Book association seeks diversity among new fiction writers

By Amit Roy

WANTED: British Asian authors, especially women, capable of turning out “happy ever after stories,” but from their distinctive cultural perspectives.

This is the call that is being put out via Eastern Eye from the Romantic Novelists’ Association, which wants much greater ethnic diversity among its authors.

The RNA, the professional body that represents authors of romantic fiction, “was formed in 1960 to promote and celebrate romantic fiction and encourages good writing, and now represents more than 1,000 writers, agents, editors and other publishing professionals”.

At a recent RNA industry awards ceremony at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City, Alison May, who chairs the association, looked at the audience of several hundred women and acknowledged with a wry smile: “It is hard to deny they are mostly white, middle class women.”

She said that the RNA now had 10 bursaries and a scheme specifically to encourage new writers, adding: “We are working to try and encourage diversity – happy ever after stories from all backgrounds.”

According to the association, “these bursaries are part of a wider drive to ensure that the RNA is inclusive of members regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, social background, nationality, income level and disability”.

In the sea of white faces, May did pick out Keshini Naidoo, an Indian from a South African background, who set up her own digital publishing house, Hera Books, in 2018.

Since then she has brought out 22 books, including Bollywood Wives – “sexy, dark thrillers set in the world of Bollywood by crime writer Alex Khan” – and A Convenient Marriage by Jeevani Charika. The latter tells of a Sri Lankan couple, who have “a perfect marriage until they fall in love”.

Naidoo told Eastern Eye that when she spent years working in publishing, “I had to go to half a dozen white men to get my ideas approved. Now if I want to publish a book, I publish the book.”

She added she is going out of her way to find good authors “from BAME and LGBT backgrounds”.

When Bollywood Wives was published as Hera’s inaugural title, she told The Bookseller: “Bollywood Wives is the book I have always wanted to publish. Completely engrossing and incredibly written, with a cast of differing, three-dimensional characters, this is a return to the kind of escapist, glamorous fiction with a dark edge that you just want to devour in one gulp.

“I’ve always been passionate about wanting to publish commercial fiction featuring BAME characters with huge crossover appeal.”

The author Alex Khan commented: “I have wanted to write this novel since I was a teenager, and Keshini finally gave me the confidence to put it to paper.”

He added: “I’ve followed her career for years and I’m so excited to be working with her at last. Hera is such an exciting venture.”

The plot for A Convenient Marriage is as follows: “Chaya is a young woman torn between her duty to family and her life in the UK. While her traditional Sri Lankan parents want her to settle down into marriage, what they don’t know is that Chaya has turned away the one true love of her life, Noah, terrified of their disapproval.

“Gimhana is hiding his sexuality from his family. It’s easy enough to pretend he’s straight when he lives half a world away in the UK. But it’s getting harder and harder to turn down the potential brides his parents keep finding for him.

“When Chaya and Gimhana meet, a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution to their problems. Together they have everything – friendship, stability and their parents’ approval.

“But when both Chaya and Gimhana find themselves falling in love outside of their marriage, they’re left with an impossible decision – risk everything that they’ve built together, or finally follow their heart?”

Romantic novels, which collectively represent big business, do offer variety. Elizabeth Mundy, for example, has combined crime and romance in her novels, where her protagonist, Lena Szarka, who “dusts off her detective skills”, is a Hungarian cleaner.

The author was inspired by her own maternal grandmother, a Hungarian immigrant to America.

Mundy, who has written two books and is about to bring out a third, introduced her heroine in In Strangers’ Houses, which was praised as “a warmly-crafted crime debut, perfect for our multicultural age” by Vaseem Khan, himself a crime writer who won Eastern Eye’s ACTA for literature last year.