Comments on: Are Publishers Too White to Survive? Who Cares!

By: amy amster

amy amster — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:54:16 +0000

Lee and Low Books is an independent children’s book publisher specializing in diversity. They take pride in nurturing many minority authors and illustrators who are new to the world of children’s book publishing. For more about their history and their books, visit: Minority Book Publisher

By: simplyscott

simplyscott — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:09:47 +0000

i figure it's simply a “supply and demand” issue. once we have enough minority authors who can't get published, we'll see more minority publishers crop up to take care of that need, and/or more non-minorities will see an untapped market and start moving those books into the marketplace. either way, it's a business issue, not necessarily a cultural one.

By: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:08:29 +0000

Unless you're narrowly defining the publishing industry as only being the major publishing conglomerates, I don't buy this argument. Publishing is a business, not an honor society, and writers today have many options to reach the communities that are actually looking for their kind of writing and publishing for them, not for the major publishers or the NYT Bestseller's list.

By: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:03:58 +0000

These are the challenges publishers are facing today after years of prioritizing relationships with intermediaries over readers has left them way behind the digital curve.

Authors can now do exactly what you're asking for, and many are. Check out this post from Dan Holloway: http://loudpoet.com/2009/09/03/freemium-for-wri…

By: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:59:59 +0000

I think lack of diversity on the business side of publishing is a fair point to make, Rivera just over-reached with the “trust fund” quote and ruined his argument.

As Larbalestier noted — and as many ambitious authors have proven — you can't say the market doesn't want a certain type of book if you don't bother to publish and market them, or do so meekly and generically. It's a problem for the publishing industry overall, not just for books by minority authors, but it's a huge opportunity for authors ambitious and savvy enough to embrace it.

By: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:50:58 +0000

E. Lynn Harris is an excellent example of one of many authors who didn't wait for a publishing deal, but busted his ass to get his book out there and make a name for himself. As a gay black man at the beginning of the 90s, he didn't have any of the options available to writers today and far bigger obstacles — racism AND homophobia AND the “black books don't sell” meme — but he didn't use them as excuses.

I think Rivera wisely stayed away from claiming racism as the problem, instead focusing on lack of representation, but his “trust fund” stereotype does make it seem like he's blaming white people, thus my final point about the op-ed “potentially doing more harm than good.”

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:37:27 +0000

To know the real truth, how about asking some minority authors… Terry Macmillian was told that noone would read her books either…
It is harder, not impossible, but harder for minority authors

By: Paul Squires

Paul Squires — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:01:14 +0000

Woohoo, that is much more like what I want to hear. Just personally. You should see what my friend Maxine Clarke is going through trying to get government funding. No-one can sell any books. There has to be a better way. Can't people just decide, heh I like this person's writing. I've met them or I've interacted in their blog, oh and here is a link to their self-published book with no middle person getting the profits. I'll buy that.

By: simplyscott

simplyscott — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:30:27 +0000

seems to me that the market does what the market calls for. this isn't a diversity program, and i see no reason why we need to install a quota system for publishers. perhaps over-educated, Ivy-league white people tend toward publishing, therefore there are more publishers that fit that general category. perhaps more white people buy books, so therefore it makes sense from a marketing standpoint that there will be more whites on book covers, and from a publishing standpoint more whites as protagonists. hmmmm. it could just be all very logical, or it could be a conspiracy.

i, for one, have a number of non-white protagonists, and indeed an albino, in my novel, and several of the characters are multi-racial, but i don't write them that way because i'm hoping someone of a certain color will buy me, read me, or boycott me; i write that way because i'm writing about the future in which i see people of all races capable of anything and everything, so my book represents that idea/l.

saying we gotta get more non-whites into publishing is ridiculous. what's more important is getting people into publishing who want to be publishers. i think that's enough.

By: ProjectChristopher

ProjectChristopher — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:13:37 +0000

I know it is just one in a universe of books “of color” but I can't help but think of E. Lynn Harris when I hear this “Black books don't sell” comment. His books flew off the shelf and this white boy was one of the constant buyers. I'm a writer and enjoy seeing new ways of writing so white, black, latino, I don't care the color, I look to the writing. BUT, suggesting it's the white person's fault for them not selling.. is that fair in and of itself?