Privilege In Publishing

Remember that book Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White you read in third grade? The heartwarming story of the friendship between a farm pig and a spider? In a turn of unprecedented events, Charlotte’s Web has been banned in some schools in the U.S. for depicting animals and insects exhibiting human-like behavior. With books being banned left and right in youth education comes the question: What topics in literature should be discussed openly in society? However, the books that are even published at all oftentimes depend on the bias and personal opinions of members of varying publishing companies, rather than considering the diverse perspectives that could be brought to readers of books from a variety of authors.

The Department of Justice brought Penguin Random House to court in 2022 over merging issues, but it was tangentially revealed that under the cover-ups of publishing, Penguin Random House has no data to demonstrate how they pick which books to publish. With no strict guidelines, Penguin Random House used subjective matters to determine which books deserve the most resources, such as money, platform, and attention. There are no data or logistics to give reasoning to the books they select, which leads to a lack of transparency. Therefore, it is uncertain whether Penguin Random House believed it was truly better to publish most books from white authors or if there was discrimination involved. This means that the majority of the time, marginalized authors, such as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) or LGBTQ+ authors, end up facing massive hurdles to get their pieces published by Penguin Random House, and other publishing industries have similar methods. This restricts the content that is published: some excellent, diverse, and complex manuscripts don’t even become printed books because of privileges given to other authors.

BIPOC authors often face pay disparities as well; in various cases, white authors receive significantly more pay, both in terms of deals and advances, than people of color. In addition to being a blatant act of racism, this discourages BIPOC authors from entering the publishing industry when they see the pay gaps that their colleagues are facing. For instance, African-American writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah received a $10,000 advance for his short story collection “Friday Black” and a $40,000 payment for his upcoming unpublished book. However, this was a vast contrast to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that many white authors had received for their debut books. While this disparity could be seen as circumstantial, it doesn’t explain how there is a general trend of BIPOC authors being paid less. As a result, authors started sharing glimpses of their payments and advances for installments on Twitter under the hashtag #PublishingPaidMe, exposing racial pay disparities. White author Mandy Len Catron reported on Twitter under the hashtag that though she was a brand new, undiscovered author, she had received a $400,000 advance for her book How to Fall in Love with Anyone. In contrast, African-American author Jesmyn Ward had to fight for a $100,000 advance for a new book “even after one of her novels won the National Book Award.” Part of this is due to the lack of BIPOC authors and publishers present in the writing industry itself. Though the Bill of Rights establishes our natural rights of freedom of press and speech, and therefore freedom of expression, the publishing industry interferes with it. Literature is one of our most powerful demonstrations of freedom, and it’s so important for society that people can make a living off of writing. So to think that crude racism is interfering with this right demonstrates how much the publishing industry must continue to work to establish true equity.

Furthermore, Barnes & Noble, the largest physical book retailer in the country, declared in August 2022 that they would shift their focus to broadcasting already bestselling books. Furthermore, they wouldn’t deign to publish hardcover books for debut authors. With every new generation creating more inclusive, diverse literature, new authors are barred from even being noticed because they aren’t provided with the time and attention to be discovered.

While some publishing industries retaliate by stating that they publish what the public wants, which happens to be novels written by European authors, people aren’t exposed to BIPOC authors if they don’t even make it to publishing. This is essentially a chicken-and-egg dilemma: publishers attempt to cater to their audience with the books they select to be published, but the ones they don’t select or promote as much don’t even get a chance to gain popularity in the market. Therefore, those books can’t possibly be the most popular among the audience, so the cycle starts again.

Over half of the National Book Award for Fiction winners in the past decade were authors of color, making it rather suspicious that white authors publish 86 percent of U.S. books. Publishing industries should have records of what books they choose to be published and specific reasons why, so it’s easier to separate genuine publishing choices from those influenced by racism. Furthermore, even if it does cost these industries more, it’s important to make sure all books are given a sufficient amount of support—so that all books have a chance to rise to the top instead of only those expected by publishers to succeed. Closer scrutiny must be given to the U.S. publishing industry to ensure that all authors are given the equal opportunity to share their diverse literature with the world.