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what's lit

Ready to Reshape the Narrative?

I started She Lit in 2016 as a blog sharing my adventures as an aspiring author. At the time, “aspiring” fit the bill. I had been writing (and rewriting) a manuscript for several years, but I had zero idea about how to push it out into the world. (Side note: It was never published. It still needs work 😉)

I was living in Los Angeles, where literary lifestyle events ruled my calendar. I was making an effort to be in the same rooms as best-selling authors, literary agents, book club enthusiasts, bookish celebrities, and other aspiring and emerging writers. Also, by moving to L.A. from Sacramento, I was fully aware of my fortune: the access to these events in a metropolitan area known as a creative capital.

These events were more than entertaining — they birthed wisdom that I knew other writers would be interested in. Because the blog centered on me, I named it She Lit. I was a woman fostering the spark in my potential authorship.

But sharing the wisdom could only go so far. One of the main pieces of advice I received and would give to writers is: read books. Obvious, right? But many writers lose the time to read books when they are knee-deep in a manuscript, screenplay, or any other creative writing project. The time especially disappears when you are juggling a full-time job, parenting, schooling, and other life priorities.

That’s when the advice and experiences shifted to a book blog. But I was competing in a social media sphere where book influencers seemed to be reading a book every day, whereas I spent most of my free time developing my own stories. I read at least three books a month, but it seemed to be no match with BookTok, BookTube, and Bookstagram.

Over the post-pandemic years, I had been querying literary agents about my young adult social justice novel. I had won a competition that I believed would open doors. Before the competition, some literary agents showed interest (during the Black Lives Matter movement) but eventually rejected my story. I kept pushing forward because that’s what you’re supposed to do as a writer, or so I was told.

After querying 100+ literary agents (more than half after my industry win), I decided to pivot to another unfinished manuscript, forgotten on my computer. Thankfully, I was a writer overwhelmed with too many ideas, leaving remnants of stories in myriad files and folders on the computer and on my desk.

Now, I’m querying my upmarket adult fiction novel. Yet I had ignored She Lit to get to this point. I didn’t want to forsake my beloved book blog, but I evolved as an emerging writer. The original intent gnawed at me: I want to share the wisdom I extracted from literary experiences, as well as the wisdom I gained independently about the industry.

I made mistakes, mainly because I was given advice that didn’t jibe with me. We’ve all been there, but the publishing industry is complex enough that the information you receive must be put under a magnifying glass before you act. Being a creative storyteller means you have to be purposely strategic. That’s why I crafted this mission statement:

She Lit is a literary lifestyle brand spotlighting women’s voices in publishing through tailored content and data-driven insights that inspire readers and empower writers.

The She Lit newsletter will still provide insights on publishing, as in its previous iteration, but will focus more on published authors, emerging writers, and aspiring writers. As a longtime journalist, I view trendy stories and buried data as learning models. I plan to share how the latest happenings and statistics will relate to your approach in getting your story published.

Please support the newsletter and the website by subscribing today!

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film reviews

‘American Fiction’ Screenwriter’s Oscars Speech Takes on Creative Risk

Issa Rae stars as Sintara Golden and Nicole Kempskie as Sintara’s moderator in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s AMERICAN FICTION. Photo credit: Courtesy of ORION Pictures Inc.

The screenwriter behind one of the most-nominated book-to-film adaptations this award season said in his Oscars speech that the risk-averse film industry should support so-called risky creative projects by artists of color.

Cord Jefferson won an Academy Award on Sunday for Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction. The sleeper hit is based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel, Erasure, and centers on a Black author who seems to have trouble selling his philosophical novels and instead writes and successfully sells a novel serving every negative stereotype about Black life on a silver platter to the publishing industry. As the Erasure author promotes his new novel James from the perspective of Jim in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the American Fiction screenwriter and director is advocating for more projects by artists of color to be greenlit. 

“It’s a plea to acknowledge and recognize that there are so many people out there who want the opportunity that I was given,” he said. “I understand that this is a risk-averse industry. I get it, but $200 million movies are also a risk, and it doesn’t always work out, but you take the risk anyway.”

In his speech, Cord mentioned he was given the opportunity after others in the industry passed on the project because it was viewed as too risky to pursue. The film features an African American author questioning the type of novel publishers and society expect from him because of his race. Cord mentioned how the film industry is risk-averse, similar to the book publishing world. For Black authors, many literary agents and publishers tell them regularly that their stories starring Black characters and racially tinged storylines are not worth consumption by the national or international audience. 

With the Black Lives Matter movement exploding after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the publishing industry took it upon itself to cater to Black authors. More agents were willing to open their submissions to saying publicly they wanted to support Black authors. More publishers were accepting those authors’ works. Four years later, the excitement of the attempt to balance the playing field is gone. The authors and the books that were greenlit during that time are now trickling down to bookshelves.

American Fiction stars Jeffrey Wright as a Black author and literature professor named Thelonius “Monk” Ellison looking for a publishing home for his newest novel based on a European tragedy. His agent, played by John Ortiz, keeps telling Monk that publishers didn’t get his book. They wanted something more “Black,” which Monk can’t figure out why that is expected of him. By the way, what is more “Black?” He sees the rise in We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, a new novel sweeping America by Sintara Golden, played by actress and authoress Issa Rae. Sintara’s book makes Monk’s skin crawl with the flagrant stereotypes of living in the ’hood.

