The latest diversity numbers in book publishing were released this morning. Figures show the industry is JUST AS WHITE as it was four years ago. This study includes 153 book publishers & agencies, including The Big 5 publishers, which control nearly 80 % of the market. @LEEandLOW 
For insights on the study and the industry, follow this thread. You can find the full results of the 2019 survey here. blog.leeandlow.com/2020/01/28/201…
The 2015 study can be found here: blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/whe…
The 2015 study can be found here: blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/whe…
@LEEandLOW The figures come at a time when the book industry is facing a storm of criticism over #AmericanDirt, a novel promoted as the great immigrant novel of our times. Latinos say the book is inaccurate, riddled w/stereotypes -- the result of a tone-deaf industry that shuts out Latinos.
@LEEandLOW The book industry, by the numbers:
Executive positions: 86 percent white
Editorial staff is: 82 percent
Marketing and Publicity: 77 percent white
Sales: 83 percent white
Reviewers: 89 percent white
(2019, @LEEandLOW)
Executive positions: 86 percent white
Editorial staff is: 82 percent
Marketing and Publicity: 77 percent white
Sales: 83 percent white
Reviewers: 89 percent white
(2019, @LEEandLOW)
@LEEandLOW One out of 5 people in the U.S. are Latino. In dozens of cities nationwide, they make up between 30-95% of the population. In the book industry, Latinos make up 6% of overall numbers, 3% of leadership.
@LEEandLOW I spoke at length w/ Hannah Ehrlich, director of marketing & publicity for @LeeandLow, the small independent children's book publisher that leads this study every 4 yrs. Unless there's conversation & action, she said, these numbers mean little. In other words, nothing will change
@LEEandLOW For decades, @LEEandLOW told me, the book industry had no baseline to measure diversity in its workforce, no comprehensive way to track its progress. The @CCBCwisc at the @UWMadison tracked diversity in children's books, but among the adults, data was thin.
@LEEandLOW Meanwhile, due an overwhelmingly white workforce that is limited in its view of communities of color, @LEEandLOW said, the book industry regularly gets itself into trouble. When people of color ring the alarm, as was done w/ #AmericanDirt, the industry is often caught by surprise
@LEEandLOW One of the most recent uproars came in 2014 at a huge readers’ convention in NY. An all-star line up of children’s writers was announced. All 30 writers (& the one cat invited) were white. “There are more cats than people of color scheduled.” lat.ms/2U68o4K
@LEEandLOW The uproar over BookCon lead to a social media campaign that went viral -- #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Writers demanded more representation in the book industry, but in the end, numbers show that little has changed.
@LEEandLOW So the cycle goes, @LEEandLOW said in my recent @latimes piece about #AmericanDirt "Even when a big mistake is brought to their attention, when there’s a sense of urgency, publishers don’t fix it, or they try, with good intentions, but they don’t know how” lat.ms/2RmMGaW
