Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley cover art

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

Write of Passage by Vanessa Riley

By: Vanessa Riley
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Join bestselling author Vanessa Riley as she delves into untold histories, reflects on current events through a historical lens, shares behind-the-scenes writing insights, and offers exclusive updates on her groundbreaking novels.

vanessariley.substack.comVanessa Riley Social Sciences
Episodes
  • They Photoshopped Her Black

    They Photoshopped Her Black
    May 19 2026
    I almost got canceled over a book cover I didn’t create and fought against. But strangely enough, that disaster became part of a much bigger conversation about who gets represented in historical romance.My first book was traditionally published. Books two through sixteen—independently published.And the reason for going Indie after landing an agent was simple: at the time, there was this deeply toxic idea in publishing that stories centered on Black women in history—especially in the Regency and Georgian eras—didn’t have an audience.Publishers didn’t understand the history and how diverse it is. And worse, they underestimated readers. They didn’t think you were interested.So my agent and I parted ways, and I decided to prove there was a market for these books.And y’all showed up.Especially those of you who’ve been here since the beginning. You built this career with me. You bought the books, reviewed the books, recommended the books, argued for these heroines and these histories before the industry ever wanted to them to exist.Eventually, traditional publishers circled back. They wanted proposals, manuscripts, meetings. And I ultimately signed with Entangled Publishing in 2017.The Bittersweet Bride was my return to traditional publishing after years away.Now, if you think authors have control over their covers, let me lovingly disillusion you.Unless you’re a massive bestseller or have enough marketplace leverage to force approvals, you often don’t have much say at all. And at that point—In traditional publishing’s eyes, I was basically starting over. I had independent success, but not traditional “credibility.”So the cover came in.And you guys…it was digital blackface.The art department had apparently searched the internet trying to find a Black woman in Regency clothing and decided the solution was to take a White model and darken her skin in Photoshop.That was the cover for my seventeenth book.I told them, people could tell and that she looked ashy. Everyone knows Black women use lotion. That is my humor in a difficult situation. But despite my objections, that was the direction they chose.Then the internet detectives got involved. Folks on what is now X found the original image of the model and placed it beside the published cover. The outrage exploded.People were furious—and rightfully so. But a lot of folks also assumed I had approved it. Some came directly for me. And because my name was on that book, I stood there and took it.But I didn’t make that cover. I protested it. I lost the fight. And in traditional publishing, sometimes that happens—you lose the fight.Now to the publisher’s credit, once they realized how serious the backlash was, things changed. Suddenly I was included in cover discussions. Eventually they started working with the graphic artists who had designed many of my indie covers.The one benefit was the larger conversation became:Why is there such a lack of diverse historical stock photography?Why were publishers struggling to find Black models in period dress? Why weren’t there archives, databases, and photo shoots representing different skin tones, body types, cultures, and histories?People pushed hard for change.And like many things in publishing and media… some progress happened, a lot did not.A few companies stepped up. A few photographers expanded their collections. But a lot of the industry stayed status quo because the demand for diverse historical imagery was still considered “niche.”Fast forward to today.I’m scrolling through Instagram and I get a comment from the actual model whose photos were used for the cover of A Deal at Dawn.And y’all—I screamed for joy.This is book number thirty. Thirty.And this time, there’s a real Black woman on the cover portraying Katherine Wilcox, the eldest Wilcox sister, Lady Hampton. She’s elegant, beautiful, luminous—everything Katherine should be.And for me, it felt like a full-circle moment.My reentry into traditional publishing came with a cover disaster and now, years later, I have a cover miracle. My publisher Kensington Publishing Corp. found authentic imagery featuring a real Black model for my historical romance cover.That matters.Recently, I went on Threads and asked other authors how they’re navigating this issue now. Some shared resources for diverse stock photography. Some said they’re still struggling. Others have moved toward illustrated covers—what some folks dismissively call “cartoon covers.”But honestly? I love illustrated covers.Illustration allows artists to create a vision that includes everyone. You aren’t limited by the stock that exists. When I’ve had illustrated covers—let’s just say the difference in sales and wide appeal is apparent. It’s hard to accept that people look at pretty cover with a Black Regency Heroine and say it’s not for them.But things are better. Cover artists may still have to build composites from multiple ...
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    13 mins
  • AI, Why You Playing With Me?

