Some people are paying attention…
And noticing things…
Like how someone noticed recently that Barnes & Noble published an author panel discussion event during Black History Month in the US with no black authors on the panel.
Like how receipts are collected and authors are called out for racist behaviors.
Like how this morning, I reviewed all the publishers I had followed on Instagram a year ago and unfollowed (even blocking) ones that didn’t post anything for Black History Month (“BHM”) or those who only posted once and never spoke about it again.
I’m not doing this from a high tower of ethos either…but I do want to stop following, buying from, reading from publishers that don’t truly support diverse communities in the US, especially when they are being actively harmed. Such as with ICE currently.
We can do better every day but trying to be more intentional with our choices and their impact.
Companies don’t have a choice anymore, they need to speak out or we the people will consider their silence as agreement with current political leadership. And we will remember…
Silence speaks volumnes.
SO, here are the publishers that I remained following:
- Feminist Press
- Aunt Lute
- Sourcebooksfire (YA imprint of Sourcebooks)
- Inky Phoenix (Bindery)
Here are ones I unfollowed by might still read books from for now:
- Underlined (Ballantine/Bantam)
- Kensington
- Mocha Memoirs Press
Here are publishers that had exactly 1 post on BHM:
- TOR/tordotcom
- Bloomsbury US (UK had none as expected and continues to promote Harry Potter – block)
- Berkley Pub
- Simon & Schuster
- Saga Press
- Wednesday Books (St. Martin’s)
- William Morrow
- Random House
- Crooked Lane / Alcove Press
- Quill & Crow Publishing
Here are ones that had ZERO posts on BHM:
- ORBIT
- Del Rey
- ACE Books (Berkley Pub)
- Avid Reader Press (plus icky post on how oprah’s fatphobic book, “freedom from obesity”)
- Astra & DAW books
- Sourcebooks (parent of Sourcebooksfire)
- Aardvark (very dissapointing)
- Hanover Square Press
- Tachyon
- Harper Voyager
- Erewhon (Kensington)
- Angry Robot – UK based so need to rereview during the UK BHM.
- Atmosphere Press
- Little Brown (UK Based)
- Skyhorse Publishing – BLOCK THEM IMMEDIATELY. Posted Feb 1 about Melania in support and published a book of BTS?? WTF??
- Arcadia Books – UK based
It’s crazy to me to be publishing books by black authors and yet say nothing when it comes to BHM. And yet, I know a lot of people are not surprised and used to this behavior by publishers.
If you want more details on the above, I created a running page here that will remain a work in progress.
I know a lot of influencers and members of the book community hesitate to call out publishers, since they they might be retaliated against. They might terminate relationships or stop sending free books.
But speaking out is more important than free books and honestly those books aren’t free. How many hours of labor does it take to read them? review them? and create content about them? Companies are getting a bargain when sending a $20-30 book to an influencer and receiving hours of skilled thoughtful labor in return.