I think my list of black-authored MG/YA novels published in the US is pretty complete—thanks to Edi and everyone on Facebook for helping me develop the 2012 list. We came up with 53 titles altogether, but 3 were reprints so that leaves us with 50 new middle grade and young adult titles. Of those 50 books, 11 were published by Saddleback Educational Publishing; the Juicy Central and Lockwood Lions series feature “hi-lo” content for teens reading below grade level. The two major romance publishers—Harlequin and Kensington—are next in line: Kensington’s K-Teen Dafina imprint published 10 black-authored titles in 2012 and Harlequin’s Kimani-Tru imprint published 3. That means THREE publishers are responsible for almost HALF (24) of the black-authored novels published for young readers this year. Scholastic and Aladdin both published 3 titles and Amistad published 2. The rest of the titles are “loners”—they represent the only black-authored MG/YA novel published by Wendy A. Lamb Books, Chronicle, Carolrhoda, Nancy Paulsen Books, HarperTeen, HarperCollins, Little, Brown, St. Martin’s Griffin, Darby Creek Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books, Henry Holt, Knopf, Simon & Schuster, Urban Books, Turner, Harper & Wells, and my own publisher AmazonEncore. I’ll leave it to someone else to figure out which imprints belong to the “big 5.” It would also be interesting to figure out how many first-time authors are published each year—are publishers even looking for new talent or are they happy to just wait for their “regulars” to produce a new novel? Any way you slice it, it’s not good. There are 13 million African Americans in the US and our kids have fewer than 50 novels to choose from each year…and how many do you think have LGBT content? (3, I think)
We need greater transparency in the publishing industry, which is why I compile these lists. We’re working on a new initiative so stay tuned…
I’m working on my list of books about American Indians/First Nations by Native writers. My list will include picture books.
That’s great, Debbie–please do share when it’s ready.
I’ll take on the identification of “Big 5” publishers, though technically, Penguin and Random House won’t officially merge until next fall at the earliest. Amistad is a HarperCollins imprint. Aladdin is a Simon & Schuster imprint along with Margaret McElderry Books. Knopf and Wendy Lamb Books are both Random House imprints. Nancy Paulsen Books is a Penguin imprint. St. Martin’s Griffin and Henry Holt are Macmillan imprints. Little Brown is the only Hachette imprint you’ve listed. In terms of more specialized and smaller publishers, Carolrhoda and Darby Creek are both Lerner imprints. Chronicle Books, Urban Books, Turner, and Amazon Encore aren’t related to anyone else. Hope this helps!
Thanks, Lyn! I think it actually looks worse when we combine the various imprints…
Thank you so much for compiling the list and analyzing it. I always knew the under-representation of African-Americans in kid lit was bad but it’s the numbers that drove home for me how dire it is. Now I have to go buy some of these books, or at the very least get some out of the library.
Hi, Nora! Thanks for NOT being in denial. People are so desperate to believe that things are getting better but in many ways, they’re not…we’ve got a lot more work to do.
[…] authors and illustrators, or is it merely upholding the status quo by feeding a few big fish in a very small pond? Publishers no doubt realize the committee’s seeming preference for books about Dr. King and […]
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