As we try to impact equity in publishing and writing, one critical thing we can all do is buy and read books written by Black and other people of color.

Publishers use Bookscan as one of the metrics that determine who they sign and publish. Authors who see dips in their Bookscan numbers find it difficult to secure deals and contracts. Black and brown writers with wonderful books and track records too often find themselves faced with crumbling careers because the perception is that Black and brown people do not read or buy books.

Representation matters. Seeing and reading books by and about people who share your culture, history, and home creates an unmatched sense of belonging and self-esteem. I remember wandering the shelves of books stores and my local library on a quest for stories about girls and people who looked like me. They existed but not many. As an adult, when I grew into an understanding of what it takes to land a publishing deal and learned about the business of writing, I did what I do in my non-writing life, search for and review data. This search led me to the Diversity Baseline Survey and the VIDA Count.

Numbers matter too. In publishing, as in other industries, editors use numbers to make decisions, and as in other industries, we can use numbers as an accountability tool that allows us to ensure that those in power do not misuse it. The Diversity Baseline Survey and the VIDA Count serve as accountability tools for those of us seeking to ensure that more writers of color and women get published across genres. They act as mirrors for the industry so that it cannot obfuscate the numbers and gaslight us into believing that it, in fact, values our voices.

“The politics of the world of arts and letters have always mirrored the inequalities, injustices and precariousness of the world at large. In the 19th century it was the reason Harriet Jacobs struggled to secure publication for her 1861 autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself; why a century later, Zora Neale Hurston disappeared from literary circles without a trace, and why Alice Walker felt driven to go in search of her grave; why coalitions such as Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press emerged in the 1980’s; why today, so many deserving women’s texts—across the globe—remain unpublished or out-of-print, waiting to be retrieved, and why we must not let the word-sisters among us die in obscurity before we call their names and give them the full readership and attention they deserve. It is this urgency which drives VIDA to keep record of our numbers and hold the publishing world accountable.” – The VIDA Count 2019

The most recent (2019) Diversity Baseline Survey and VIDA Count data shows that:

1. Across the industry, more white men hold decision making power over who gets published than any other race or gender.
2. That men lead the pack in who lands in the pages of literary magazines and journals.

In fact, the Diversity Baseline Survey shows that the industry remains as white today as it did four years ago.

Why does this matter?

As Lee and Low, the organization behind the Diversity Baseline Survey, says on its website, it matters because,

“The book industry has the power to shape culture in big and small ways. The people behind the books serve as gatekeepers, who can make a huge difference in determining which stories are amplified and which are shut out.”

This is true, and so we must find ways to use these numbers as metrics that highlight the gaping lack of diversity and exclusion in an industry that should be accessible for and to everyone who writes and aspires to publication.

It matters because when Black and brown readers fail to find themselves in the stories they read, they question their value and worth. When readers from centered or “majority” groups do not see books by people from cultures and places not their own, it allows them to devalue further the voices and experiences of Black, brown and non-centered or minority groups.  They begin to believe that their voices and experiences do not possess a place in the landscape of what and who this country and world are.

Research shows us that people will, when given a choice, choose to work with those who look like them and with whom they perceive themselves to have some cultural connection.

“If the people who work in publishing are not a diverse group, how can diverse voices truly be represented in its books?” – Lee and Low, Diversity Baseline Survey  

This must change.

To catalyze change in publishing, we can do a few things.

1. Self-publish or start our own publishing houses as many have and are doing in some cases quite successfully. This strategy, however, lets the industry off the hook. It allows it to continue to operate using structurally racist determinants to “open the gate” and to only open it so wide as to let those they deem acceptable or worthy into the fold. It creates the idea of the single story that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns us against in her TEDTalk, “The Danger of a Single Story.”
2. Demand equality and equity and seek literary liberation within the current structure. We must find ways to dismantle and dispel myths about who we are as readers and writers. Use the numbers to hold the industry accountable.
3. Encourage Black, brown, and white readers alike to buy and read books by Black and other writers of color.

This third strategy impacts the first two. Cross-cultural dialog and engagement are critical to expanding our world views. One of the best ways to learn about other people and cultures is to read books by and about them. As students, Black and brown people read pages and pages of books about cultures and places not our own. This reading gives us a context for how white people think and act. Many school districts’ reading lists, and the revered The Cannon of academia, lack books by and about Black and brown writers. The holes in these lists (and in publishing) mimic the exclusionary nature of the world in which we live and allow non-Black and brown readers to not consider how we experience the world. It centers and privileges whiteness as the norm and marginalizes color and melanated writers. 

We need white readers to hear our authentic voices and not those created by (even well-meaning) white writers who filter, and often downplay, our issues. This is not to say that non-Black and brown people can’t write about our experiences but that should not be the entirety or even the majority of those available in the marketplace.

In this age of anti-racist activism, people thirst for reading material that can expand their world views. This thirst frequently translates into the question, “But where do I begin?” This list provides a starting point. It’s for readers searching for themselves on the page and ones who never encountered or meaningfully engaged with someone who doesn’t look like them or share their ethnic/cultural norms and values. These tomes, written by women of color, are ones that you need to read like yesterday. We at Our Voices Our Stories SF love these books and the women who wrote them because they dare to push for space and give voice to the lives of Black and brown women on the page. Buy one today.

The List…

You can find links to the books that we’ve featured in Our Voices Our Stories SF on our website and a more extensive one on our Goodreads page.