Featured Publishing Professional: Selihah White — People of Color in Publishing

By Selihah White

Why book publishing

I’ve been a voracious reader as long as I could remember, so book publishing felt like a natural choice. I’m in publishing because I love being able to engage deeply with important ideas and make them captivating for readers.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do as a publicist?

I like to think that I wear two hats as a publicist: one is media relations and the other is author care. The media-facing component involves lots of outreach to critics, producers, and editors in order to secure media attention for my assigned titles. But as many book professionals know, a publicist also serves as the cheerleader for her authors. I’m there to support them and help them navigate all aspects of book publishing. That sometimes looks like congratulating them on the massive feat of publishing a book and also consoling them if that book is panned by a reviewer.

What challenges have you faced in your career and how have you overcome them?

I remember feeling very isolated when I first began my publishing career. I’m not sure we can ever remedy that isolation while publishing looks like it does, but I was fortunate enough to find networks like POC in Pub, Well Read Black Girl, and Pub Workers for Justice that helped me cope and shift my energy towards building community and advocating for structural change.

What have been your favorite books of the year/month so far?

I’m going to be selfish and name a book I’m working on, only because I’m so excited to be working on it. It’s an incredible sci-fi novel called The Perishing that is about a Black woman named Lou in 1930’s Los Angeles who believes that she’s immortal. It’s out in November from Counterpoint Press.

Selihah White is a publicist at Catapult/Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press. She is a member of the Communications and Events subcommittee at People of Color in Publishing.