So, one night in his study, Monk writes his own novel flagrant with stereotypes. He goes further to title the book, My Pafology, as opposed to My Pathology, under a pseudonym and an assumed identity as a convict. When a publisher wants the novel, Monk can’t believe the book sold so quickly. He decides to go even further with the ridiculousness and change the title to Fuck. The F-word is the main word the industry warns writers to not use in a title to make a book marketable to the masses, but the publisher says it will use that title. Monk is stumped by the events that have made him a star in disguise and tries to hide his identity amid the firestorm the book brings. 

Black authors have long dealt with the expectations of applying stereotypes to their stories to make those stories more digestible to the American public. But the power of readers is diminished when authors are being told by the gatekeepers that their stories don’t matter because those books most likely will not sell, especially with main characters of color and racial plotlines. 

In unofficial field studies, while networking with other writers over the years, I hear constantly how writers of color, particularly Black writers, in many cases cannot get an agent because they have been told by agents numerous times that readers are not looking for their stories. Therefore, their stories aren’t worth being published.

White writers, again from my networking experience, seem to be rarely told their stories aren’t sellable. Their work is also seen as more flexible with developmental editing, therefore they are more likely to get advice on how to improve their stories before they are told that their stories won’t be profitable. If they choose the traditional publishing route, then they are more likely to sign contracts with their agents of choice and eventually land a publisher.

To take matters into their own hands, many Black authors self-publish their books as entrepreneurs. That means they have to work extremely hard to make their stories visible to book buyers. Self-published authors usually pay out of pocket for their physical copies to be published and hope to earn a decent percentage of the sales. 

American Fiction’s Oscar win places attention on the need to bring forth more creative projects produced by Black artists that have been rejected over concerns about the return on investment. Every creative project is risky, as Cord said, but it may be more worthwhile to take the risk and make sure the book, for example, gets into the the right hands. A book’s success depends on a good public relations strategy. So, the assumption a story won’t sell is, by industry standards, premature since all manuscripts carry financial risk. 

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Black Characters in Children’s Literature Are Disappearing as Schools Limit History Courses

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Searching for books by Black female authors this month? Take a look at authors we’ve featured

Black characters in children’s literature are disappearing as schools limit history courses

In mid-January, two weeks before Black History Month, the Florida Department of Education rejected the new A.P. African American Studies course. The state agency claimed the content “significantly lacks educational value.” Earlier this month, the College Board announced it revised the Advanced Placement course, making parts of the curriculum optional like those that touch on intersectionality and contemporary issues.

How the precollegiate course was trimmed down over complaints of alleged untruths became part of the bigger conversation: Black children being impacted by the removal of instructional materials that show people who look like them.

More books focused on accurate U.S. history and featuring Black characters are being banned nearly every day across the country. The stakes are higher, with the rise in legislation such as Florida’s Stop WOKE Act and bills to ban books with “sexually explicit” content. These efforts impact all children, but Black children are seeing a higher impact with not being able to see themselves in books that have been on shelves for years and generations because a parent filed a complaint about revisionist history and inappropriate references.

There was a 306% increase in Black main characters on the front book covers of children’s best-sellers between 2012 and 2020. But by 2021, a year after the Black Lives Matter movement was spurred by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Black characters had been disappearing, with a 23% decline in children’s best-sellers having a Black main character.

This data is from WordsRated, a research data and analytics group. The group also recognized 2020 as the first year that Black characters outnumbered White characters on the front covers of children’s best-sellers. But these are books that had already been approved for publication a year or two earlier.

Yet there was a decline as the attention on the Black Lives Matter movement declined, WordsRated finds. In 2020, at the height of the movement, many literary agents said they would prioritize works queried by Black aspiring authors in the name of social justice. It’s not clear if enough of a new crop of traditionally published Black authors have emerged as beneficiaries to these industry promises.

Book bans multiplied by schools cutting Black history curricula means children are not given the full picture. And families may struggle to fill those gaps when parents and guardians work during the day. Some families are going out of their way to buy banned books to make these books featuring Black characters best-sellers. We saw this phenomenon last year with the astronomical sales of Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Baby after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas used it in a presentation in Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings.

Still, the domino effect always comes back to the freedom to read and learn beyond biased interpretations. There is hope we’ll see Black main characters in more books once fresher data is available.

Black History Month is a time to reflect on the contributions of people of African descent in the U.S. More than ever, their creative and artistic contributions are being hidden from children who may not seek the knowledge later in life if they’re not exposed to the information in the first place. Here’s a video from Black Miami Dade that talks about how a group of Black teachers wrote a book to ensure Black history entered and remained in their classrooms.

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What we’re highlighting

HarperCollins and union end monthslong strike

The largest New York unionized book publisher and its union have come to an agreement to end a three-month strike. The union, which represents around 250 members, will head back to the office after the Presidents’ Day weekend. With a major demand being higher pay, employees will soon earn an annual starting pay of $47,500 that will rise to $50,000 by 2025. The strike inspired Hachette and Macmillan to announce similar changes.

Black queer authors score 7-figure book deal

All Boys Aren’t Blue memoirist George M. Johnson and You Should See Me In a Crown novelist Leah Johnson have negotiated an undisclosed book deal with Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers, a Macmillan imprint. The authors, who are not related, will write a romantic series starting with There’s Always Next Year in 2025. The story focuses on two cousins trying to improve their romantic and social lives around New Year’s.

