Sea Change

I read an article in the NY Times today about changes going on in the publishing industry. In my opinion, these personnel changes are long overdue. For far too long, publishing has been run by the same kinds of people who like the same kinds of books and those books are the ones that get pushed to the public. As someone who's worked in publishing for many years (not trade publishing, but still), I've witnessed this first-hand. And, when you have a homogeneous workforce, you end up with homogeneous books. Another thing you end up with are a group of people who can't see beyond their own circumstances. If these publishing gatekeepers can't imagine a main character who isn't white or who doesn't meet their perception of a person who isn't white, then those books are rejected. Publishing needs to have a diversity of thought as well as race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, life experience, and the list goes on. Different people allow for different perspectives and that's something that is sorely needed in the publishing industry. I hope this sea change (although small) does yield some positive results for authors whose work would have otherwise been dismissed.