Women of colour still underrepresented in publishing

Two major global awareness events coincided this week, bringing together the worlds of books and celebrating women. International Women’s Day and World Book Day take place in the first week of March, highlighting serious parallel issues such as the cost of living crisis and the plight of marginalised women. Hence, looking at the data, we’re asking whether there are enough women of colour being represented in the publishing industry, especially since this year’s IWD theme is ‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress?’

In the past, we’ve discussed diversity in general and the fact that it was still struggling to make headway. However, women of colour seem to be particularly affected, given that much of the statistics do not account for the overlaps.

Diverse voices in the spotlight: reflecting on representation in publishing

In 2021, Zakiya Dalila Harris brought up this subject in her popular book “The Other Black Girl,” which has since been adapted into a Hulu TV series starring Sinclair Daniel. It tells the tale of Nella, an editorial assistant who is the only Black person working at a New York City-based publishing company. Upon the hiring of Hazel-May McCall, a fellow Black woman, as an editorial assistant, Nella first thinks she has found an ally. 

Despite Hazel’s seemingly supportive demeanour in their one-on-one interactions, Nella quickly feels sidelined, and her connections at Wagner start to deteriorate because of Hazel’s recommendations and meddling. It offers a glimpse into the publishing world and a commentary on Black professional women striving to maintain their authentic selves amid various stresses.

Similarly, Rebecca F. Kuang’s book “Yellowface” critiques the lack of diversity in the publishing industry. It is said that she composed the first draft within a span of several months, influenced by her personal journey as an Asian American writer. This includes encounters where she was informed that her popularity is predominantly, or solely, based on her status as a “token” author.

Ironically, after reviewing sections of the draft, Kuang’s literary agent initially expressed reservations about the project, attempting to discourage her from continuing with it because its content appeared to harshly criticise the publishing industry. It says a lot that two notable books released about a similar topic landed so well with readers.

Read: Diversity in publishing: moving past a tick box exercise

A recent Lee and Low Books Report released in February 2024 indicated that 72.5% of the industry is composed of White individuals, despite women making up 71.3% of the industry’s workforce. Initiated in January 2023, the Diversity Baseline Survey was completed over a year. It saw participation from nearly two hundred organisations of various sizes throughout North America, including 11 review journals, 37 university presses, 62 literary agencies, and 81 trade publishers, which include the Big 5.

Across the board, from the executive level, editorial, sales, marketing, and reviewers to literary specialists, business specialists, and literary agents, more than 70% of the individuals were white. Unsurprisingly, interns had the lowest proportion of white individuals, at 36%. Overall, it’s a rather disappointing state of affairs.

The current data regarding race indicates that 72.5% of respondents self-identify as White/Caucasian. There remains an overwhelming White majority in the workforce, which has only decreased incrementally from 79% in 2015. A 6.5% change in the racial composition over eight years is slightly disconcerting.

Lee and Low Books states that: “Black/African representation is holding steady at 5.3%, which is consistent with 2019 (5%) and 2015 (4%). The increase is so nominal that it is not statistically significant.”

Challenging the status quo: women of colour in literature

According to The Peak, Simon Fraser University’s student newspaper, women of the global majority working in publishing have described it as a “very white, very privileged industry.” Despite more than half of the workforce in publishing being women, only 7% of these women are Asian, 6% are Latinx, and 5% are Black.

In 2019, Bustle published an excellent exposé showcasing ten women of colour working in the industry. They discussed their apprehensions regarding “complaining” and highlighted the fact that “If we want to diversify our workforce, we have to address the economic inequality that keeps certain people from entering or staying in the industry in the first place.” Five years later, it appears we are still engaged in the same conversation.

A good example of how this can have real-world consequences is the 2022 backlash against author, poet, and teacher Kate Clanchy after she released the book “Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me,” which featured a number of racist tropes. There were references to an “Ashkenazi nose”, the “narrow skull” of a Somali boy, and kids with autism were described as “jarring company”. 

Read: Books by women of colour on International Women’s Day

As a result, she and her publisher parted ways, but not before she initially denied the charges against her, encouraging Twitter users to flag a reviewer on Goodreads who “made up a racist quote and said it was in my book.” The quote was, in fact, taken directly from Clanchy’s text.

