Black authors make progress but change remains slow in the publishing industry | Ents & Arts News

Once upon a time, not so long ago, finding books written by black authors could be an ordeal – often hidden in a dusty dark corner, under the section titled “BAME”.

Bookseller Carolyn Bane joked: “You’re like crawling to the back of the big store, down a secret tunnel, through a spider web, going through some sort of initiation to find the black area.

To be able to access black books for herself and her children, Carolyn used to have to pay for books from the US, Canada, Nigeria and Kenya.

She said she knew these books were being sold there, and even attended rallies with her children asking for better access.

She added: “My children grew up and I went to march and they marched with me. Nothing has changed.

“These books are not yet available.

“And the more I looked at it, the more clearly I saw the big difference.

“For example, I’ve never walked into a big bookstore and seen poetry by a black author.”

Out of frustration, Carolyn last year founded Afrori Books, Brighton’s first and only bookstore dedicated to promoting black authors, and organizing anti-racism workshops for children and a “safe space” for honest and frank conversations about the experience of discrimination.

But despite offering the space clearly acclaimed, Carolyn has struggled to get some in the publishing industry to appreciate its value.

“Sometimes, we struggle to get authors to turn down, because their publishers won’t pay their travel expenses,” she said.

“Can you understand that? Like you wouldn’t pay their travel expenses to go to an event where they would sell books.”

However, things are improving and more and more black authors are being published.

Scarlett Brade’s psychological thriller debut, The Hive, is published by Zaffre this summer and she recently went to Afrori Books to promote her work.

But despite her success, Scarlett isn’t surprised that no black author is currently on Amazon’s 50 bestsellers list.

She argues that it has nothing to do with the quality of the work.

“It has so much to do with marketing and promotion, you can write the best story in the world,” says Scarlett.

“But unless it’s seen on a regular basis by a mass of pornographic people, that’s the only way for it to sell.

“I think as black authors we need more visibility.”

However, she realized that something had changed.

“There are more black authors and more people of color working in the publishing industry, which is very important,” she said.

But the important thing is that black authors can tell whatever stories they like, and are not limited to telling stories of black trauma.

Scarlett said that while these books are important and have inspired her along the way, it’s important that The Hive “has nothing to do with racism, it’s not an ongoing topic.” run”, but instead a story that people can relate to.

Ellah Wakatama, editor-in-chief at Canongate, one of the leading independent publishers, has enough titles to complete a book of her own after two decades in the industry.

Her mission now is to bring in about six titles a year, often directly from the authors.

But she added: “What I loved most was the editing of the book.”

Ellah champions black writers, her face lighting up as she describes a project she’s currently working on, a book called Derek Owusu’s Lost Conspiracy.

“Most writers I know have never had a problem creating,” she says.

“All the barriers are not usually in my own industry.”

She said the biggest change she’s seen is volume when it comes to black writers, with more and more of their books hitting shelves.

This is because other black writers have paved the way and proven that readers will choose their books.