Two women-owned bookstores open doors in LA

Named after science fiction novelist Octavia E. Butler, Octavia’s Bookshelf is the newest Black woman-owned bookstore in the Los Angeles area. Nikki High, the owner and founder, grew up in Altadena and wanted to have a bookstore in nearby Pasadena, Octavia’s hometown. The store will open on Feb. 18, the same day as the much-anticipated Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica. With Manhattan literary socialite Zibby Owens at the helm, the bookstore will have a two-day festival starring authors such as biographer Anna Malaika Tubbs and her husband and former Stockton, California, mayor Michael Tubbs; Dirty Dancing actress Jennifer Grey, Younger creator Pamela Redmon, and Luckiest Girl Alive writer Jessica Knoll.

Also what’s lit…

Viola Davis reached EGOT status when she won a Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album category for the audiobook narration of her memoir Finding Me.

Hillman Grad Books unveiled its forthcoming titles in partnership with Zando Projects.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Garcelle Beauvais reveals production on the book-to-TV adaptation of The Other Black Girl has wrapped.

Actress-activist Kerry Washington plans to share her ups and downs in Hollywood in her upcoming memoir Thicker Than Water.

The first Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay Abasolo, unboxed copies of her second book, a romance novel.

The Afro-Minimalist’s Guide to Living With Less author Christine Platt will have a new kidlit chapter series centered on a Black girl journalist.

What we’re reviewing

‘Wildblood’ Writer Lauren Blackwood Brings Magic to the Jamaican Jungle in Historical Fantasy Novel

How the Introverted Black Writer Girl Became Visible in ‘Poetic Justice’

How Lisa Turtle Was ‘Slighted’ As a Black Teen Girl TV Character

Free Black Women’s Library Los Angeles Holds Launch Party in Slauson Community

Well-Read Black Girl Founder Glory Edim On ‘Cultivating Joy’ In Her Growing Book Club

What we’re watching

Not Dead Yet is a new ABC half-hour comedy on Wednesdays (Thursdays on Hulu) starring Gina Rodriguez as a down-on-her-luck journalist who sees dead people while writing obituaries for her local newspaper. It’s loosely based on the British novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter.

What the plans are

PEN America and the NYC Literary Action Coalition is hosting the Literary Activism Summit on Feb. 25 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

The Savannah Book Festival in Georgia will take place on Feb. 16-19 featuring authors like Nina LaCour, Katie Gutierrez, and Gayle Jessup White.

Noname Book Club will end the month with its book club picks hosting several meetings across the country from Feb. 22-28.

Where the opportunities are

Feminist Press is looking for an executive and program assistant who can help with the administrative needs of the mission-driven feminist publishing company.

The Hurston/Wright Foundation welcomes submissions in literary nonfiction for its Crossover Award honoring unpublished Black writers.

Liveright Publishing, a W.W. Norton & Company imprint working with authors Glory Edim, Mahogany Browne, and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, needs a publicity manager with knowledge of promoting nonfiction and literary fiction works.

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Write us at shewrites@shelit.com.

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she lit newsletter

Investing in the Success of Black Authors

SHE LIT: Investing in the Success of Black Authors💰

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Searching for books by Black female authors this month? Take a look at authors we’ve featured

Black woman writing on a pad in front of a computer.

Lower financial investment remains a hurdle in publishing industry’s diversity pledges

We are in our third Black History Month since June 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement ignited over the murder of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis by a police officer. The publishing industry responded, like many other industries, by examining the statistics of their employees as well as the contributors including the authors, illustrators, and translators.

Three years ago, publishers hired nearly 75% White employees and represented 75% White authors. Those numbers are still about the same because of money.

The percentage of White employees hasn’t changed much since publishers have revealed their diversity statistics, according to PEN America, the nonprofit dedicated to speech freedom. Its latest report finds Penguin Random House’s employees are 74% White, Macmillan’s 70.5% White, and Hachette’s 64.6% White. They lead the Big Five alongside Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.

The nonprofit ultimately blames the historical practice of having an overwhelming White employment and how it correlates to an overwhelming amount of White authors being signed to publishing contracts. Though more Black authors are getting publishing contracts since 2020, the cracks in shattering this glass ceiling are not yet visible.

Shortly after the Black Lives Matter movement boomed in 2020, young adult author L.L. McKinney started the #PublishingPaidMe campaign that set Twitter on fire. She asked White authors to share the advances. Some Black authors shared their advances. The discrepancy in thousands of dollars surprised readers. The White authors made tons more money, even hundreds of thousands of dollars more, when Black authors who seemed as well-known as them barely received a fraction of their advances.

In the report that was released last fall, Black publishing employees and executives expressed their concerns of obtaining titles by Black authors and being pigeonholed into a marketing ploy to sell “Black books.” And sometimes those Black authors are expected to just produce books about race and ethnicity when they may have ideas outside of those subjects.

“Such typecasting is not only presumptuous but also creatively limiting,” the report reads. “What if, say, a Black editor wants to work on books about cats, or cars, or science, or electoral politics? Or a Hispanic publicist wants to promote a book about classical music?”

That means a Black author’s earning potential could be diminished over the expectation of what a publisher thinks they should write compared to what they want to write. After all, the publisher has the power to reject a project on any basis it chooses.

Every book needs money to make money. The marketing and publicity budgets are calculated based on the viability of a book’s shelf life upon release. The books that have more promise receive more money, and most of the time that means books by celebrities. They are considered an automatic cash cow, especially when they have thousands and millions of social media followers expected to buy the books.

