On June 8, a statement began to circulate from more than 1,500 workers in publishing and media, committing to “a day of action in solidarity with the uprisings across the United States in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the many, many others in the long history of Black people murdered by the state.” The message, addressed to the CEOs of the five largest trade publishers, says the industry has failed to hire and retain Black employees or publish a significant number of Black authors, all while pursuing profits through books that promote racism. The workers donated one day’s pay to the Equal Justice Initiative and called on others to join them. You can follow ongoing conversation through #PubWorkers4BlackLives.
Publishers Lunch reached out to the Big Five publishers about the workers’ statement (subscription required). The board of Penguin Random House (the largest of the five) offered the most immediate specifics about addressing systemic racism. PRH said it will make antiracism training mandatory for employees, share workforce demographics, set goals for increasing diversity, make donations to organizations like We Need Diverse Books, and publish more books by people of color. Further, “As a first step, we commit to auditing our publishing programs to determine how many books we currently publish by people of color and to communicating those results to you. By establishing an overall baseline, we will be better able to set clear goals and track our progress.” Learn more.
Meanwhile, Waterstones employees called on the bookstore to donate proceeds from online sales (up tremendously due to sales of Black-authored books) to bail funds. The chief operating officer responded sorry, but no: “All our shops have been closed since March 23, and the great majority of our employees are on furlough. The pressure on the business is unprecedented and extreme. With the best will in the world, we are not in a position to make a charitable donation at present, however much we would like to do so.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
