Bloomsbury whitewashes the cover of another YA novel

Remember the whole uproar around Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, where her publisher put a white girl on the cover when the character was clearly Black? Well, the same publisher, Bloomsbury, just did it *again*–this time with Jaclyn Dolamore’s Magic Under Glass. Dolamore’s character is described as having brown skin, but Bloomsbury put a white girl on the cover.

Why? It may come down to money–that some publishers believe that black books don’t sell.

Justine Larbalestier was outspoken and righteous about the cover mishap. It was only due to her and to many, many book bloggers and Twitter-ers creating an uproar that the cover got changed at all to fit the character. I’m hoping that’ll happen again with Dolamore’s book. A good book is a good book–and I think the cover should be true to it.

If you have a blog, I’m hoping you might consider blogging about it. Or talking about it on an elist.

And even easier–come sign this online petition. I think it’s a fantastic one. It covers multiculturalism, sexual orientation, and body issues. I’ve signed it.

What do you think about this whole thing? Do you think white characters on covers sell more books? Do you think a black character should look white on a cover?

January 20th, 2010