Sunny Hostin Says Book Execs Doubted Her Black Beach Romance Novels

Sunny Hostin, co-host of The View, opened up about some of the challenges she faced while working to release her novels. In a May 22 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the daytime television star recalled a time when a book executive doubted her ability to succeed.

Hostin, 55, told the outlet ahead of the May 28 release of her third book, “Summer on Highland Beach,” that a publisher she attempted to work with didn’t support her vision for the series set in historically Black “elevated beach settings.” 

Hostin began, “The first two meetings I had were unsuccessful because the people in the room didn’t get it. They just didn’t get it.”

Hostin explained that she was inspired to enter the literary space after noticing that very few romance novels center on Black women. She specifically recalled being in an airport looking for some reading and not finding anything that featured Black women. She recalled, “I remember one executive saying, ‘Well, what’s the market for this?’ And I was like, ‘Black women.’ She was like, ‘Really? You think so?’” 

“African-American women are the most educated demographic in this country. We have the most degrees.”

Hostin added, “I was very surprised that not only did these books not exist, executives didn’t even think there was an audience for it. It was surprising and a bit disappointing.”

Hostin gave praise to the woman who took her on as an editor for her Summer series. Carrie Feron saw her vision from the start.

“She not only saw the characters, she saw me and the audience. She saw three books,” Hostin said.

The executives who doubted her were wrong in their mistrust of her project. Hostin’s first novel, “Summer on the Bluffs,” sold 25,000 copies in its first week after release. It was so popular that Amazon wants to adapt it into an Amazon Prime Television series with critically acclaimed actress Octavia Spencer to potentially produce the project if it fits her schedule.

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