Now that the celebrity has built-in power to sell a book, the publisher invests more to make sure even more money could be made. So, the average author at an imprint may not receive what they need for proper marketing and publicity when competing with celebrity authors. And if that author is Black, then they may be shortchanged the most.

Advances, which are payments to signed authors in advance of their books being published, are tied to the marketing and publicity budgets. An advance is paid against future royalties. That means for every dollar an author receives in an advance, they must earn a dollar from book sales before they receive any additional royalties. Black authors could take longer to earn out their advances. If it takes too long, then their chances of being published again could be impacted.

“A budget is a moral document… When we talk about diversity, we need to understand what that means financially and in terms of decision-making power,” says Elizabeth Méndez Berry, vice president and executive editor at One World, in the report.

In the last year, we saw a cyberattack cripple Macmillan’s ability to sell books and a still-unresolved union strike rock HarperCollins. The authors who didn’t have the best resources in place are suffering the most with these unfortunate events in publishing. HarperCollins’ union is striking over alleged failure by the publisher to pay cost-of-living salaries and focus on diversity and inclusion. They are fighting for investment in their talents as well as in the talents of authors of color and LGBTQIA+ authors.

This Black History Month we must examine and appreciate Black literature but also think about the literature we’re missing because the publishing industry is early in the process of dismantling its historical structure to mainly uplift and invest in the literary talents of White people.

shelit.com blogger Kibby Araya.
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What we’re highlighting

Penguin Random House U.S. CEO steps down

After the failed attempt to acquire competitor Simon & Schuster for $2 billion last year, Madeline McIntosh plans to leave her position as the U.S. chief executive of Penguin Random House. She served in the position at the largest U.S. publisher since 2018. A departure date was not shared.

Her former boss and global Penguin Random House CEO, Markus Dohle, left the publisher in December. Nihar Malaviya has since assumed the position of interim global CEO.

HarperCollins announces layoffs amid union strike

The largest unionized book publisher will lay off 5% of its staff in North America by June, according to HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray. Some workers were laid off this week as well as last fall. Since November, the HarperCollins Union has been on strike, taking to social media and to the streets of New York to protest mostly low wages.

The publisher started mediation with the union this week after the announcement of the rolling layoffs.

Phenomenal Media partners with Hachette to diversify books

A year after launching its book club, Phenomenal Media recently announced its partnership with Hachette Book Group to create Phenomenal Media Books. The partnership will contribute to the development and acquisition of literary works written by underrepresented authors in the nonfiction and fiction genres.

The media company that started as a political and cultural merch brand by Meena Harris, the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris, will have its book division publish works across Hachette imprints Grand Central Publishing and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

“We were thrilled to see the positive reaction to our launch of Phenomenal Book Club — clearly people are looking for more stories from authors who, too often, do not receive the spotlight from the publishing industry,” said Meena, Phenomenal’s founder and CEO. “Phenomenal Media Books will provide new avenues for discovering those authors and positioning their works for success.”

New York town seeks to be a literary destination spot

Hobart, New York has eight indie bookstores on its Main Street and hosts several book festivals a year, according to a story by The New York Times. One of those bookstores is unstaffed and depends on the honor system for cash from customers. With a population of 400, the town in the Catskills of upstate New York has been known as Hobart Book Village since 2005. Beside book festivals, the town also holds semiannual book sale events each year, making it a place perfect for literary tourists.

February book club selections illuminate Black stories

What we’re reviewing

Brandy and Maya Angelou in Moesha.

When Maya Angelou Shared Her Wisdom on Moesha

The Vanishing Act by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half Dominates the Charts Amid #BlackStoriesMatter Movement

What we’re watching

The 1619 Project on Hulu

The 1619 Project on Hulu

The award-winning literary journalism project brought to us by Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times is a must-see docuseries on Hulu. The 1619 Project has six episodes with four streaming available now. Oprah Winfrey also serves as an executive producer.

Want your book and bookish news to be featured? Write us at shewrites@shelit.com.

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Authors Argue B&N’s Stocking Policy Hurts Sales

SHE LIT: Authors Argue B&N’s Stocking Policy Hurts Sales 💸

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Bulk of middle grade, YA fiction must prove profitability for placement at bookstores

Authors are fighting back against a Barnes & Noble stocking policy that they say hurts the sales of debut novels by people of color.

Middle grade author Kelly Yang shared a viral video of her daughter in a Barnes & Noble bookstore reacting to how her new novel Key Player in her Front Desk series was not going to be stocked at stores with other books in the same genre.

The rest of the video shows Kelly tearfully explaining that Barnes & Noble plans to stock only the top two books per publisher per season. She said her publisher told her that Barnes & Noble had decided to not stock the fourth book in her series, and many others in the middle grade and young adult genres, until the first editions sell successfully elsewhere.

Other authors and supporters replied to Kelly’s video to share their concern over the stocking policy they perceive as discriminatory.

The middle grade and YA genres are getting flooded with books by marginalized authors representing groups that have been grossly underrepresented in the literary industry.

In many cases, these authors, like Kelly Yang, have a large social media following that includes other similarly situated authors. So word spreads. If readers are not able to access these authors’ books from a highly visible chain bookstore, then that can spell trouble for overall sales.

Barnes & Noble boasts itself as the No. 1 book retailer in the U.S. and as the “internet’s largest bookstore” on its website.

