Alright, everyone. It’s time to get serious.
If you follow us on social media or have read one of our other blogs, you know we like to have a good time. Writing is fun. We love creating stories and sharing them with our fellow authors, building a community to inspire and influence the next generation of writers.
But behind the prose, there is a real issue in the publishing industry. While massive strides have been made towards making the industry more inclusive and reflective of the diverse community of writers, there are still many voices missing in the top roles who decide what books get published, who becomes a bestseller, and who gets to have their story told.
Just take a look at some of the numbers from a survey of the demographic makeup of publishing executives:
74% are cisgender women and 23% cisgender male
81% identify as straight or heterosexual
78% identify as White
These numbers reveal a stark contrast between the people who are writing the stories and the higher-ups who call the shots in the publishing industry. What this means is that a lot of the diverse and unique voices are never given a chance to be in the spotlight. Instead, they are forced to take a back seat and watch as others are given a platform — all because the executives don’t look like them.
But, despite these statistics, the industry is shifting towards a more equitable world. There are people who aren’t willing to settle anymore and are taking the steps to carve out their own section of the publishing industry.
At Nymeria, we hope to be a part of that solution.
Our goal in founding this company was to give a voice to female, non-binary, and other oft-overlooked authors who make this industry more powerful. By doing so, we hope to open our readers’ eyes up to the colorful, innovative, and inviting worlds brought to life by people who may look or live a little differently than they do.
We want to be a part of the conversation about diversity and inclusion, not ignore it, and work towards a better, more inclusive industry — together.
Want to learn more about diversity in the publishing industry? Check out this article from publisher Chris Jackson or this episode from the NPR podcast, Code Switch. And join the conversation by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.