This has been such a busy week for me, I have not been able to get to my blog.  At some point, I hope to pre-write my blogs and just upload whichever one is slated for the day; but at this point, blogging is just one of the spinning plates in my life.  Though these blogs may get sporadic on occasion, blogging is a creative endeavor that allows me to connect my passion for culture with my interest in demographics and market segmentation.
In fact, that is my topic for today: how writers should think about writing for the cultural marketplace.  Having worked in both radio and television, I have retained an enduring interest in marketplace dynamics, particularly as they apply to demographics.  Having an interest in the dynamics of the marketplace works very well for me as a writer, and yet, there are times when it seems that the marketplace has little impact on publishers in real life.  For example, as a black woman, I am always interested in black America, and the psychographics of black culture; or rather, how the market is segmented by income, age, regionalism, and other such cultural factors that truly impact perspective. It would seem that publishers wishing to make inroads in obtaining “ethnic” market share would take psychographics into consideration when establishing a market plan for a particular culture.  As for writers, a good writer knows that a character’s perspective and identity are the result of environmental influences — or psychographics.  Certainly, a discussion of what constitutes an environmental influence, and the relative strength of environmental influences, would be key to the author’s thought process, but we won’t take the time to examine that here.  Suffice it to say, no matter how “black” I think I am, my black may not be like your black (or what you think black should be).  My black identity is based on the cultural influences that have surrounded me from childhood.  Those influences are not all black influences.  They can be a result of any number of social, or even political factors, but they are at work on my viewpoint as a character in my so-called life.  Add generational perspective to the mix, and you’ve got all kinds of different black going on.  For example, last week, I mentioned the cultural influence of the Cosby Show on my generation.  Bill Cosby’s show influenced Americans regardless of color.  In my mind, The Cosby Show was one of the last truly iconic sitcoms on television.  It would be great to have another Cosby-type show on TV, but even if such a show did exist, it is likely that it would not have the same impact as the original.  Why?  Because there are so many entertainment choices for Millennials (the generation of young people who will be coming of age in the next five years), that no single program acts to influence a wide swath of that population.   This is what author, Chris Anderson, calls the long tail.   If the long tail can apply to “white” America, then as an identifiable segment of the market, it should also apply to black America, or Latin America, or Asian America, or Native American America, and so forth.  Besides that, any marketing professional will tell you that black America (and all the other culture Americas) are not monolithic; despite the way they are portrayed in our media.  Black American life is wide and vast and deeply layered.  From Harriet Tubman with her brave shepherding of slaves to freedom; Sojourner Truth, stumping for both equal rights and women’s rights during the 1800’s; and even Mary Grant Seacole’s heroic nursing of sailors during the British Crimean war to Jay Z, one of the wealthiest men in hip hop. Each life is equal in reflecting black life.  They are assuredly as equal as Tamarion Crackhead, who always seems to be able to get a starring role on television cop shows.   Look, a

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