Rollback on diverse publishing ‘breathtakingly swift’

Storymix founder Jasmine Richards told the Bookseller’s Children’s Conference in a keynote in the UK on 30 September that the championing of diverse stories in publishing amid the Black Lives Matter movement has suffered a ‘breathtakingly swift rollback’, reports the Bookseller.

‘In 2020, we had Black Square Summer. After the murder of George Floyd, the industry rushed to spotlight Black voices, stories and creators. For a moment, it seemed that publishing was ready for a change,’ said Richards. However, she said, ‘after the promises and platitudes of Black Square Summer we’re regressing’.

‘Publishing houses are sticking to what feels familiar, and in this industry, which often moves as a herd, the rollback is breathtakingly swift, and I get to see it because I sell to all of you,’ said Richards. ‘You may think that you’re acting in silos and making individual decisions day-to-day, but when you pan out, you’re all still moving in the same direction … What risks do you take? You have a choice every day of what you publish and who you publish for—be brave.’

This follows the publication of a LitHub article by US Doubleday vice president and executive editor Thomas Gebremedhin, which stated: ‘We should begin to ask why many white editors are not acquiring more innovative, interesting books written by people of colour and other marginalised voices. Too often, the burden of fixing these ossified corporate and cultural structures falls on us, the ones with the most to lose.’

Gebremedhin was responding to a New York Times article ‘“A Lot of Us Are Gone”: How the Push to Diversify Publishing Fell Short’, and criticised ‘utter incuriosity’ in coverage of diversity issues in publishing in relation to ‘basic questions’, including: ‘What are the external and internal forces, alongside race, that contribute to the success—or downfall—of an editor? Was their manager supportive? Were they a good manager? What is their sense of aesthetics, culture, politics? How do they advocate for their books? What is their relationship to their authors?’

Category: International news