February 2020
A Note from our Founder
Hi, y’all! Happy New Year! It feels like January went by in a blur. But this past month has shown, now more than ever, that organizations like People of Color in Publishing are necessary. When I started this organization in late 2016, I was an editorial assistant. A lot has changed in my career since then, I’m now a literary agent and author with my first book nearly out. But unfortunately, a lot hasn’t changed in the book publishing industry.
As we’re seeing with books like American Dirt and as the Lee & Low’s Diversity Baseline Study 2.0 has shown—even with grassroots organizations like People of Color in Publishing, Latinx in Publishing, We Need Diverse Books, and so many others—“there is no discernible change to any of the other racial categories. In other words, the field is just as White today as it was four years ago.” Book publishing professionals of color aren’t getting the support they need and so many of us know this. When I left the editorial side of children’s book publishing, I was one of three Black editors to do so that year—and there weren’t that many of us to begin with. Even now as a literary agent, I’m one of a handful of Black literary agents, and the numbers aren’t that much better, comparatively, when it comes to literary agents of color as a whole.
That feels kind of hopeless, right? Like, why bother trying if it’s never going to change? Well, the thing is we never sought out to change the entire book publishing industry. I started this organization, in which so many of you became involved with, because we realized it wasn’t about breaking into white publishing’s circles. It’s about creating networks made up of ourselves, by ourselves, and for ourselves. I’m not trying to convince people who don’t care—their day is coming, worrying about them will only take time away from the work I love to do—I’m talking to those of you that do care. I’m telling you that we alone can make a difference. It’s for this reason that we halted our programming the second half of last year and took time to think about and discuss this organization’s vision and role.
Since we started in 2016, we’ve helped over forty book publishing professionals of color get full-time jobs. That is amazing. But we’ve also created a mentorship program that’s now in its second year, with over twenty book publishing professionals paired with mentees of color interested in publishing careers. We have several professional development events slated for this year, a “How to Overcome Burnout” panel in February (learn more & RSVP), a town hall in April (read about last year’s with WNDB), and a few other events throughout the year—including our holiday and BookExpo parties as well as an open house event we’re working on to give publishing hopefuls better access to publishing houses, HR professionals, etc. We’re also working on our nonprofit status and building a budget to better help us support POC within the book publishing industry. That said, we’re always accepting donations—your donation will go directly to our programming.
This is the kind of work that’s not as easy to measure. It’s easier to say, “Oh, we’ve gotten all these people jobs.” But it’s much harder to show just how much work we’ve been doing to ensure that POC feel safe, supported, and secure in the belief that they can thrive in this industry. I know we’ve done an amazing job at it because at every industry event I have people of color talk to me about the role POC in Publishing has played in their lives. It’s helped them make friends, find mentors, and think about where they want to be not just tomorrow but in 5, 10, 15 years. To me, to my eboard, that’s what’s most important: retention. So, while we always invite you to submit job listings to our job seeker group, over the next years, we will be hyper-focused not just on getting more people of color into the book publishing industry, but ensuring they can and want to stay.
Our eboard has changed a lot since 2016, so I’d love for you to take some time to read the profiles of the brilliant, hard-working women of color on my team—who volunteer a lot of their time to make sure sure that this organization keeps running.
Thank you all so much for your continued support. As always, you can reach us on Twitter, on Instagram, and via email.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone, it’s open to all. You can look for it in your inbox monthly with updates on books we’re reading, spotlights on book publishing professionals of color and indie bookstores, events around town, and more.
We’re looking forward to making 2020 our best year yet!
Sincerely,
Patrice Caldwell
