In the past year, the publishing industry seems to have been hit with a major reckoning.
At the beginning of 2020, American Dirt, a highly anticipated book about the plight of a Mexican mother and son escaping to the United States, was expected to become a hit, lauded by bestselling authors and picked up by Oprah’s Book Club. But it soon found itself amid deep controversy as readers hopped on Book Twitter and Bookstagram to give their reactions. They criticized the book for the stereotypical way it painted the migrant experience, especially since it was written by a white author. To add fuel to fire, blatant errors (like barbed-wire centerpieces at a promotional dinner) pushed it into further controversy.
Within the literature world, this controversy led to larger conversations about who should tell what stories, raising the question of why publishers chose to publish a book about the Mexican migrant experience told by a white author in the first place. If publishers like Macmillan, who published American Dirt, have endless choices, and in fact, reject more books than they accept, why are they not using their power and influence to uplift authors who tell authentic stories?
In Feb. 2020, Barnes & Noble released “Diverse Editions” of classic books in honor of Black History Month by re-making covers to feature people of color. It was quickly criticized for literary Blackface, and many questioned why America’s largest bookseller chose to greenlight this campaign instead of amplifying books written by Black authors.
If 2020 is any indication, the publishing industry seems to be spiraling into a never-ending path of mistakes and poor choices. However, what we have also witnessed from this year of controversy within publishing is that there is power that lies within the masses. In the community of Bookstagram, readers all over the world have joined larger conversations about what they want to see reflected in the publishing industry.
For example, there’s the movement of #ownvoices, where readers promote books written by authors from marginalized groups writing from their own perspectives. Another movement takes place under the hashtag #weneeddiversebooks, in which activists call for more diversity within children’s books. In all these developments, readers have proven that they have the power to influence not only other readers but the entire publishing industry.
It’s undeniable that the publishing industry has long had issues with diversity and representation, both in the books they decide to publish and in the decision-makers behind them. But if 2020 was a pivotal year for our country’s reckoning with race, then so too was this year critical for the publishing industry.
The publishing industry is ever-evolving, and in recent months, we have proven that our collective voices matter. Readers are making sure their voices are heard. The question now is whether publishers will choose to listen.