The #BlackLove Cover Project

Authors of color have a hard time finding images of people of color for the cover of their books because black people are hard to find in stock footage resulting in increased budgets and poor quality work for self-published and traditionally published authors with limited budgets.We suspect that black images were not perceived to be in great demand and that black photographers are few and far between due to the high cost of equipment. With Peerspace’s help, we could book photoshoots and add multicultural love images to stock images which are in great demand today. The few images that are available now, are often cheesy and too commercial leaving #blacklove off the table. And authors often find themselves having the same images on their covers as their fellow authors.With the economic inequalities that already exist, BIPOC authors often don’t have the budget to hire professional graphic designers or photographers, directly affecting their marketing budgets. This is just one of the reasons why we coordinate the RSJ Book Lovers’ Convention for diversity in publishing on an annual basis out of our non-profit Diverse Writers and Readers International. We blend our expertise in public relations, website design, and marketing with experts in the publishing field to help authors of color succeed.