Letter Issue 6,114
On the cover Tayari Jones
photographed by Tyson Horne
Will Black authors ultimately receive the long-term support they need? Natasha Onwuemezi
Associate editor, The Bookseller okseller E
This week’s number ones
PRINT E-BOOK AUDIO Average selling price Year/Year rise £9.56 2.2%
Black Publishing Focus State of Play
Peepal Tree Press Q&A: Tayari Jones Q&A: Foday Mannah
28-29 30-31 32 33
ach year, the Black publishing issue offers a critical pause: a moment to reflect,not only on the books, voices and visions shaping Black British publishing today, but also on the
wider systems in which they are trying to thrive. It is an issue produced with care, but also with urgency – because the stories shared here are not new. What is new is the increasing clarity with which they are being told, the precision with which patterns are being named, and the deepening call for change that will not settle for surface-level progress. In many of the conversations we have had
this year – with debut and established authors, publishers, editors and DEI leads – a shared thread has emerged: exhaustion with short- termism. As author and publisher Jasmine Richards puts it: “We are always the new voices. Give me established franchises. Give me a deep
Contents In this week’s magazine p40
backlist and a long tail.” That desire, to build enduring careers, deep backlists and lifelong readerships, is echoed across these pages. We hear from writers such as Mel Pennant, whose late-in-life debut raises sharp questions about sustainability and support, and from Jacob Ross, associate editor at Peepal Tree Press, who reflects that mainstream publishers often invest in individual books, rather than in developing careers of writers – a pattern with serious impli- cations for the longevity of Black authors. What this issue of The Bookseller makes pain-
fully clear is that the challenges facing Black professionals in publishing are not due to a lack of talent, tenacity or readership. The work is being done: books are being written, audiences reached and networks built. But the infrastruc- ture around that work too often falls short. And yet, time and again, it is Black authors, editors and entrepreneurs who are plugging the gaps, with time, money, mentorship and emotional labour. This year’s preview of forthcoming Black-
In many of the conversations we have had this year, a shared thread has emerged: exhaustion with short-termism
authored books is thrilling in scope and substance. From genre-bending fantasies to urgent political memoirs, from retellings and “untellings” to bold experiments in form, these titles signal not a niche, but a rich and varied canon in motion. And still, the question remains: will they get the support they need to succeed, not just at launch, but long-term? That is the provocation at the heart of this issue. Not simply who gets published, but what happens next. Who gets to fail and be backed again? Who gets to grow? Who gets the benefit of the doubt? Representation has moved beyond the page; it is now about power, positioning and perma- nence. What does it look like to truly invest in Black publishing? To see it not as a one-season cause or crisis response, but as a vital and valu- able pillar of our literary landscape? We continue to see glimpses of what a more equitable, expansive industry could look like – one that does not relegate Black writers and professionals to token roles or one-off debuts, but invests in long-term careers, platforms and creative freedom. This issue is our way of keeping the focus sharp – of refusing to let the conversa- tion fade, and insisting that progress must look different this time.
Books Louis Sachar
Patricia Lockwood Jack Mackay
Paperback Preview
Spotlight: Listings
6-7 8-9
10-11 12-24
Charts Fiction
Non-Fiction Children’s
Audio & Digital Market Spotlight
p10
Jobs in Books
34-39
40 42 43 44 46
48 05
Welcome
AYESHA BROWN
Comment
Leader
27.06.25
Diaspora Noir
Foday Mannah on the power of language to root a story in lived experience
Break barriers
Mireille Harper and other trade figures assess Black publishing in the UK
Kin n
Women’s Prize for Fiction winner
Tayari Jones discusses her process and new novel Kin as part of this year’s
Black Publishing Focus PP28–39
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