Diversity Lack In Publishing Industry

The ongoing BookExpo America currently being held in Manhattan has once again brought to light the fact that diversity is lacking in the publishing industry.

The book world has long struggled to advance from diversity panels to actual diversity, operating under a contradiction between its liberal, pluralistic ideals and the narrow range of its own population, especially in positions of power. Non-whites are absent, or close to it, on executive boards throughout, from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR). Overall, the industry has few prominent non-white publishers, editors, agents, booksellers or book critics. Read more

“There are more cats than people of color,” tweeted Jeff O’Neal, a co-founder of Book Riot, on online book journal whose mission is to represent more diverse voices in publishing. Read more here

Now more than ever, self-publishing has become increasingly popular, and this trend is paving the way for more diversity in this segment of the publishing industry.

The self-publishing industry has enjoyed explosive growth over the past few years. Bowker’s annual self-publishing statistics found that the number of self-published titles released in 2012 jumped more than 422% over the previous five years, bringing an ever-more diverse base of authors into the self-publishing industry. Read more at

If you are interested in a publishing job, visit DiversityWorking, the largest diversity job board online.