Why I Don't Write Caribbean Fiction

And how I came to discover this.

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

Up until a few months ago, I thought I wrote Caribbean Fiction but the more I existed in the space that promoted it, the more I thought differently. It’s not to say that my work and Caribbean Fiction don’t overlap, it eventually came down to accepting reality for what it was instead of bending it under my will.

Having started writing books in a Caribbean setting, I decided to create a new Instagram account that would focus solely on that apart from the BWWM content that was on my primary author Instagram account. I then started to follow Caribbeanbookstagrammers and the more content I consumed, the more I saw patterns.

Now normally, I’m into patterns but these patterns left me uncomfortable and no amount of internal gaslighting could make me unsee them or be comfortable with them. In this space, I noticed that

• Caribbean Fiction is primarily literary fiction;

• The Caribbean is quite diverse;

• Books promoted are from traditional publishers;

It’s not to say that it is a good thing or a bad thing, but it made me revisit how I would proceed in promoting my work. And my work is not…

Caribbean Fiction = Literary Fiction

At a glance at the books that are repeatedly seen under #Caribbeanbookstagram, you will notice that the covers are artistic in their rendering as opposed to identifiable as one genre or another. In fact, it is only by reading the book that you understand what the cover means. The heavy lifting of the marketing is done on the public relations side than the in bookstore draw of the book. This puts these books in the category of Literary Fiction.

Then I listened to a podcast in which an author was talking about a recently published book. The host mentioned that the book had a bit of romance in it and I heard a resistance in the author to labeling the book as a romance. This made me think of other books that have been promoted and they have never made it a point of saying it was a romance, a mystery, or any other genre.

I found this interesting that Caribbean Fiction is a category but it is a very small category in terms of market share because a lot of readers make it a point of not reading it because it’s literary fiction. These are books that people say they’ve read but they are not the kind of book readers instinctively reach for.

In the end, these books may be rich with symbolism and beautifully crafted but they are also heavy and in many cases leave the reader questioning why they invested their time. And in spite of all the fanfare, a reader is either left feeling cheated or indifferent resulting in them never picking up another book by that author. Or another Caribbean book and that is the real tragedy.

But now that I’ve unpacked it a bit, could the publishing of their book be the whole pomp and circumstance of promoting the book instead of the reader enjoying it? Could it be that the author gets all caught up with the media and selling the book instead of capturing the heart of a reader and nurturing a fan? Then what happens to the author when they have to write that next book? With that said, I’m going to keep a list of authors of Caribbean fiction and track their progress.

But it goes beyond the type of book, it was also recognizing…

The Diversity of the Caribbean

I am a woman who lives on a small island in which English is spoken and Christianity is the dominant faith. I grew up with access to American media and have read British novels. My lived experience is far removed from a Cuban man living in Havana or a child growing up in Aruba. Yes, there may be similarities based on the climate of the region or similar political structures but there are day-to-day differences in our lives. So for me to label my books as Caribbean feels disingenuous.

Also, although it is set in the region, I like the idea that the core story is accessible to a wider audience. My work is not an anthropological study but a recognition that we all go through the same things but in different settings. And it was also my mission to show that the people who live on the islands are not caricatures but people that are relatable.

Still, I make it a point of saying that my books are romances set in a small island because that experience is different from what a Caribbean person who lives in a city experiences and we are always quick to defend our lived experience.

And yet,

Books Promoted are from Traditional Publishers

Who am I to break what has been established? The traditional publishers have the money and the connections to promote the books they publish to the region. They have a system and it works. So, who am I to toss it on its head? Especially when my efforts should go toward writing my next book.

Also, from what I’ve seen, the books from these publishers are

• slave books under the guise of history

• the immigrant experience (the Caribbean person in a developed country)

• the foreigner’s experience (their view of the island life)

• extreme poverty/strife/trauma

The more I saw that the books fell into these buckets, the more I didn’t want my books to be a part of that genre. My books are square pegs that could never fit in those round holes. What saddens me is that readers in the region would appreciate the lighter stories. The type of stories that have you turning the pages because they are invested in the people not so much the label of it being Caribbean.

So, I write romance on a small island with the intention of telling a compelling story but with a culture and location that is my own. There are tons of romance set in small American towns and big cities, so why not on a small island where the local people are not placeholders with comical quirks but fully rounded individuals?

I live on a small island with other people who live on said island and we fall in love and have dreams and ambitions. So why not share it with a wider world of romance readers?