Lit Review (Part 1): 2 Articles

So, began a rough draft of my research proposal, and have started the lit review. Wow this stuff is intimidating. Anyhow, here's a summary of two articles I think I'll be referencing in the final outcome.

House with no Doors by C. Reid and T. Padgett

This article discusses the lack of diversity on the production side of the publishing industry. Reid and Padgette interview several executive, editorial, and sales/marketing employees who work in the publishing industry, and discuss why the number of minorities (African-American/Asian/Latino) are abysmally low. The reasons mentioned include low pay and limited mobility, as well as slack recruitment efforts. Also, the publishing business model dictates that most house lose money year after year, so there’s not a huge focus on making the industry diverse with the non-diverse people are losing enough money for everyone.
The article goes on to mention several university programs that focus on publishing, mentioning how the minority enrollment in those programs has grown. However, no one disputes that there is still a lot of work to do to vary the shade of publishing.

I find this article useful to my research because it illustrates how many of publishing’s gatekeepers share an ethnic, social, and economic background which may make them unknowingly insensitive to a need for diversity in publishing. However, the article is over ten years old, so it’s validity may be called into question.

A Diverse Market for African-American Books Keeps Growing by C. Taylor

This article discusses a boom in black publishing that took place during the 1990’s. It references successes by authors Teri McMillan, Omar Tyree, and Eric Jerome Dickey. During that time period, the increase of black writers publishing successful (either through traditional means or self-publishing) and their popularity with black readers was a sign to publishers that there was definitely an untapped market. The article also expresses a desire to see more black genre (fantasy, horror, sci-fi) writers.

Though this article is more than ten years old, I think it serves as a snapshot of how, even from the viewpoint of ethnic writers, there was a segregationist attitude. The article didn’t speak about black writers going mainstream, but spoke of catering to an ignore audience and not beyond it. Sales examples included figures of 30, 000 to 100,000 sold. Those numbers were huge for the “black niche”, but are paltry compared to successful Caucasian counterparts. And, in today’s publishing climate, sales of 30,000 would like get a writer dropped by their publisher. Interesting.

References

Reid, Calvin, and Tanya Padgett. "Houses with No Doors." Publishers Weekly 241 21 (1994): 62. Print.

Taylor, Carol. "A Diverse Market for African-American Books Keeps Growing." Publishers Weekly 246 50 (1999): 37. Print.