The Publishing Industry
The end of an era that barely begun.
In 2020, hashtags #publishingpaidme and #publishingsowhite appeared on Twitter with authors revealing their advances. What was shocking, though not surprising, was that the Black authors and POC authors in general received way lower advances than their white counterparts. Big name authors like Roxane Gay and Jesmyn Ward made pittances even after winning awards compared to debut white authors. It was the summer of reckoning after George Floyd’s death. Organizations hired DEI leaders, posted black boxes on social media, and generally performed empathy. The publishing industry which has been overwhelmingly white, hired prominent Black editors including Lisa Lucas as publisher at Pantheon, Dana Canedy and LaSharah Bunting at Simon and Schuster, among others. In the four years since the hiring spree, a few POC editors including Lucas remained. On Monday Lucas and another editor Reagan Arthur at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group resigned, and from Lucas’s tweets it wasn’t their decision to leave. Knopf called it a restructuring and money saving venture. Authors Lucas championed including LeVar Burton, Laura Warrell and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, among others, expressed their support for her. The impact Lucas made in just over three years cannot be matched and it showed that there are crucial voices that have been ignored for too long. Hopefully someone will hire Lucas so she can continue her great work or even better, if she can start her own publishing house.
The big publishing houses are mainly based in the United States and the U.K. which means writers who are based in other countries and set their work in their native land, are largely ignored. After seeing the dearth of publishing options on the African continent, new organizations have been formed with Cassava Republic leading the revolution and pushing their authors to be recognized across the world. What will the publishing landscape look like in the next five years? Which books will dominate the awards lists? Will there be more or less hires of POC editors? How will AI affect the publishing original content? I have no answers but am eager to see what the future holds. In the meantime, I will continue to read and highlight books by POC.
