White Publishing Industry v.2

The term "white publishing industry" refers to how the U.S. publishing industry is mainly made up of privileged people, including white, heterosexual, cisgender, and able-bodied people. This includes employees at publishing houses, along with the authors they publish. This creates several barriers and issues for employees and authors of color alike. While there is no simple solution to these problems, there are smaller steps that publishers and white authors can take to make sure that authors of color are getting equal opportunities.

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

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. This is in part due to how publishing companies decide how much a book will make through "comparative titles," though the criteria for such books lead to an overrepresentation of white stories and less representation of authors and people of color in literature. “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.

Solutions

There is no single way to solve the white publishing problem overnight. Because the problem largely stems from things like “comp titles,” to eradicate the problem would mean completely changing the system of how books get published. This is no small task, and cannot be accomplished by a single person. However, there are still smaller steps that can be taken to diversify publishers.

What white authors can do

As mentioned previously, white authors have a significant amount of privilege in the publishing industry. They are more likely to be published over authors of color, as their works are usually not considered a “risk” to publish, nor are they told that the quota for white books has been filled for the year. While white authors cannot completely fix the publishing industry, they can make an effort to uplift authors of color and make space for them.

The easiest thing they can do is to intentionally read and promote authors of color. Promoting these books can amplify authors of color’s voices, giving them the opportunity to speak and share their stories. White authors should also recognize their own privilege, and acknowledge when authors of color tell them when they are writing from a bigoted viewpoint.

What publishers can do

There are several steps that publishers can take to diversify their catalogues and to make sure that authors of color, along with employees of color at the presses, have equal opportunities to white authors and employees. First, they can make an effort to hire writers of color, whether by reaching out to them or by doing an open call that encourages BIPOC writers to submit their manuscripts to that publisher. Publishers can also promote their existing writers of color and their works, while also taking care not to tokenize or exoticize them.

Presses should also make sure that they are paying their writers of color as much as they are paying their white writers. Authors of color are often paid much less for their book advances, even when they have already published bestsellers. Publishers should do their part to solve this wage gap issue by paying authors of color fairly.