The race of publishing: the troubling whiteness in publishing and the forces fighting back

Abstract

As the book community grows larger every day, the publishing industry’s lack of diversity is more evident now than in previous years. With 95 percent of American Fiction being written by white authors, and the workforce a staggering 76 percent white, the industry is being called out for its systemic racism and whiteness. Although in the last few years publishing houses have made small attempts to change the disproportionate whiteness within their industry, the book community on social media is still calling for a larger change. At the height of a new era in racial reformation, I will investigate all aspects of the publishing industry’s lack of diversity and look at what lengths the book community, formed on social media, is pushing for change.