Grab a drink and have a seat, because here come some compelling and powerful words and numbers. Bea and Leah Koch of The Ripped Bodice have compiled an inaugural report on the State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing.
From their press release:
In their first year and a half in business, the Kochs grew increasingly aware of the limited number of options for customers looking for traditionally published books written by people of color. However, “we have found it difficult to continue the conversation about diversity in romance without hard data,” says report co-author Leah Koch.
“For many years the common refrain from publishers has been ‘we’re working on it.’ Every year we will track industry growth and see if that promise rings true.”
Their hope is that with concrete facts and figures it will be harder for the industry as a whole to ignore the fact that there is a problem.
“Honestly we were shocked at how abysmal the numbers are.” says Bea Koch. “We thought they would be bad; we didn’t think they would be this bad.”
Their goal: “reporting the percentage of books published in 2016 that were written by people of color.”
The Kochs collected their data pool through the following steps:
- “Identify and contact the leading romance publishers to determine if they will participate.” The survey included 20 romance publishers: “every publisher included in the report was offered the chance to participate, and more than half did, contributing their time and energy to the report.” Those participating in this study: Carina Press, Crimson Romance, Dreamspinner, Entangled, Harlequin Series, HQN, Kensington, Mira, Riptide, Sourcebooks, and St. Martins Press.
- “Collect 2016 title data for publishers which did not choose to participate from publisher and distributor catalogues and websites.”
- “Research more than 1000 authors to identify people of color.”
- Do all the math. (My summary, not theirs.) Their margin of error is partially based on potential for misidentification as their research tools included social media, biographies, author websites, and photographs.
Important question: Why only race?
Bea and Leah wrote, “While many groups are still woefully underrepresented in the romance genre, including people with disabilities, marginalized religious groups, and members of the LGBTQ community, we had to start somewhere. This is a difficult subject to discuss, but racial discrimination is one of the largest barriers to equality in any professional industry. Publishing is not immune.”
The results?
You can download the report here (PDF, 1MB, right-click-and-save-as, por favor!)
There are a few images I’d like to highlight here as well (all graphics courtesy of Bea & Leah Koch, The Ripped Bodice Bookstore):
In 2016, for every 100 books published by the leading romance publishers, only 7.8 were written by people of color.
And here is the individual publisher data:
In a word…wow.
As the oft-quoted and nebulously-sourced business maxim goes, “What gets measured gets managed.” And as Leah said, we can’t fully address the problem without hard data, and those are some hard numbers.
I’m personally also deeply impressed with the effort and work that went into this report, since running a business is time-consuming enough without taking on research of this magnitude.
Bea and Leah are going to compile this report annually, and I personally (and very very selfishly!) hope that it can expand to include other marginalized groups, especially LGBTQIA+ and religious and cultural minorities – though I fully realize that it’s easier for me to type those words than it is to compile that data and crunch those numbers.
I am not the only person who has said that the genre needs to better represent the people who read and write it – and to see that expressed in numbers and percentages is chilling but also inspiring for me.
Amanda: First, I just want to say that I am so glad that Leah and Bea are part of the romance community. Though I live on the east coast, I’m always envious of the safe and welcoming space they’ve cultivated at The Ripped Bodice.
Sarah: YES. Me, too.
Amanda: What strikes me most is that they didn’t have to put together this report, but they did. And like Sarah, I hope that it grows to include other marginalized communities. But when it comes to changing the white, cishet, Christian landscape, we need to come at it from all fronts: reviewers, bloggers, publishers, booksellers. Failing in one area will just reinforce the misguided notion that diverse romances don’t sell.
While I’m not surprised at the stats, giving numbers to this problem is a fantastic way to fully see the disparity in representation in the real world vs. on the page. The world is not just 8% people of color, so why is our romance?
Keep up the great work, ladies! I’m eager to see how the stats compare in the coming years and if any trends emerge.
Sarah: I agree – every day and every year is an opportunity to do better.
So what do you think? Did you read the report? What’s your take?
It is probably impossible to calculate, but it would be interesting to see what the percentage of self-published romance books are written by people of color.
The numbers were not a huge surprise to me.
Also, I’d be interested in knowing whether SBTB keep tabs on the number of writers of color–and writers from marginalized groups in general–it reviews. (And what percentage are different books by the same WOC authors.) It’s a big job to track but it would be illuminating to hear from major review sites like yours.
