I'm always trying to find more age appropriate books for my website, featuring protagonists of Color.
Maybe I've found a book, or I've found a reference to a book.
I can't find any information on age ranges, young adult, mature theme warnings, nothing! And lets not even get into trying to figure out the protagonist's race, ethnicity, etc. I just need a hint!! Blonde? Warm brown skin? What?
And you can't just judge by the cover. How many books "from the day" had a white hero on the cover, and the inside reveals that the protagonists are POC. (Gods and Androids is a good example. Andre Norton's stories, bind up of two books with Black protagonists, and what's on the cover? The Salariki wingman and a white guy. WHAAAAA???? And one of those books, The Wraiths of Time, the original paperback? Well that woman on the cover looks awfully pale to me. Does anyone even THINK before they design a cover!)
Just today, someone announced in a Linkedin group that his science fiction book was out and you can get a copy for free from Smashwords.
So I look it up. Ok, I don't see sample pages, maybe I missed it. (I do like to read the sample pages.) The synopsis is interesting but I'm wondering as I read it, some signs of maybe not appropriate, but well, I don't know. So I go ahead and get the free copy. THEN I look up the previous book. OH, adult themes, sex addict. JEEZ, so I wasted how much time on this? And it's totally not appropriate for my audience, so....
ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!
I'd better go back to my money writing today, I think I've wasted enough time on trying to find good books for one day.
Thank you for listening.
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