice and be upset by the mismatch between the cover and the main character, Micah. I did not expect, however, that the outcry would be so strong or that it would spread so far beyond young adult literature and publishing blogs. I’m very grateful that it did because that’s what caused the cover to be changed.

What do you think is behind the quite common inability of major publishers to confidently promote black characters, authors or subject matter?

Fear of losing sales. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that many white book buyers won't buy books with non-white people on the cover. However, since so few books by non-white authors get the big promotional treatment, those anecdotes don’t really mean that much. Recently, Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was extensively promoted by Little, Brown and has been on bestseller lists in the US for months.

What challenges have you faced as a white author speaking out about what is essentially a race issue?

I suspect it’s easier for me to speak out about race because, bizarrely, as a white person I’m not seen as having a vested interest. I happen to believe that everyone has a vested interest in social justice no matter what their skin colour.

You are quoted as agreeing with the idea that ‘black books don’t sell’ as a self fulfilling prophecy. Why is that?

If publishers believe that black books don’t sell then they don’t sign up as many black authors, and they don’t promote the books they do have which means that those books don’t sell, and because they don’t sell they don’t sign up as many black authors. Totally circular logic and thus the prophecy is fulfilled.

What have you learned through this experience, both as an author and a person?

There is widespread sadness and anger at the marginalisation of non-majority voices by mainstream publishing. There are many people within publishing who are just as sad and angry and who are working to change things. As a result of what’s happened over the Liar cover I’ve heard from several people in big New York City publishing houses who’ve been able to use my example to get changes made to the covers of books and in the kind of books their houses are buying. I'm feeling much more optimistic than I was before this happened.

Will you be coming to the UK any time soon?

I wouldn’t dare. Not until we’ve won the Ashes back.

What advice would you give to writers about honouring and marketing their work?

It’s important to pick your battles. I’ve heard stories of authors being pressured to whitewash the texts of their books. For example, to make black characters white. That’s one battle you can win because you have to stand by the content of your books. It’s harder to win a battle about the cover - unless you’re Stephen King, because almost no mainstream publisher will give an author cover approval, only consultation, and often not even that. Sales and marketing will always have a bigger voice than you, but you can protect your text. I’m hoping, though, that as a result of the outcry about the first US cover of Liar there’ll be far less whitewashing of books in the US. I’m already seeing it happen.

Visit: www.justinelarbalestier.com

http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/22/why-my-protags-arent-white/

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