I’m glad we have numbers, but wow, those are depressing.
This is why I don’t believe publishers when they claim they’re looking for diversity…they usually don’t back up that claim by actually publishing books by PoC (and other marginalized groups).
Much as I don’t want to self-publish, I’ve been feeling lately like I have no other choice. I have been focusing on writing diverse romantic comedies (with lots of Chinese MCs) this year, and I think self-publishing will have to be the path I take.
Actually, I had a conversation with a well-respected editor just a few days ago that was thoroughly depressing. I was told not to use a Chinese surname for my new pen name, and also “If the characters just happen to be Chinese, but they’re still identifiable/relatable, that’s okay” (approx wording) which seems to imply that most of us Asians are unrelatable freaks with weird issues.
I believe there are many readers who want such books, but my God, as a writer, it is tough.
I do think that this research is very important and I applaud Bea and Leah Koch.
I’d be interested to see a side-by-side analysis of characters of color, particularly main characters of color, in romance. Where does the data intersect and where does it diverge? I would suspect that there might be a bit more representation in characters just because there are lots of characters in a book but only one author. However, I’m also guessing that main characters of color are a much rarer thing. And are the characters of color always or mainly written by writers of color?
I am so grateful to The Ripped Bodice for doing this important and valuable work on behalf of Romancelandia. An entire University-funded department does this number crunching for KidLit/picture books /YA (The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison). Thank you Leah and Bea!
As readers, this always feels so overwhelming, the what can we do–and the easiest answer is to vote with your dollars. All of us can spend more money reading more inclusively and showing there is a market for everyone’s stories.
Kudos to The Ripped Bodice. The figures are sobering, but I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. I tend not to even consider the publisher when I choose a book. Maybe it’s time to change that.
The fact that I not surprised in the least about the findings doesn’t mean I’m beyond pissed off.
I mean, all anyone has to do is look at who is getting published AND promoted. And who isn’t.
My hope is that we do get to see change at some point. For me, however, it’s important to also *be* part of said change: by reading and reccing author of color with the same enthusiasm I do for white authors. Change is slow, but nothing will happen if all of us (readers, editors, publishers, etc.) follow our intentions with actions.
Addendum: obvs, I meant supoorting/reading/reccing authors of color. Also, that nothing will change if we DON’T do anything with the findings. #UghsometimesIliveinTypoCity
What about characters — was the assumption that non-white authors write non-white characters?
Or was the study only authors?
Only asking for my own understanding –
R
They addressed that aspect in the report:
Interesting article.
I’ve known about some of the issues pitching AA romances to book stores from that story in Beyond Heaving Bosoms. About the most I had done as a consumer is to find blogs that list dedicated book titles like WOCinromance and add them to the TBR pile.
And read the odd book featuring black people on the cover in a sale. Like this one.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-truth-is-the-light-4
Is listing goodreads and book lists one way to build word of mouth? Because I guess my curiosity can only take me so far on my own.
What the fuck, HQN? The whole report is depressing, but seriously, what the actual fuck, HQN?
The tagline for the HQN page at Harlequin.com: “HQN is the epitome of romance. From contemporary to historical, paranormal to suspense, HQN has a story for every romance fan.” Zounds.
…so I was going to offer an apologetic for HQN, positing that the imprint might have an SOP of referring African-American authors to the Kimani Press imprint, but 1) all POC aren’t AA, hello and 2) Wikipedia cheerfully informed me that “[i]n May 2017, it was announced that Harlequin was no longer acquiring titles for the Kimani Romance imprint, with the final titles due to be released in 2018.”
So to quote a certain dread pirate: what the actual fuck, HQN? (Also, thank you for willingly sharing your data, Harlequin imprints.)
That doesn’t look like anywhere near a high enough percentage of POC.
What should publishers be aiming for? Roughly three to five times as many? I couldn’t work out, from The Ripped Bodice definition of POC, if it included everyone who isn’t “White alone, not Hispanic or Latino“. But assuming it did, then to be in proportion to the US population, presumably publishers should aim for 38.7% POC. However, if all white people are excluded from the POC figure, then presumably the proportion of POC authors it only needs to be brought up to 23.1%?