    AI, Why You Playing With Me?
    May 12 2026
    History teaches us many things. One of them is this: if there is a way for a scammer to scam, they will do it. My inbox fills daily with AI-generated emails faker than a three-dollar bill. Why are we so desperate for engagement we fall for or create AI spam?AI, Why You Playing With Me?Spam, Scams, and the Death of Real ConversationHi, my name is Vanessa Riley. I write historical fiction, historical mystery, and historical romance. I spend my days researching forgotten histories, wrestling with plot twists, and trying to give humanity back to people history often ignored. I love my work. Truly.But apparently, according to my inbox, I also spend my days fielding an avalanche of AI-generated nonsense.Listen, marketers of the world, if you are going to use AI to write emails, could you at least read through what it spits out before you hit send?Every morning I open my inbox like Laura Croft entering a cursed temple. Traps are everywhere. Fake refunds. Fake podcast pitches. Fake collaboration requests. SEO “experts” promising to optimize books they clearly know nothing about. And every one of them begins with some robotic compliment so painfully generic I can practically hear the ChatGPT loading wheel spinning in the background.“I admire the emotional depth of your work…”“The authenticity of your storytelling…”“We noticed a visibility gap…”No, you didn’t. AI noticed a keyword.And here’s the thing: if you can use AI to generate an email, couldn’t you also use it to figure out whether a book is traditionally published?Couldn’t you ask the bot:“What it mean if a book is published by HarperCollins?”Or:“Hey chat, does the author control Amazon optimization for traditionally published books?”Let me save everyone some time: I do not control Goodreads optimization. I do not control Amazon metadata. I do not secretly run SEO campaigns out of my kitchen while baking biscuits and revising chapters.If you want to spam someone about algorithms and discoverability, send those emails to HarperCollins, William Morrow, Bethany House, Kensington, Penguin Random House, Entangled, Macmillan—send it to them. They’re getting a cut of this AI-fueled stolen books economy. I’m sure they have more resources to wade through ill-conceived emails.And the emails themselves? Oh, they are spectacularly bad.One message asked if I accepted guest editorial contributions on my website because they create “high-quality, informative articles written with readers in mind.”Nothing in the robotic cadence , gives me any confidence that you could write a grocery list.My website gets real traffic from real readers. I’m not handing access over so some AI-generated backlink farm can attach itself to my work.Marketers and hooligans work harder. Work smarter.Then there are the straight up scams.The fake refund notices are annoying. Like who doesn’t know they are due for a refund?“Your Refund Has Been Scheduled.”Scheduled for what? Emotional damage? Bankruptcy?They’re hoping somebody panics enough to call the number, click the link, or chase money they never expected in the first place. And honestly, in this economy, maybe they think authors are desperate enough to fall for it.And let me be honest: authors are working very hard in difficult times. The rumors you are hearing are true. Every advance for level playing fields have been stripped like section 2 of the voting rights act.Like women right now in the workforce, Women authors are hard hit. Especially women writing history people want erased. Especially women writing love stories about people some want to dismiss. Especially writers creating stories centered around people with melanin that didn’t come from a spray tan.The algorithms that are sending us spam are the same ones helping to propagate misinformation, misogyny, and mistrust.That’s reality.Hey, everyone is entitled to their tastes, opinions, and preferences. Fine. Love what you love.But what I’m asking is to please stop using AI to force your way into spaces you clearly know nothing about and are just trying to pilfer my time, money, or sanity.Here’s a hint for my fellow authors and author advocates ( alive or AI):Don’t ask to appear on podcasts you’ve never listened to.Don’t pitch movies that have nothing to do with my audience.Don’t ask for access to my readers when a simple Google search would tell you our values are not aligned.These AI pitches are bad. It’s obvious that they’ve never read a page of my work or listened to a single episode of my podcast.As what I jokingly call a “D-level celebrity,” I receive endless requests to promote products, feature guests, collaborate on content, and invite strangers into my personal creative space. They want access to you. They want our time together. It’s precious what we have. I honor and treasure it.For the record: my podcast is not an interview show.It’s Vanessa’s weekly rant about life, publishing, ...
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    13 mins
  • America Is Being Judged—and We are Not Ready.

