2024’s Black History Month should be a time of both celebration and reflection, especially in terms of Black literature. 

However, Black authors still face monumental barriers in the publishing industry. Perhaps the biggest, and the one most evocative of Black History Month’s 2024 theme “Reclaiming Narratives”, is the struggle between authenticity and marketability. 

Author Selina Brown faced this struggle when she tried to publish Nena: The Green Juice, a book to encourage children to eat healthier. As she writes in an article published in the Standard, publishers were not interested, citing what they perceived as the book’s lack of marketability. 

It seems absurd to suggest that there is not a market for such a book. Whilst the reading trends of children have indeed changed over the years, there will always be a place for these books that are geared both towards young children’s curiosity and their parents’ desire for their child to understand more about themselves and the world. The issue seems to be, then, that publishers do not think featuring a Black character makes a book marketable to a wider audience. 

But should we not be teaching children that they can learn from people who are different to them? There is no reason why a child should read a book about a child who is different to them and not be able to learn the same lessons. Such books teach them that, regardless of our differences, humans should all be treated equally. All children will be going through the same ups and downs of childhood and trying to find their place in the world. Diversity in children’s books can only encourage greater empathy and acceptance of others during this process. And for Black children, seeing themselves in what they read makes them feel seen and celebrated, as children should feel. 

Even for literature aimed at adults, it is damning that publishers do not trust their readers to be able to read and enjoy a narrative that comes from a different perspective. As Brown says, literature is the conduit to understanding others. Understanding others is part of what makes us human. If the opportunity to make this connection is denied, then we have been denied the chance to be human. An adult should be rational and mature enough to read a book that centres around a different narrative to theirs and understand that it may be different from what they were expecting, and that it may even challenge them in the process of making them more open-minded. That is what good literature does. 

Publishing houses have always traditionally struggled with diversity. Reports by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education have previously found that Black authors are especially underrepresented in the publishing industry. But instead of making meaningful change in the industry, publishers have a tendency to just paper over the cracks of the issue. As Brown points out herself in her article, the problem is in part down to performative representation. Publishers will accept one or two Black authors, feel like they have met their diversity quota, and leave it there, either sincerely thinking they’ve made a difference or cynically thinking that their efforts will make them appear more diverse and thus more presentable. What they actually do is perpetuate these barriers and create more division. This creates an environment where, Black authors are not valued for their work, but how their inclusion will affect the publisher’s public perception. 

Publishers, and profit-orientated companies in general, will usually lean towards what they consider the ‘safer,’ more marketable option. But could this not lead to retreading the same ground and nothing new being said? The market would just become oversaturated, with the risk of people becoming less interested in reading as well as the medium losing what makes it special. How many groundbreaking narratives have been lost to time because of publishers discriminating against stories that are ‘different’? How many authors have been denied a career, and their chance to share their stories, because of racist bias disguised as “market factors”? More reader’s choice can only ever be a good thing. 

I would hope that the majority of people would much rather read a book that challenged them, that made them question their own attitudes and worldview, than one that was bland and uninteresting. A book that respected them as readers, and respected that they are reasonable people who can be changed and inspired by what they read. A book that understood that behind a person’s race is something much more important.  

The specifics of people’s life experiences will always differ, but that is something to be celebrated. No matter how different from each other we are or perceive ourselves to be, there is always a connecting thread that all humans share – the desire and the ability to understand and to be understood. 

You can read Selina Brown’s article at the following link: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/books/publishing-industry-black-british-book-festival-selina-brown-southbank-centre-author-diversity-inclusion-b1115383.html 

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