I suppose another factor in trying to assess what the correct proportion of POC authors should be might involve some rather convoluted calculations relating to the proportion of their authors who’re from the US. In the UK, for example, 87.1% of the population is “White British” or “White”, so that would mean about 13.9% are POC, while in Australia “Australians of British and other European ancestries” are estimated to be 92% of the population, so 8% POC. Harlequin, for example, might have a slightly higher proportion of Australian and UK authors than some of the other publishers, so perhaps that would lower the proportion of POC authors one should expect them to have. On the other hand, they don’t have very many Indian authors, given the size of that market but I get the impression more Indian authors are published by HQN India than are by Harlequin North America or Mills & Boon in the UK.
Of course, if you take into account something mentioned in Entertainment Weekly’s report on this report, namely
then that would make a difference to the calculations too.
@Laura Jardine – Just wondering why you’re resisting the self pub route?
Does RWA or any of the other reader surveys estimate the percentage of romance readers that are people of color in the US? My guess is that’s it’s close to the percentage in the general US population, but I could be totally off about that.
Also, more diversity in authors might lead to more diversity in readers.
@Holly Bush – I think self-publishing is a great option, but I’m not so sure it’s a great option for me because:
1) I have rather serious, treatment-resistant mental health issues, and self-publishing would involve doing more things that would cause me mental distress.
2) Since I am on disability for mental health reasons, I have little income, so the financial investment for a cover artist, editing, and copy-editing is a bit…daunting. I can do it, but it is very hard to justify to myself when I might not make the money back.
@Laura Jardine– I hope you find a way to get your books published, and reviewed here, because I’d like to read them. Sounds like romance needs some angel investors or other ways of funding authors in advance, so the books we want to buy become available.
The Koch sisters are absolutely amazing. Kudos to them for putting some real numbers behind this. Hopefully we can watch this shift over the years.
I think we have a real problem here. I hope that the publishers get the message that they must change their business practices to be more equal to all races since white people in the US will become a minority in 3 decades per the U.S. Census Bureau.
Laura J, I’d love to read books like the ones you described. In fact, if you decide to self-publish, contact me through my website http://www.krisbock.com and I’ll give you a content edit for free. (This is something I do professionally.) In fact, if you’d like the content edit before you submit to traditional publishers, I can do that too. Content editing means big-picture stuff, so you’d still need a copy editor if you decide to self-publish, but it should still help.
The comments above about population and readership numbers are why I often despise quantifying a lack of diversity with percentages. The numbers end up being all many focus on. The numbers are the symptoms of the lack of diversity, not the diagnosis.
The diagnosis is the structural barriers, the cultural barriers, the socioeconomic barriers, the biases, the assumptions.
Let’s look at it this way: during the self-publishing boom (ca. 2012-14), I remember a few romance editors and agents saying they avidly scoped out the Amazon best-seller lists to see who/what was hot. They’d buy the popular books, and if they loved what they read, they’d frequently reach out to author for representation, a book deal, a pitch, etc.
Did they ever look at the AA, Multicultural, or Interracial Romance lists? How many super successful POC made the leap from self-publishing to NY during the “Indie gold rush”?
The AA and IR romance communities, specifically, have long created their own spaces due to the segregation and marginalization erected by the publishing industry. Just because the authors aren’t “household names” or aren’t reviewed in mainstream Romancelandia doesn’t mean they lack a significant readership. If there are “unknown” non-POC authors making six figures a month via self-publishing, why would it be impossible to believe there are “unknown” POC authors making the same amount?
These numbers are appalling, but…now what? Romancelandia has been having this conversation for a decade. The habits of a nation have calcified in this community no matter how many op-eds or infographics of tweetstorms or articles shine a brief spotlight on this topic.
@Laura Jardine I can’t disagree that self pubbing has a unique set of challenges. It’s worked successfully for me but it is not for everyone. There are some significant upfront costs for every book and the level of investment has a significant bearing on the outcome. It was a financial burden, especially in the beginning. I hope you find a way forward for your writing and don’t lose hope. If you have any self-pubbing questions, feel free to contact me. Best of luck to you in your journey!