CEO James Daunt views Barnes & Noble’s three-year-old stocking policy in a different light. “By allowing proper bookselling to take place at the store level, good books will have more space and better presentation, as well as genuine support from the booksellers of each store,” Daunt told NBC News.

“When we just took what was imposed by publishers, approximately 80% of the books were ultimately returned unsold. In effect, the bookstores were filled with books customers had no interest in reading. Now we sell most of what we buy,” he added.

In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Daunt said, “What we are doing—with middle grade and adult, fiction, and nonfiction, alike—is to exercise taste and judgment. This is to buy less but, if it is done with skill, it is to sell more.”

Authors took issue with the CEO’s words with phrases such as “good books will have more space and better presentation,” “books customers had no interest in reading,” and “to exercise taste and judgment” when referencing the wide variety of kids’ books.

Those already operating on smaller marketing budgets will have to prove their books are saleable in order to attain the coveted spot on a Barnes & Noble bookshelf. As for those unsaleable books, I wrote a blog post recently about how these books circulate to dollar stores and contribute to literacy access for consumers who cannot afford new books from Barnes & Noble.

Access is key here. Many consumers don’t think twice about buying a book from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com because these marketplaces are in their neighborhoods or online. Mindful book buyers have to go out of their way to seek books from an indie bookstore, so if these titles by authors of color solely depend on the indie bookstore market, then their sales are sure to plummet, unfortunately.

Even getting on best-sellers lists is at risk, but more importantly, potential readers—we’re talking kids here—don’t have their eyes on these books. That could be the greatest travesty of all for these authors who feel the Barnes & Noble stocking policy punches them in the gut. It’s not all about the money for these authors while Barnes & Noble, one of the only bookstore chains left, is about the money.

she lit editor + chief content creator

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What we’re highlighting

Penguin Random House trial comes to a questioning end

Oral arguments ended this week in the antitrust trial of the moment between the Department of Justice and Penguin Random House in its bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster.

The federal government wants to prevent the potential Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster behemoth from dominating the book industry and putting authors at financial risk. The two publishers and Simon & Schuster’s parent company ViacomCBS, which put the Big Five publisher up for sale in 2020, vowed they would put authors first, but when it comes to book sales, that all depends on consumers (and bookstores).

The trial seemed to focus on authors who made six-figure advances and higher, according to media reports, such as Stephen King. As we wait for the verdict this fall, whatever the outcome, it will shake the industry to its core.

If Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster are allowed to go ahead with their merger, the Big Five of the top five publishers, which also include Macmillan, Hachette, and HarperCollins, may go down to the Big Four. The impact on employees, authors, and literary agents will remain to be seen if the merger goes through.

Taylor Jenkins Reid accused of racial insensitivity with new book

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo novelist Taylor Jenkins Reid is getting criticism for being a White author and featuring yet another Latina main character in her new novel. In Carrie Soto Is Back, the title character is Latina and looking for a comeback in professional tennis, which means competing against an Asian player who is experiencing racism.

Fellow book blogs like Bowties and Books and Tomes & Textiles, which are headed by bloggers who identify as Latine, say this is the second indiscretion from the author. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo also had its title character identify as Latina, though she was passing for White and straight for Hollywood success.

As we enter US Open season with all eyes on Serena Williams, Carrie Soto Is Back has conveniently received marketing dollars with pop-ups that started at Wimbledon in July. The bloggers argue this is an example of letting a White author tell stories about characters of color without investing in authors of color at the same level.

Brit Bennett manifests American Girl book deal

The best-selling author of The Vanishing Half shared a tweet from 2016 saying she wished she could strike a deal with American Girl. That dream now came true as Brit Bennett’s book Meet Claudie: An American Girl is a reality via an audiobook out this week.

A new American Girl character, Claudie is a Black girl living among creatives in 1920s Harlem. When her family gets an eviction notice for their boardinghouse, Claudie hatches a plan to save the day that incorporates her own creativity.

Robinne Lee’s ‘Idea of You’ book-to-film casts leading role

Anne Hathaway will star in the Amazon Prime Video film adaptation of actress Robinne Lee’s romance novel The Idea of You. Centered on a 40-something French American divorcée who falls in love with her daughter’s favorite boy bander, the 2017 novel will also be produced by Robinne, Anne, and Gabrielle Union, known for her book-to-screen works as well as her best-selling essay collections.

What we’re reviewing

"I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jennette McCurdy

Book Review: Acne by Laura Chinn

What we’re reading

💞August is National Romance Awareness Month. Here’s some novels to curl up with💞

What we’re watching

Apply for bookish job

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Simon & Schuster Loses Publisher to Book Deal 

<![CDATA[SHE LIT: Simon & Schuster Loses Publisher to Book Deal 📚]]> SHE LIT: Simon & Schuster Loses Publisher to Book Deal 📚

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📚 Join the #shelitbookclub on July 31 as we discuss the novel Red Clocks by Leni Zumas amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Details can be found here.

Film poster for "Where the Crawdads Sing"

The most high-profile Black woman in publishing leaves post to write second book

Simon & Schuster announced this week that its senior vice president and publisher Dana Canedy is leaving the position she’s held for two years.

After her 2008 memoir was turned into a film last year, she says she plans to write a follow-up. But with her hiring coinciding with the racial unrest of 2020 and coming into question in last year’s controversy over the acquisition of former vice president Mike Pence’s memoir, Dana’s departure still feels like a blow to diversity and inclusion in book publishing.

