The Bookclub Book That Could: Notes on rejection and staying true to your voice
by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström
I found my agent Jessica Craig through a mutual connection and we were so positive that my book would be snapped up right away in an auction because it felt epic, genre-crossing, and boundary-breaking. It was everything traditional publishers said they wanted and were looking for in book club fiction.

Recently, I was nonchalantly scrolling through Facebook when a memory popped up. My book was once spotted at The Lit Bar behind Jennifer Lopez, and from that moment on, we called it “the little book that could”. That book would go on to keep popping up in the unlikeliest of places, on shelves or in articles between authors who have sold millions. It later appeared on New York Times Square as a Good Morning America Pick and was named by The Independent as the best thought-provoking book by a Black author.
I had never read a book like In Every Mirror She’s Black: a raw and nuanced examination of the Black experience in Scandinavia cutting across socio-economic classes and beyond interracial romance. I craved a book like this, so I knew I had to write it. A book focusing on strong yet vulnerable Black characters and their internal struggles, driven by a page-turning narrative that takes readers on a journey with a clear destination: upmarket fiction.
Upmarket fiction sits between literary and commercial fiction, and is often used interchangeably with “bookclub fiction”. These are heavily character-driven and confidently written novels with relatable plots. It follows that this category of books is popular with book clubs and should therefore be easy to sell, but because most book clubs primarily consist of white women, if these books don’t centre the white experience, they become a trickier proposition for publishers.
In fact, finding an agent to represent upmarket fiction is a lot easier than finding a publisher who wants to take a chance on new models of the genre because agents tend to be more welcoming to fresh, unique talent. Publishers, on the other hand, are still working within rigid frameworks based on sweeping audience segments and comps – previously written books – when it comes to marketing and publicising books. That bittersweet photo continues to be a reminder of my rough road to publication, plowing through over 70 rejections.
Publishers are still working within rigid frameworks based on sweeping audience segments and comps – previously written books – when it comes to marketing and publicising books.
It started with my participation in a Twitter pitching initiative called #DVPit where writers are invited to pitch their ideas to agents and editors. If they liked your story idea, they requested the first few chapters. Even though several agents requested my manuscript, there was no solid bite. A few months later, I found my agent Jessica Craig through a mutual connection and we were so positive that my book would be snapped up right away in an auction because it felt epic, genre-crossing, boundary-breaking. Much like real life, it is complex: a bit of domestic thriller in Brittany-Rae’s story, literary fiction in Muna’s perspective, and women’s fiction in Kemi’s relatable struggles in work and love. It was everything traditional publishers said they wanted and were looking for in bookclub fiction.
So we set off to find the right editor who would believe in my three Black women and their very human stories. You know, in addition to the sexy werewolves and smoldering vampires they so readily connect with. The same rejection note kept rolling in again and again: they didn’t know which category or genre to classify my book. “Most publishers are either literary or commercial, so your book is a bit too commercial for literary imprints and a bit too literary for commercial imprints,” I was told as the market for bookclub fiction goes from strength to strength.
They just couldn’t connect with my Black women. Some of the more reluctant editors wanted to make changes that would situate the book more clearly in one of the two categories. Even the editors that really wanted the book ultimately passed because they didn’t have a vision of how they would position it commercially. I stuck with my conviction because I knew my book was meant to be upmarket fiction, a story that needed to be shared on a mainstream level and not be pigeonholed as Black fiction. In essence, I wanted to normalise and centre the stories of these Black women in the most white-dominated region on earth – Scandinavia. My resolve was so that I’d already started writing the sequel, Everything is Not Enough, before the first book was ever sold.
I wanted to normalise and centre the stories of these Black women in the most white-dominated region on earth – Scandinavia.
My first American publisher took a chance on publishing In Every Mirror She’s Black even though the bulk of their readers are white female book club readers. Then other publishers followed. After all those passes, I was now getting the opportunity to publish this book in the voice I’d always dreamed it would be in – raw, unfiltered, transparent, real.
I ended up amicably parting ways with my first American publisher of In Every Mirror She’s Black because they didn’t want to publish Everything is Not Enough, which is much like its prequel – raw, unfiltered, transparent, and real. Everything is Not Enough follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany, and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice, and patriarchy in Europe. Marketing and publicising the first book were challenging for my first publisher as their primary audience of white women simply prefer books that centre them. I understood this, and that my book was still well received; people across race and class connected with it.
I’ve seen and learnt a lot on my journey as a writer and reader of bookclub fiction, but there’s one mistake that repeatedly crops up: bookclub fiction with Black protagonists is comped to books in different genres that bear no similarity in plot, character, theme, style, or indeed anything but race. Armed with these dubious comps, publishers proceed to pour marketing budgets and publicity pounds into securing spots on bestseller lists and billboards. But readers, who come expecting one experience based on the comps, leave feeling misled and disappointed. The result is that talented Black authors end up being tokenised, getting incredible 7-figure advances at auction and dream publicity for their books, only to be flooded with lukewarm reviews.
So, you might as well write what you want. You see, the worst advice an author can ever receive is to write what someone wants them to write for someone else. The journey to getting published traditionally may be more challenging, but don’t worry about the publishing industry. Don’t listen to commissioning editors who want to completely dictate what you should be writing. I probably would have kept fielding rejection after rejection because as an author, all you truly have is your voice.
International bestselling author, keynote speaker, and award-winning travel photographer LOLÁ ÁKÍNMÁDÉ ÅKERSTRÖM has photographed and dispatched from 80+ countries for various publications including National Geographic, BBC and CNN. Her book, Due North, received the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book, and she is also the author of international bestselling LAGOM: The Swedish Secret of Living Well available in 18 foreign language editions. Her latest internationally-acclaimed novel In Every Mirror She’s Black, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and Amazon & Apple Editor’s Pick, was published as a lead hardcover around the world through 4 publishers (including German, 2023). Film/TV rights are represented by UTA. Find her on Twitter @LolaAkinmade.
JANE LINK is the founder of bigblackbooks. She is also a publishing professional holding two master’s in literature from The University of Edinburgh and SOAS. Find her on Twitter @verybookishjane.
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