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Zane is the New York Times bestselling author of 32 titles and, as the publisher of Strebor Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster), is considered one of the most powerful African-American females in the publishing industry. Zane's platform is the overall empowerment of the female in every aspect of life. She serves on the boards of many nonprofit organizations and has delivered numerous speeches about domestic abuse. Her latest book is Vengeance, a novel of pain, revenge and mental illness. We talked with Zane about writing, racism and her trademark steamy sex scenes.
Zane's core audience is African-American, but, she says, "As the years have passed, my book-signing crowds have become more and more diverse. I have a very large white and Latino audience and a large Asian one as well." She once did a reading at a monthly erotica reading night in New York: "All of the other authors were white and the crowd was receptive to their stories. However, once I read my story 'The Trisexual,' the crowd went nuts. They laughed, smiled, squirmed in their seats and rushed to purchase the book afterwards. The stories that I write are 'evergreen'--passion and sensuality are universal. I wish more people would recognize that. It is disheartening to see white authors come out with their first book and get more attention and a review when I have written dozens of books. The racism is obvious. Maybe one day it will go away.
"I will say that a lot of reviewers who profess to love and read erotica refuse to even accept black erotica titles for consideration. To me that is totally racist and an implication that black women are not sensual and 'normal' like they are. Hot is hot. It is sad that such racial profiling takes place in this day and age."
Move on from shades of gray and read one of Zane's novels; after all, "hot is hot."