A Sampling of Readings about the Literary Publishing Industry

A list of some of the readings that we engage together in ENGL460 and ENGL461. 
Critical Issues in the Publishing Industry:
In Editorial Workplaces

Zinzi Clemmons, "What It Means to Be an Inclusive Literary Journal"

Rachel Deahl, "Why Publishing Is So White" 

Chris Jackson, "Diversity in Publishing Doesn't Exist, But It Can" 

Daniel José Older, "Diversity Is Not Enough"

Paul Perry, "The time for publishers to get serious about anti-racism was yesterday"

Vanessa Willoughby, "Where Have All the Black Editors Gone?" 

​Literary Agents Discuss the Diversity Gap in Publishing
Careers in Editing, Publishing, Arts Administration
Demary, "This Is How You Become an Editor"

Muslar, "Young Arts Administrators of Color Reinvigorating the Field"

More
PEN America Equity Project

Identity-Based Resources (Academic & Career Advising Center)
Critical Issues in the Publishing Industry:
​Acquisitions & Publicity

Antonio Aiello, "Equity in Publishing"

Rachel Deahl, "How #PublishingPaidMe Exposed Racial Inequities"

Myriam Gurba, "I called out American Dirt’s racism. I won’t be silenced."

Reyna Grande, "American Dirt Has Us Talking. That's a Good Thing"

Jean Ho, "Diversity In Book Publishing Isn't Just About Writers — Marketing Matters, Too"

Natalie Kon-Yu, "Diversity, The Stella Count, and the Whiteness of Australian Publishing"

Grace Lapointe, "The Alienating Lack of Disability Representation in Literature"

Paula Young Lee, "'Your manuscript is not a good fit': How We Need Diverse Books Can Move Beyond Wishful Thinking"

Courtney Milan, "Speaking Up Against Systemic Racism in the Publishing Industry"

Lynn Neary,  "To Achieve Diversity In Publishing, A Difficult Dialogue Beats Silence"

Camille Rankine, "What's In a Number? Diversity Quotas in Publishing"

Matthew Salesses, "We Need Diverse Diverse Books"

​Mariah Stovall "A Letter From a Black Woman in Publishing on the Industry’s Cruel, Hypocritical Insistence That Words Matter"

Helena María Viramontes, from a classroom lecture on Racism in Creative Writing (video)

Trade Magazines

More Data About the Publishing Industry

Pew Research Center Book Reading Report

Association of American Publishers Trade Publishing Report 

Author Earnings Report 

Author News Penguin House

Books Related to Publishing

Brier, A Novel Marketplace : Mass Culture, the Book Trade, and Postwar American Fiction.

Calaso, The Art of the Publisher.
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Coles, Blueprints: Bringing Poetry into Communities.

Collins, Bring on the Books for Everybody.
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Conroy, Muse in the Machine.

Dana, Robert. Against the Grain: Interviews with Maverick American Publishers.

Endsley, The Fifth Element: Social Justice Pedagogy through Spoken Word Poetry.

English, The Economy of Prestige.

Epstein, Book Business: Publishing: Past, Present, and Future.
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Farr and Harker, eds., The Oprah Effect.

Hungerford, Making Literature Now.

Hungerford, Literature and the Creative Economy.

Kurowski, ed., Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine.

Lehmann-Haupt, The Book in America : A History of the Making and Selling of Books (1951)

Licona​, Adela C.  Zines in Third Space: Radical Cooperation and Borderlands Rhetoric.

Long, Book Clubs.

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Mathieu, Parks, and Rousculp,  eds., Circulating Communities: The Tactics and Strategies of Community Publishing.
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Miller, Prufer, and Kurowski, eds., Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century.

​Morris and Diaz, The Little Magazine in Contemporary America.

Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. 

Philip, Frontiers: Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture. 

Rankine, Claudia, Beth Loffreda, and Max King Cap, eds. The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. 

Robinson, The Book in Society: An Introduction to Print Culture. 

Rooney, Reading with Oprah.

Schiffrin, ​The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read.

Striphas, The Late Age of Print.
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Siegfried, The Insider's Guide to A Career in Book Publishing.

Thaxton, Creative Writing in the Community.

Thoburn, Anti-Book: On the Art and Politics of Radical Publishing.

Thompson, Merchants of Culture. 

Young, Black Writers, White Publishers : Marketplace Politics in Twentieth-Century African American Literature.
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