Directed by screen legend Denzel Washington, A Journal for Jordan opened in theaters Christmas Day 2021 starring Michael B. Jordan playing the late U.S. Army First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, Dana’s fiancé who died in 2006 in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Their son, Jordan, was only six months old. Dana’s narration of their relationship and their decision to have a family along with letters from father to son is reflected in A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor published by Penguin Random House’s imprint Crown Publishing Group.

Though Dana hasn’t tweeted much since President Joe Biden’s inauguration, there are a flurry of tweets supporting the film that grossed close to $6.6 million in global box office sales and received bad press for its low performance during a high-volume holiday weekend. The positive feedback contributed to her decision to leave her lofty publishing position to write a follow-up book expected to be released in 2024 under Simon & Schuster.

Dana’s short-lived stint at the top of a major publishing house also came with criticism. When news broke that Simon & Schuster will publish Mike Pence’s memoir, outsiders as well as insiders attacked the move, pushing that Trump administration officials should not have their books published especially when the Jan. 6 insurrection and claims of illegal actions from the onetime administration were still coming to light.

Simon & Schuster at the time, like most publishers, have been trying to add more BIPOC, short for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and LGBTQ+ authors to their rosters. Hence Dana’s appointment. More than 200 members of Simon & Schuster staff members signed a petition calling for the publisher to cancel the seven-figure book deal with the former vice president, The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2021.

“What I don’t want to do is what the industry does. It has to diversify. We need much more range. Through the people I’m hiring and the books we’re acquiring, I’m already trying to do that,” Canedy told the audience at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. last October. “I didn’t make the decisions for the wow factor. I’m not the Black publisher, I’m the publisher.”

A Pulitzer Prize winner, Dana worked in several positions at The New York Times over a 20-year span and eventually served as the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. She has a deep-seated journalistic mindset, so nabbing Pence’s book would not only be a potential goldmine for the publisher but also would let readers know the selection was unprejudiced.

On the other hand, like readers and staffers who protested against Pence’s book deal, the move looked like it went against diversity and inclusion efforts since most voters who identify as BIPOC or LGBTQ+ didn’t vote for Trump or agree with some of the administration’s most controversial actions. But the publisher sees the book as still supporting diversity of thought.

Jonathan Karp, who held the publisher position prior to Dana’s appointment, will reassume the title in the interim. He says in the memo announcing the job change that Dana will still consult on Pence’s memoir and books by Eugene Robinson, a Black columnist for The Washington Post, and Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a Black historian.

The question remains if Simon & Schuster will hire another person on the diversity spectrum who can boost diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and in the book market. Also, if the next permanent publisher identifies as “diverse,” then they may also have to deal with the decision and the criticism over acquiring a blockbuster book from a prominent White figure.

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What Files You Need at Your Fingertips While Querying

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Michelle Obama helps us navigate change in new book

Still profiting from the success of Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama announced Thursday that she has a second book coming out in November. The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times will offer reflections about how to change amid changing times. The book will be published by Crown.

HarperCollins union raises $40,000 for strike workers

The strike the publishing industry had its eye on happened Wednesday as HarperCollins Publishers’ union closed its online fundraiser after it received $40,000 from supporters.

The only union at a major U.S. publisher tweeted that the 200+ strikers will receive $200 each as a payment of “hardship money.” The union, which boasts 250+ members, marched the streets of Manhattan demanding a fair contract.

Earlier this month, the union scheduled the strike after it accused HarperCollins of failing to reach a contract promising to pay a predominantly female workforce a livable wage for New York City standards and to put into diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in practice.

Actress Freida Pinto plans to adapt Huma Abedin’s memoir

Both/And by longtime Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin will get the book-to-screen treatment. Frieda Pinto, who is currently starring in the book-to-film Mr. Malcolm’s List based on Suzanne Allain’s 2009 novel, was confirmed by multiple reports to be adapting the memoir for a TV miniseries via her production company Freebird Films. The book was released late last year.

Huma made headlines this week also for being rumored to be dating actor Bradley Cooper. Frieda first gained fame in her breakout performance in 2008’s Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire that was loosely based on a novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup.

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"Shine Bright" by Danyel Smith book cover

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Henry Louis Gates, Oxford Working to Publish African American Dictionary

Proud Boys Crashed Drag Queen Story Hour at a Local Library. It Was Part of a Wider Movement

Texas Youth Read Banned Books at Summer Camp

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What Files You Need at Your Fingertips While Querying

The art of querying is hard to define. The exhausting process of emailing multiple agents asking for representation for your book in order to become a traditionally published author means you have to be a queen of preparation. With many literary agents and their agencies asking for various documents to support your plea, there is a way to make sure you have everything at your fingertips to make the process a bit easier.

Query

The letter that’s usually around 400 words and fills one double-spaced page is the main component of the process since it tells the literary agent what your book is about. The secret is to describe your book in the way you would want to see it on a dust jacket: What would pull in the reader cruising bookshelves? That’s the mindset for the quintessential query letter. Successful examples can be found on The Writer’s Digest.

Synopsis

The synopsis describes the story in a longer format up to three double-spaced pages.

Brief synopsis

The brief synopsis can be a page-long or 500 words. Sometimes, literary agents ask for this version instead of the full synopsis.

First 10 pages

The first 10 pages paired with the query is the most common materials agents ask for. Both need to do the job to attract the agent also known as the most important reader who can connect you with a publisher. Because these pages have to do some heavy lifting, it’s good to start with action full of tension to magnetize the agent to the point where they ask for materials. And what exactly is action varies from genre to genre, such as a literary fiction piece may not have an eye-popping event happening in the first 10 pages, but the tension is already building up at the very start.

