Writing a new chapter in book publishing: African Americans are making money doing what others thought impossible; getting blacks to buy hardcover books. But do we have the clout?

IT'S BARELY NOON ON A FROSTY Sunday at Two Steps Down, a buppie cove in Brooklyn, New York. Four African-American managers are there, sipping chamomile tea and munching on waffles. And they're discussing their favorite book of the month, Bebe Moore Campbell's bestseller, Brothers and Sisters.

Sharing their takes on the corporate chaos depicted in this novel, one woman reflects that her position in banking is much like that of Campbell's protagonist, Esther Jackson. "Finally someone gets it," she exclaims.

Many people are sharing this sense of identification, finding in books an open window onto the black middle class and blacks in corporate America. "[Readers] like the fact that I get inside the heads of different kinds of people," says Campbell of the success of her books.

She may not have the same homegirl entourage as Terry, McMillan, but the commercial success of Campbell's book delivers the same message to publishers: The African-American community can no longer be overlooked; in fact, it is one of the fastest growing segments of the book-buying market.

Swarms of books with commercial appeal by and about blacks are now stocked on shelves at Dalton's as well as Black Books Plus. These days, roughly 80 titles with African-American themes are published each year.

Thanks to this cultural boom, Campbell is the distinguished member of a new black renaissance of writers that is reminiscent of the literary scene during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. No longer restricted to one or two genres, these authors write both nonfiction and fiction, and deal with politics, culture, history, self-help and spirituality.

Unlike their literary counterparts 70 or even 30 years ago, today's writers are reaping the rewards of commercial popularity. Bestselling titles include E. Lynn Harris' Just as I am, Walter Mosley's Black Betty, Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man In America, Maya Angelou's Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now and Cornell West's Race Matters.

Although the sales base is mostly the African-American community, these books are crossing over into the mainstream and drawing readers from all walks of life.

But even while volumes by and about blacks are rolling off the presses, there are a limited number of blacks in key editorial or managerial roles in the $16.1 billion publishing industry. (Some 50,000 titles are published each year in this country.

In fact, many white editors are making a name for themselves by acquiring books with African-American themes. On the other hand, "I wouldn't have reached the level of success I have attained had it not been for a black editor," says Campbell of Adrienne Ingrum, then an editor and vice president at G.P. Putnam's Sons, who acquired Campbell's first book, Sweet Summer: Growing Up, With and Without My Dad.

Without question, one of the highest-ranking and most powerful black executives in publishing is Marilyn Ducksworth, Vice president, associate publisher and executive director of publicity at the Putnam Publishing Group.

Will the dearth of minority workers eventually impact publishing's bottom line? Maybe. But it seems that opening the doors of opportunity in major publishing houses may require a hard push and endorsements from some high-grossing African-American authors.

THE BLACK CULTURAL EXPLOSION

The Harlem Renaissance introduced black America to preeminent literary works by such writers as Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston. But the revolution in books about the black experience took the publishing scene by storm in the mid '50s. By 1969, The Guide to African-American Books listed more than 5,000 titles, including the remarkable first novel by 1994 Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye.

Noted bestsellers in nonfiction from that period included Black Rage, Soul On Ice and Black Power. Among the most influential top-selling novelists were James Baldwin, Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.

By the early '70s, the black literary fire was extinguished. Once the market was flooded with books relying on the shock value of attacking white society, they stopped selling.

A select band of literary authors, such as Morrison, Angelou, Alice Walker and Gloria Naylor helped rekindle the flame in the '80s. But their critical success was mainly within the black intellectual community. Walker's The Color Purple and Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place enjoyed huge success and were both turned into films. But they were the exceptions.

The new black cultural explosion did not hit until 1989, when Terry McMillan introduced publishers to readers apart from the usual highbrowed literary book buyers, The commercial appeal of McMillan's second novel, Disappearing Acts, spoke to the contemporary black female who was hungry to buy books.

"African-American women developed an appetite for stories that represented them in society. Once fed, they craved for more," says Clara Villarosa, owner of Denver's Hue-Man Experience bookstore.