So I came to the realization last week that I was contributing to my own problem (problem being I’m trying to promote and market books by BIPOC authors). How can I promote books by diverse authors if that’s not a majority of what I’m reading? How did I have this epiphany? It wasn’t from looking at my January list of finished books…for some reason. 🤦🏾♀️
The thought occurred to me when I was scrolling through instagram and an author’s highlight reel (Raquel Valldeperas / @rjvalldeperas) mentioned the race demographics of published authors. I mean I knew it was bad from a diversity perspective – but not so dire.
WordsRated has similar stats from Feb. 2023: authors are 50.45% women, average age is 42 years old, 75.58% of authors are white, 7.62% of authors are hispanic/latin, 5.93% of authors are black/african american, 4.93% of authors are asian, 5.94% of authors are other races/ethnicities (they didn’t break down the demographics any further…) and 16% of authors are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Took a hard look at my TBR list after that – and decided I needed to get serious about my bookshop’s mission and stop hopping on the trend train; or rather keep up with the trends, ’cause I can’t give up romantasy books! But instead really engage with romance, fantasy, and personal development books by BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled and neurodivergent authors…no peppering here and there. Overhaul the list and be intentional.
Before I saw these stats my TBR was 98+ long…but after editing the list was 36 titles. Eye opening. Now can I just go full throttle, diverse authors only? I know myself, I can’t – but I think flipping the percentages on their head would be better for me. Because I want to be an authority on diverse literature and offer great recommendations. I need to do this, and what better month, than Black History Month!
So if you follow me on instagram, you already know my February TBR list has more melanin than January did. I’m thinking a 70/30 split for this year will be my TBR list goals – to flip the current published author ratios that I’m supporting. It’s small, but it aligns better with the business mission and my personal values. Working my way fully to diverse and inclusive books only.
my february 2024 tbr list and business moves:
Now that my TBR’s adjusted I’m feeling much better about the game plan. Made creating my editorial schedule for the rest of the year, a lot easier to manage. January was a good month.
- Set up my Caliba membership
- Signed up for advance readers through Edelweiss and Netgalley
- Joined a Basic Booksellers course (starts in March)
- Curated reading lists for my Bookshop.org and Libro.fm bookshop pages
- Became a Kobo affiliate to market e-books, until Bookshop.org starts selling e-books
Now for the business DNF: I’ve put the business plan on the back burner. 2 months of inactivity tells me I’m not ready to finish the business plan yet. So I’m going to revisit it after I finish the bookselling course.
What books by diverse authors are you reading? Let me know in the comments.