I’m actually pretty impressed with Kensington and Forever / Forever Yours compared to the other publishers. I’d never heard of Forever or Forever Yours, but my friend Google tells me that Forever is the romance imprint of Grand Central Publishing, which is an imprint of Hachette, and Forever Yours in the digital / e-first sister to Forever. And according to this link, they publish unagented authors and those without a publishing record – https://www.authorspublish.com/forever-yours-now-accepting-book-submissions/
The idea that what gets measured, get managed is interesting to me. A few years ago, a post by Courtney Milan inspired me to keep track of my reading in terms of author identity. Currently I track authors of color (and I use a pretty generous definition) and LGBTQ authors. It’s been interesting. In some ways it makes me more aware of identify in a way that feels creepy because I’m google stalking authors trying to figure out their identities. But it’s also been good in terms of keeping myself honest in terms of meeting my personal goals of supporting diverse authors and expanding my list of favorite authors – and it’s made me realize how weird my memory is, because sometimes I think I’mm reading more of someone than I actually am.
@Evangeline – thanks for the reality check.
[…] The Ripped Bodice Report on Racial Diversity in Romance. – The ladies behind The Ripped Bodice Bookstore took it upon themselves to look into racial diversity in romance publishing. This report looks at the percentage of romance books written by authors of color at various publishing houses. (Warning: It’s disheartening.) […]
I’m not surprised Kensington has better numbers than the other publishers. Eleven years ago, they took a chance on me and published my first book. But it is sad that in those eleven years, other publishers have not become more progressive.
Not surprisingly, the exact same debate is going on in science fiiction/fiantasy (with respect to Black authors particularly). There was one author who made a comment that stuck with me (wish I could fiind that post now): they said that publishers only bought their writings when they imitated fiamiliar models ofi storytelling (which had been established by white writers, ofi course). And another author commented that they’d had a publisher tell them their plot idea was unbelievable; in truth, it was based on something that actually happened in Nigeria. Various authors were saying that it’s not enough to publish black authors. They can imitate white authors ifi they want to. But what ifi they don’t want? They were saying that what’s needed is more people with diverse experience ”reading manuscripts” and ”editing” at publishing houses.
Not surprisingly, the exact same debate is going on in science fiction/fantasy (with respect to Black authors particularly). There was one author who made a comment that stuck with me (wish I could find that post now): they said that publishers only bought their writings when they imitated familiar models of storytelling (which had been established by white writers, of course). And another author commented that they’d had a publisher tell them their plot idea was unbelievable; in truth, it was based on something that actually happened in Nigeria. Various authors were saying that it’s not enough to publish black authors. They can imitate white authors if they want to. But what if they don’t want? They were saying that what’s needed is more people with diverse experience ”reading manuscripts” and ”editing” at publishing houses.
@Laura Jardine (and anyone else who might want to self-publish but is facing barriers) – if there’s anything I can do to help you, please drop me a line. I self-publish my books and I’m not raking in dollars, but I don’t suck at it, either. I do some web design/publishing consulting and am a lawyer by trade, so can also give you some info about legal stuff if you need. (I’m Canadian, but know a fair bit of general info about American copyright, etc.).
I spent a lot of time reflecting on whether to publish my own work or to continue the merry-go-round of queries, synposes, and rejections. I opted for self publishing.
One of the things I considered was editors. What do they do? In traditional publishing they try to force a square peg into the round hole of the line they are acquiring for.
A friend of mine who was published was very pleased that his book was published one word different from the manuscript he had sent.
Personally I had an editor send back my manuscript with hints on how to improve the beginning. I had seen the 1940s movie for which that was the opening scene. That wasn’t my book.
I read a lot of inexpensive ebooks. The budget is whatever the budget is. I glance through the acknowledgements now just to see if the editor or editors are mentioned. Most of the time I want to email the author and say if you paid this editor, get your money back.
As for covers, Take a hardback book, remove the jacket, or peek behind the book cover the library has attached. What do you see? Probably a solid color cover. Look at a paperback, particularly the ones that you have to scratch your head and think, now why was that cover picked. (for example Hilary’s US cover on her last book, or the Twilight series or the Fifty Shades)
Ask yourself, do I want a footlocker or trunk full of raggedy manuscript or do I want something I can read on my phone?
Pick something that you have completed. Shorter is probably better than long, but there is no word limit on ebooks. Read the FAQ pages on Amazon, Draft2digital, or Smashwords. Publish your work.
