Final Thoughts

Diversify publishing? Egads!

Okay, I promise this is my last post (for a while) about this issue–books (Blood Heir and A Place for Wolves) being cancelled pre-publication because of online outrage.

You know what the real solution is? Or rather, what the vast unspoken problem is? That publishing and its sister professions, reviewing and librarianship, are overwhelmingly white and female.

That’s what needs to change. We need writers of color, LGBQTetc. writers, immigrant writers–that’s a need that’s been talked about for a long time. But we also sorely, sorely need editors and reviewers and librarians (and teachers, let’s not forget teachers) who are not white and female and mostly middle class. We need publishing professionals who can bring a huge variety of experiences and backgrounds to the table, selecting and promoting books and authors who are similarly diverse.

But that’s a long term process. It takes time and effort and money. (Paid internships with housing stipends would be a start, publishers.) Far easier (but much less effective) to outsource the effort of diversifying literature to Twitter and then to ask authors to bear the financial brunt of it by pulling books and cancelling contracts.

#WeNeedADiversePublishingIndustry