Quote:
Originally Posted by meeera
Again, this is about bricks & mortar stores, which (usually) won't shelve a book in more than one section, let alone multiple sections. So if AA romance is tucked only in the AA section, unless you're looking specifically for AA romance AND know to look in the AA section, you will only find romances featuring characters/authors who aren't AA.
This system also has issues with intersections. If you have an AA section, and an LGBTQ section, and a romance section, where you you going to shelve your AA lesbian romance?
Online stores in which a book can be in 2, 5 or 12 sections at once are a completely different story.
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Meera, you're
assuming it's only relevant to digital stories. And it's not necessarily "different." At Amazon, you get TWO categories--period. Maybe, sure, you choose AA and Romance, or AA and Mystery or LGBTQ & whatever, but what if it's YA AA Romance? You're going to miss out on something. It's NOT only for B&M.
The concept (and logic, assuming there is any) is
exactly the same. What reader of mysteries or romance is going to say to themselves, "Oh, well, as soon as I get done browsing the first 100 top-selling Indy mysteries, I'm gonna run right over there to AA and then find the mysteries and then...."
I'm sorry, but I just don't see it as different. The ability of technology to overcome SHELVING doesn't change the fact that segregated (or curated?) special-interest books or movies are no different than what Borders is under fire for doing. If we say that they're "curated," is that now okay??? Does that
change it from racist or bigoted to thoughtful and sensitive?
So, what's the difference? Why is LGBTQ-category movies okay and good, and AA-category books BAD?
I think it's a legitimate question.
Hitch