What if I fail? What if you don’t fail?
I do all the work to publish my books.
@cleo, I do the same thing. Untracked, I clocked in at about 20% POC authors. The past two years I’ve made an effort to pay attention to what and who I read (and track it!) and have clocked in at around 40% POC authors, and look to be on track for that % again in 2017.
I’m a black author who writes interracial romance (BWWM). What many don’t seem to realize is the majority of black writers self-publish or publish with indie black presses. Most do not even approach mainstream pubs for various reasons. So while surveying the mainstream pubs can give a bit of an idea of the divide, it is important that people understand that most black authors turn to other options. The black authors that go out for mainstream pubs are a small group so it does skew things and might look like there is a huge gap but the thing is HOW blacks and POC authors publish and not where. There are many black e-presses and small traditional presses that publish black romance, interracial, etc. If POC authors relied on mainstream presses we’d never be published. That’s just the truth and it doesn’t mean we aren’t as good as anyone else. That’s just how it’s always been. In romance, somewhere along the line it became a negative to have a black heroine in a romance novel because often readers claimed they can’t relate to her yet they can relate to demons and angels in paranormal romance. Yet not a black chick? Yeah, well. That’s the main reason for the divide. People not wanting to read romances based on a heroine that is POC so of course pubs won’t want the books. Then when some take POC work, they don’t know how to reach our audiences. They try to pitch our books to a mainstream audience but that’s not how things work when the majority of POC books are read by POC readers. You can’t market POC books the same way as you would mainstream.
I wanted to chime in because I don’t want people thinking minorities aren’t out here publishing stories and reaching readers because we are. In a perfect world, there would be more options in mainstream but the world isn’t perfect. Thank goodness for self-publishing though. We have learned to publish by creating our own means but we are out here writing and publishing as much as anyone else just not with as much attention. *smiles*
I applaud a bookseller for doing this poll. If a book publisher had done it, I would have passed it right on by. Still, this chestnut is a two=part issue. The inclusion of non-White characters in romance plots is NOT the problem. White authors have been doing it since forever. The cold, hard fact is they get PRAISED for doing it. No matter how badly they do it. They get NOTICED. So, the inclusion of non-White characters in romance books is old hat. What is still not old hat though, is MORE non-White authors getting contracts at major publishing houses to present their characters. That’s the problem. Unless, and until this changes for the better, readers will continue to get non-White characters that are perpetually viewed through a White writer’s lens. Non-White characters, like non-White people, move differently through the world, see events differently. Why is that shocking? Or off-putting? We all are human but let’s face it. We are All viewed differently as we walk in this world. Why can’t non-White authors get contracted on that strength? The strength that Keisha-in-love does not experience the world the same way as Callie-in-love, and that a non-White writer just might be able to showcase that difference BETTER. Why is that truth scary? Allowing other writers to add their voices is real diversity, not having White writers write EVERYBODY’S story all the time. All I can say is “Thank God” for self-publishing.
“Allowing other writers to add their voices is real diversity, not having White writers write EVERYBODY’S story all the time.”
praise jesus!
@P.J. Dean
This is exactly why I feel the words du jour to discuss this topic have been rendered meaningless.
Take inclusion for example. It’s taken as including traditionally marginalized voices in the industry. However, the steps taken towards achieving inclusiveness continue to maintain the balance of power held by mainstream institutions like reviewers, book blogs, high profile tweeters, A-list authors, writers organizations, writer’s conferences, etc.
As Stacy said above–AA romance and IRR writers have long since forged their own communities in response to the industry and readership ignoring them. Inclusiveness IMO means reaching out to them, not picking up a book to review every now and then, or RTing some promo into mainstream Romancelandia.
That to me creates this pattern of “exceptionalism” and “representation,” where the few AOC tossed into the mainstream bear the double burden of being considered ~exceptional~ enough for the mainstream romance community to lift up and setting up an expectation that the book has to be A+++ or it conforms to the biases held about books written by POC with POC characters.
It’s not so much about having a seat at the table, but the mainstream community getting up from their tables to sit with AOC. Or, if AOC so choose, the freedom to have a table of our own in the room.
[…] Smart Bitches, Trashy Books presents the Ripped Bodice‘s amazing survey of diversity in the romance publishing industry, here. […]