Novelist Settles Segregation-in-Publishing Case Print

An African-American author who claimed that Penguin Group "segregated" her debut romance novel in bookstores appears to have settled her unusual discrimination suit against the publisher.

Court records show that a New York judge ordered Nadine Aldred's case discontinued April 30 "subject to reopening should the settlement not be consummated within thirty days of the date hereof."

The apparent settlement follows disputes over whether Penguin could search for deleted e-mails on Aldred's computer and other discovery issues. U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz ruled in February that an independent technician could make a mirror image of the computer's hard drive.

UPDATE

  • Aldred confirmed the settlement on her blog. "I'm very pleased to share that the matter has now been resolved to my satisfaction through an agreement, the terms of which can never be discussed," she said.

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    Aldred, who writes as Millenia Black, was seeking no less than $250 million in damages for the economic losses she allegedly suffered by being deprived of a “mainstream” audience for “The Great Pretender,” published by Penguin in 2005.

    “[P]laintiff has been pigeonholed as an African American author despite her best efforts to become known as an author without regard to race,” the complaint, filed in September 2006, said.

    Penguin has denied that it "solely" marketed "The Great Pretender" as African-American fiction or demanded that Aldred rewrite white characters in another novel, "The Great Betrayal," as black or race-neutral.

    5/9/08