Allegations also surfaced that she responded differently to critics of colour, publicly stating she was “frightened” to reply to them—thereby reinforcing existing racial stereotypes that portray people of colour as aggressive for merely asking questions.

Sam Missingham, founder of The Empowered Author, wrote: “Tell you what, there are a hell of a lot of influential people in publishing and *coughs* feminists who have shown zero support at all to 3 women of colour.”

Critics of Clanchy highlighted that other authors, specifically Sunny Singh and Chimene Suleyman, who are both women of colour, faced a barrage of racial insults on Twitter (now known as X), after voicing objections to her book. Monisha Rajesh was another author who was attacked, and she wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian, stating, “White authors who had previously supported Clanchy quietly deleted their tweets and slunk away.

“Writers, agents, editors, publishers and literary festival organisers need to accept that there is a lot of learning to do about genuine diversity and inclusion, and that empty platitudes and diversity schemes mean nothing if we’re punished for speaking out,” she added.

What the experts think: amplifying untapped talent and moving beyond DEI

Sabrina Wiggins, the founder of Self Ink It Awards and a champion for indie authors, shared her insights on the matter with How To Be Books. “As a woman of color and CEO of Little Aiden Press, I believe there’s a lot of untapped talent in the literary world.

While progress has been made, there’s still work to ensure more female authors of color get the spotlight they deserve. It’s about amplifying diverse voices, celebrating unique perspectives, and providing opportunities for storytellers from all walks of life,” she asserts.

Enjoying our Friday opinion pieces? Check out: Should classic books be rewritten for modern sensibilities? Experts say no

Wiggins proposes actionable steps to cultivate a more inclusive industry including actively seeking out and supporting people for their work. She also encouraged publishers and readers to open their doors wider to diverse stories and intentionally choose books by women of colour. Wiggins also recommended continuing initiatives like the Self-Ink It Awards, which celebrate and honour the impactful contributions of people of colour in literature.

Echoing Wiggins’ sentiment, Hannah Gomez, a PhD candidate in Language, Reading, and Culture at the University of Arizona and Senior Editor of Cultural Accuracy and Sensitivity Editorial Services at Kevin Anderson & Associates, emphasises the current shortfall and the long road ahead. “Short answer: definitely not! Long answer: This isn’t particularly original, but I think about how Ruth Bader Ginsberg once said there would be enough women on the Supreme Court when there were nine (i.e. all).”

Gomez said this sentiment should be reflected in publishing as “the idea that we could ever even get to ‘enough’ is so wildly out of reach given where we are now that every little bit is impactful and too little at the same time.”

Gomez further elaborates on the core issues at play, which is retention, respect, and relegating women of the global majority to diversity-focused roles. She adds: “I do, of course, want to see representatives of marginalized groups be the people heading up DEI efforts, but the only way to make substantive change is to just have women of color in every other department–editorial, publicity, accounting, the warehouse, the C-suite–so that we stop seeming so remarkable and can just do our jobs!”

Future steps: cultivating an inclusive industry

As both industry leaders underline, while strides have been made towards diversifying the literary world, significant work remains to ensure that women of colour are not only included but are also thriving, respected, and recognised for their contributions across all levels of the publishing industry. 

From a personal perspective, the homogeneity at literary events is pretty stark. As a wheelchair-bound woman of the global majority, the likelihood of seeing others like myself is regrettably and laughably minimal. My white partner, who often joins me at these events as my companion, has also noted this uncomfortable reality.

As a test, I requested an image of a “successful famous novelist” multiple times from the AI generator DALL.E to see if there was a disparity. Lo and behold, every time without fail, a picture of an old white man appeared. If the algorithm has been programmed with human data, there is clearly something there.

Next week coincides with the London Book Fair, the world’s largest spring book trade and publishing event. It’s encouraging to see a diverse array of publishers from the Middle East, the African continent, and Asia. However, make no mistake, the representation of US, European, and other American publishing professionals will still be overwhelmingly white.