White Publishing Industry v.2

Race, Equity, and Book Publishing

As of 2025 and also historically, the publishing industry of America is predominantly made up of white people. White people make up the majority of publisher positions and authors who get published. This is a problem because it doesn't accurately reflect the scope of race and cultures that exist in America's "Melting Pot." In PEN America's article, "Reading Between the Lines," published in 2022, the article exposes the biased whiteness of the publishing industry and describes not only the problems authors of color face when attempting to get published, but employees of color as well in editorial spaces.

The icons of The Big Five publishing houses.

2020-2021 DEI statistics for PRH, Macmillan, Simon&Schuster, and HBG.

The greatest examples of this issue can be seen in the Big Five publishing houses, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and HarperCollins. PEN America released a number of statistics detailing the DEI statistics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, of each of these companies. Though each company records their DEI statistics, only three of them make those statistics publicly available, these being Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan. Of these 2020 - 2021 statistics it was revealed that the whiteness in each publishing house was about 80% for PRH, about 65% for Hachette, and abut 70% for Macmillan. Though their DEI statistics are not widely available to the public, Simon & Schuster did participate in PEN America's study for 2020 - 2021 with their white make-up being about 67%. With the overwhelming majority of employees being white, it creates difficulty for employees of color to feel comfortable speaking out for themselves and authors of color.

Condemning the publishing industry

According to Bernadine Evaristo, "the first black woman to win the Booker prize," condemned the publishing industry for their heteronormative, white rhetoric. She described the publishing industry as only seeing their readers as white and privileged, believing only those people can afford the time to read. The White Publishing Industry follows the belief of "one is enough," that is that a single story about a group of people, people of color, is the only one that will be read. The industry doesn't want to take a chance on a "similar story." “The truth is that good literature about anything can be enjoyed by all kinds of people. Literature transcends all perceived differences and barriers. It’s partly the point of it," said Evaristo. She is not the first and certainly won't be the last to speak out.