BIPOC Authors

BIPOC is an acronym for Black Indigenous People Of Color.

BIPOC (pronounced Bye-pawk) is a more specific acronym than POC (people of color), as it spotlights Black and Indigenous Americans, two of the most relevant ethnic groups in the United States of America. Often, BIPOC is used in conversations specifically about people of color in the united states, or conversations specifically about colorism, which is discrimination against someone because of the color of their skin.

Challenges in Publishing

Statistically, people of color are much less likely to be published. In a list of the top 500 comp titles (novels that publishers use to estimate the success of a future novel) from 2019, only 4% of the novels used were written by non-white authors. In N. K. Jemisin's Hugo award acceptance speech, she detailed the difficulties she faced as a Black author publishing in the fantasy genre; editors, based on comp titles, believed that only Black people would read a book by a Black author. Identity traps are when an author gets boxed into only writing one type of novel because of their identity, usually in the form of race or sexual orientation. It's often difficult to find books written by people who belong to marginalized identities that aren't about said marginalization, due to the infrequency of publishing and the lack of marketing. Authors struggle to be compensated for stories that aren't about their own suffering, and they also struggle to publish stories that do focus on activism if white people aren't also invested in said activism. The call for books by Black authors went up significantly during the George Floyd protests

References

McGrath, Laura B. “Comping White.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 21 Jan. 2019, lareviewofbooks.org/article/comping-white/.

“Black Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, People(s) of Colour (BIPOC): Inclusive and Antiracist Writing.” SFU Library, www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branches-depts/slc/writing/inclusive-antiracist-writing/bipoc. Accessed 9 Dec. 2025.