First three chapters

The first three chapters can be requested by an agent in lieu of the first 10 pages. It’s good to have these pages ready in a separate file. Most agents expect the first three chapters to be around 50 pages. This can be categorized under partial manuscript request if the agent asked for them after receiving the first round of materials, e.g. the query letter and first 10 pages.

First 50 pages

The first 50 pages is another alternative amount of pages agents ask for instead of the common 10 pages. They should be ready in a separate file as well. Like the first 10 pages, there needs to be the right dose of action and tension to pull the agent in. With a longer sample, this may give you more room to attract the agent unless they stopped reading at the 10-page mark. This counts as a partial manuscript request upon an agent’s reply.

First five pages

This is one of the rarer requests, but some agents want the first five pages in order to read quickly and go through queries faster. The opening line and pages should deliver a punch up-front to get the agent hooked. For an easy copy-and-paste job, these pages can be in their own document.

Full manuscript

Of course, have your full manuscript ready to go. Certain guidelines on how to put your name and title on the double-spaced document varies with, for example, putting just your last name, title, and page number in the right-hand corner.

Most literary agents want a combination of the above with the query letter being the most important and the first 10 pages being the most common amount of materials to be initially requested. The industry standard has become pasting the materials inside an email to an agent due to the fear of virus-containing attachments. So preparing all the above in separate documents and putting them in a single folder on your desktop will allow you to query and respond to agents faster.

Keeping the font Times New Roman at 12-point in the document will leave that same style in your email when you copy and paste. Sometimes, changing the style within the email may make your writing appear wonky. Indentations may be off, but in the document 0.5 indent in tabs is standard for manuscripts and will help solidify the style in the email as well.

For a full manuscript request, most literary agents want the actual Word document or PDF file to be attached to an email (now they trust you!) or submitted through a portal like the Query Manager that conveniently allows you to see updates to your query.

Even after putting in all that work in researching the agents and submitting the documents they requested, there is still a high likelihood you’ll never hear a response. Sometimes, agents say on their websites and social media accounts that they welcome follow-up emails, and those may never be answered. More agents are straight-up saying if you don’t hear anything from them, then it’s a no.

Authors are usually advised to query 6 to 8 agents at a time, in case one says yes. Then it’s a 6- to 8-week wait for a response, if one gets back to you. Most agents say it’s time to take a look back at your query, first pages, and full manuscript if you haven’t received a response from an agent after 50 queries. But there are well-known authors like The Hate U Give‘s Angie Thomas who said they queried over 100 agents before hearing a yes, so there’s no rule on when to stop and if you should stop querying a book.

The best advice is to send materials like the query letter and full manuscript after it’s gone through multiple edits, either by you, your beta readers, and/or a hired editor. Many aspiring authors don’t go the paid editor route and wait to paired with one through their literary agent and/or publisher in case of different visions clouding (and extending) the work process.

On the other hand, the writers who do hire a professional editor before querying may have a stronger chance to attract an agent. Misspellings and grammar mistakes, incorrect or misleading context, and other issues glaring in the first pages will turn an agent away faster. And you shouldn’t feel pressured to accept edits you feel take away from your work.

Despite the stressful process, making sure all your items are formatted properly and ready to go whenever you want to query an agent is paramount to succeeding in the query game. A no gets you closer to the agent who will say yes.

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In Female-Dominated Publishing Industry, Pay Gaps Persist

SHE LIT: In Female-Dominated Publishing Industry, Pay Gaps Persist

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📚 Join the #shelitbookclub on July 31 as we discuss the novel Red Clocks by Leni Zumas amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Details can be found here.

Photo by Lara Jameson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-riding-a-train-8898911/

HarperCollins employees say diversity and inclusion is not prioritized at publisher

Unionized employees of HarperCollins Publishers voted to strike earlier this week, citing concerns with low pay as a result of the book industry leader not promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion the way it promised.

Returning from the three-day July 4 holiday weekend, the Local 2110 of the UAW union said its 250+ members voted to authorize a strike as it negotiates a “fair contract” with the publisher.

Members include employees in editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal, and marketing departments. They say they want higher pay, better family leave benefits, stronger union protection, and a real commitment to staff diversity and inclusion.

The average female employee at HarperCollins earns an annual $55,000 with a starting salary of $45,000, according to the union’s press release announcing the potential strike. That doesn’t cover the cost of living in New York City, the release notes.

“Our compensation doesn’t reflect our education and skills, or our contributions to the financial success of the company,” said union chairperson Laura Harshberger, a senior production editor in children’s books, in the release.

Not only is the gender pay gap in the spotlight with this news, but so is the racial pay gap with the union saying the lack of racial and ethnic diversity at HarperCollins has contributed to the “historically low wages.” The publisher had “record profits” in 2021, parent company News Corp. mentions in a press release last August.

The union says HarperCollins is the only major book publisher in the U.S. to be unionized. The contract negotiations with HarperCollins management have been ongoing since December 2021.

The publishing industry is about 74% cisgender women and 23% cisgender men, according to a survey released in 2020 by Lee & Low Books, a family-run, minority-owned, independent publisher.

Women may dominate the industry, but men tend to better rise in the ranks with 38% of cisgender men holding executive and board member positions.

