At the heart of the book trade since 1858
Issue 6021
Guest Editor's Letter Reaching further I
Sifting through [upcoming books] was incredible— fantastic stories, new names and older ones, diversity of subject matter
f I was going to sum up the findings in this issue with one word, it would be “disconnect”. The breadth and luminosit of books due to be published in the next 12 months (see Black Authors’ Preview, pp32–41) contrasts with bleak findings in our Lead Story (pp06-07) about such books not finding their way to readers, hinting at a—yes—disconnect between what publishers are buying, and what readers are. While the former may hurry to acquire books by Black writers (and there is still an emphasis on “may”), does that vigour run all the way through the publica- tion process? While industry measures that look at the representation of Black writers tend to focus on the total output, what they don’t tell us is how these titles land, and whether expectations are being matched by marketing and publicit spend. I have curated the preview of Black authors for the past three years. The first time, it was a mammoth task—there were, thrillingly, so many titles. The second year, decidedly fewer. This year, it’s heartening to see the number and qualit of submissions becoming closer to the epic first year. Siſting through them was incredible—fantas- tic stories, new names and older ones, diversit of subject mater and format. I write in this year’s preview that I feel optimistic—there’s fertile ground, there’s a fecundit and there are also spaces and bodies opening up to support writers at all stages of their development. To date, several publish- ers, including Bloomsbury, Hachete,
HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, have collectively pledged £100,000 on a rolling annual basis towards the efforts of one such group, the Black Writers’ Guild.
In our interviews with three Black authors, they discuss collaborating and working with publishing figures to produce works of art: Kelechi Okafor praised the effect editor Sareeta Domingo had in refining her work (pp08–09); Malachi McIntosh had his first “hopeful” editorial conversation with publisher Emma Dai’an Wright, while working on what became his short story collection (pp16–17); and Stacey Thomas won mentorship from writer Clare Mackintosh and HarperCollins’ inaugu- ral Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers to get her début novel, The Revels, over the line (p21).
So the input is looking promising, but the output—how the books are reaching and landing with readers—has some way to go. As Afrori Books founder and British Book Awards Individual Bookseller of the Year Carolyn Bain says (pp24–25), “Black authors don’t get the
same platforms and experiences that their white peers get”. We are in the business of books, so our concern needs to be marryingr ing up all elements of book production and publication with the end target: the reader. We know they want these stories, we are waking up to how tow to find them, now what we need to do is make sure we are geting these storiesstories to them.
tion rget: these
Natasha Onwuemezi @natashaonwuemezi In next week’s magazine New Titles Fiction,
ction, Papernack Preview, Translation Focus Contents26th May 2023 This Week 06
Black women deserve love, tenderness, romance; they deserve to read about themselves— and not always in a traumatic way
Lead story Te Black Issue 2023: Black author bestseller data
TheBookseller.com Books Author Profile 08
week’s number one
This Data The bestseller charts 42
The Lead Story ........ 06 Author Profile: Kelechi Okafor ......... 08 Margaret Busby ....... 10 Author Profile: London Hughes ....... 12 Author Profile: Kereen Getten ........ 14 Opinion: Iggy London .. 15 Author Profile: Malachi McIntosh ...... 16 Black Writers’ Retreats . 18 Q&As ................ 20
Selina Brown ......... 22 Afrori Books .......... 24 Q&A: David Gould ...... 26 Opinion: Elijah Lawal ... 27 Gal-dem .............. 28 Q&A: Charlotte Abrams Simpson .............. 30 Company Profile ....... 31 Black Authors’ Preview . 32
Data
The bestseller charts ... 42 Jobs in Books
Recruitment .......... 48 05
26.05.23 At the heart of the book trade since 1858. £5.95
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