Just How White is the Book Industry?
The New York Times ran the above linked article in December 2020. It discusses research done on books published by the larger publishing companies between 1950 and 2018. Only 5% of the books published during that period were by non-white authors.
When I started writing this blog, I started thinking about female vs male authors, and I usually tag the books written by women. I had been starting to think about the books that are considered classics and how many of them were written by men. I wasn’t purposely reading female authors, I was just tagging them for my own knowledge. I did find that I read more books written by women than I thought.
After reading this article, I think I may start tagging my books as “author of color,” just for my own knowledge. I don’t know how many books I read by authors who were not white, but I know that I read a few by Nigerian authors. This article will get me thinking. I hope it does the same for others.
bookworm at the gym 