For the race and ethnicity breakdown, the industry is 76% White. “The field is overwhelmingly White women,” the survey says.

No date has been set for the strike since negotiations are still not done. Whether they strike or not, the publishing industry as a whole has a long way to go with closing the gender and racial pay gap. If a strike happens, we may see more major publishers dealing with employees wanting to unionize in an effort to not only raise wages but to diversify the industry.

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Macmillan still recovering from cybersecurity attack

Macmillan Publishers is back up and running after a debilitating data breach that slowed down operations for at least a week. The publisher announced it was functional again on July 4. Media reports say the publisher is working through a backlog of orders from booksellers.

Scholastic recalls kid’s book over choking hazard

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of Scholastic’s “Shake Look Touch” books. The books have pom poms attached, and Scholastic received two reports of the pom poms detaching, causing a choking concern for young children. The federal agency says roughly 185,700 books are on the market with an additional 1,500 sold in Canada. Scholastic is offering $10 gift cards to consumers who show a photo of removed pom poms and affirm they will be thrown away. The books are still usable without the pom poms.

Book club picks highlight Black female experience

Reese Witherspoon’s book club and Meena Harris’ book club selected two titles by Black women about Black women. Reese’s Book Club will read Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola this month that features a college radio talk show host who questions her love life after telling listeners to avoid situationships. The Phenomenal Book Club chose Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, a semi-autobiographical debut novel first set in 1990s Harlem focused on a “morbidly obese” girl who moves through life with that diagnosis.

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Both these authors have new books out now. Check out these book reviews on their previous best-sellers!

What we’re reading

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What’s lit around the web

With Rising Book Bans, Librarians Have Come Under Attack

‘There’s Obviously a Market’: Why Are There So Many Children’s Books About Anxiety?

‘Disgusted’: Parents Slammed for Donating Daughter’s Books As Punishment

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Will Great Reflection Usher More People Into The Book Industry?

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June is Pride Month! Join the #shelitbookclub this Sunday at 11 a.m. as we discuss the recently banned young adult novel Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera. More info on joining the conversation can be found here 🏳️‍

Set to a recycled hypnotic beat, Beyoncé’s new single ignites dream job conversation

In a week where rapper Drake dropped a whole album, pop queen Beyoncé made a splash Monday with a single from her upcoming album that is allegedly having people quit their jobs. But “Break My Soul” is emphasizing the path to self-expression, which speaks volumes in a creative field like book publishing.

Only 7% of Americans surveyed were working their dream jobs, according to a report from MoneyPenny that came out last August. The survey also emphasized how that also meant a whopping 93% of employees were not working in their dream jobs.

Last year’s Great Resignation, also being dubbed the Great Reflection, inspired 47 million people to quit their jobs as the demand for better treatment in the workplace became a rallying cry during the Covid-19 pandemic. One in five of those people who resigned say they regretted it, according to a Harris Poll survey for USA Today.

But those unhappy with the transition may have moved too fast, said LinkedIn career expert Catherine Fisher on CBS Mornings in April.

Beyoncé’s newest single, which looks like it will be the sixth track on the Renaissance album out in July, uses voice samples from Big Freedia’s “Explode” and beats from Robin S.’s 1993 hit “Show Me Love.” In “Explode” and in the background of “Break My Soul,” Big Freedia sings, “Release your anger, release your mind / Release your job, release the time / Release your trade, release the stress / Release the love, forget the rest.”

Release your job? Release your trade? Release your stress? Social media lit up with the interpretations that Beyoncé was telling people to quit their jobs. And BuzzFeed News reports that in fact some people went ahead and quit their jobs in part to Beyoncé’s song but mostly due to their longing to release the job, the trade, and the stress.

The average business in the book publishing industry employs more workers than it did five years ago, according to the IBISWorld, though employment growth in the industry is expected to be 0.1% this year.

Employment of writers and authors is projected to grow 9% between 2020 and 2030, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found. There are usually over 15,000 job openings each year, mostly due to people leaving the workforce by choice or by retirement.

With all this data, it may be safe to say we’ll see more book lovers working in publishing houses, literary agencies, and bookstores while many could be rethinking their author and book influencer dreams.

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ACLU files motion to dismiss obscenity claims against books

The American Civil Liberties Union says it filed motions seeking to dismiss obscenity proceedings in Virginia this week against two books on the behalf of local bookstores.

A state law, which the ACLU says hasn’t been used “in decades,” was used by a Virginia resident to claim Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas are obscene and shouldn’t be made available to young readers through Virginia Beach public schools and Barnes & Noble bookstores.

In May, the Virginia Beach Circuit Court ordered the books’ authors and publishers to show cause why their books should not be considered obscene.

OverDrive to aid libraries in providing ‘access for all’

Digital library catalog app OverDrive announced it will unveil tools at the American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition to bring instant access to curated collections of e-books, audiobooks, and magazines to readers who are unable to install the app.

The main tool, Public Access Connect, will reach readers at their locations by using open Wi-Fi and QR codes. These efforts aim to especially help readers in areas with low internet access, seniors, children, and incarcerated individuals.

What we’re reviewing

Still looking for books by LGBTQIA+ authors and/or featuring LGBTQIA+ characters? Here are some reviews of books you may have missed.

What we’re reading

What we’re watching

What’s lit around the web

Inside the Push to Diversify the Book Business

Publishers Discriminate Against Women and Black Authors—But Readers Don’t

If They Want to Be Published, Literary Writers Can’t Be Honest About Money

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