    America Is Being Judged—and We are Not Ready.
    May 5 2026
    Take a moment and sit with this:A country can be both powerful and fragile at the same time.We can be proud—and still be in the wrong.And right now, we’re standing in the middle of a reckoning.The question isn’t why anymore… It’s what we do next.There’s a hard truth we don’t want to acknowledge. We are here because of apathy, arrogance, and anger.And three things can be true at once.First, the reckoning—the judgment on America—can be deserved. Our standing in the world, the fall from once being revered to a joke, is deserved. Our actions have impacted for the worse, the world economy.Second, there are a lot of people getting caught in the gears of that reckoning.And third, plain and simple, ain’t nobody got time for this kind of suffering.So the real questions of why we are here are over. It’s time to focus on how we set things right.I’m not here to say “I told you so.” That’s easy, and it doesn’t solve anything. But I do want to ground us in a quick lesson.People died fighting for civil rights. Not centuries ago—less than seventy years. There are people caught in pictures screaming at little children, threatening violence because a child wants an education. Less than seventy years, they can still be alive. Their children who grew up with hate are still here, still carrying the hate. But now they are screamers, politicians, footstools in the patriarchy. Heck, they might be leading it.The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. So let’s round up, seventy years is supposed to make up for 400 years of slavery?According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) at least 4,400 lynchings of Black Americans occurred between 1877 and 1950.The Southern Poverty Law Center and other National Archives, Civil Rights Movement records, estimate 60+ people were killed in direct civil rights–related violence between 1960 and 1965.We know the famous names:Medgar Evers (1963)Herbert Lee (1961)James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner (1964)Jimmie Lee Jackson (1965)Viola Liuzzo (1965)Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia WesleyThey were between 11 and 14 years old, killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.When I research and one of those photos comes up, you know the ones with hordes of adults screaming and wishing harm on babies like Ruby Bridges.I see eyes glazed over with hate, mouths open, screaming curse words, and words at children integrating schools. But I’m supposed to believe that these hateful people’s children and grandchildren miraculously have no more prejudice…you know, the prejudice that forced us to legislate decency and morality.That these people in my neighborhood, near my child and other brown and Black children, have evolved.The past isn’t gone. It’s merely buried. When no one is watching, hate has a way of rising back up.Far too many of us got comfortable. We lived in neighborhoods that looked integrated on the surface. We worshipped in spaces where anyone could walk in. We shopped, ate, worked, and convinced ourselves that access meant equity—that if you were qualified, you could get the job; if you worked hard, you’d be fine.That comfort made us forget the stakes.We can’t be forgetful when others are already standing in unemployment lines. Some are choosing between medicine and groceries. Others were already relying on food banks just to make it through the week.And now, more people are feeling that edge. Seventeen thousand people just lost their job as jet fuel prices spike. We had an economy that, for a moment, felt like it was rebounding—strong, even enviable. But instability, policy choices, and global tensions have brought us to a place where the cost of living is climbing fast. Safety nets are thinning. Healthcare is slipping out of reach for far too many.There’s a widening gap between those who are managing and those who are barely holding on.Yes—if you have a roof over your head, a working car, food in your fridge—you’re not doing so badly.But that’s not the whole picture. It can’t be. Some folks are:One paycheck away. One emergency away. One layoff away from disaster.If you’re listening to this essay—on a podcast app, on Substack, anywhere—you have a degree of privilege.Use that guilt. Bear our responsibility in this mess.We were, at one point, moving—slowly, imperfectly—toward a more perfect union.Then fear crept in.Fear that equality meant loss. Fear that if everyone has a seat at the table, some people wouldn’t feel special anymore. And that fear dressed itself up in many forms—sexism, misogyny, exclusion, resentment, and yes, good old-fashioned racism.You can’t put that genie back in the bottle. There’s no Superman coming to spin the world backward so we undo everything and make better choices.This is the burden—and the beauty—of a fragile democracy.We get to choose. Even when we choose poorly.So now we’re here, in this moment, asking ourselves:What else are we ...
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    14 mins
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