Zetta has posted the following information
Out of 3,000 books published in 2010, guess how many were published by Black authors? (this includes books slated to be published till the end of the year)
49
I have no words. Draw your own conclusions. I'm not in the mood to say anything that you've already heard before.
It's grim, Ari, but thanks for spreading the word. I just updated my original post to indicate that I only tabulated novels, and the 3,000 YA titles referred to by the ALA includes poetry, short story collections, and non-fiction titles. But unless there are hundreds of these by black authors, the numbers are still ridiculously low.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? I would have thought for one there were more books in general published, and wow 49. Would love to know other stats as well. Asian, Latin and so forth.
ReplyDeleteO_O As white-happy as publishing tends to be, I still thought that number would have been at least a LITTLE higher. Ugh.
ReplyDeletePam--you can check the CCBC stats for Latino/Asian/American Indian figures:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.asp
49 YA books published by blacks in this whole year?!I would have thought it was much more. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI always knew the number was low but seeing an actual number is very disturbing. I'm going to link this on my blog as well. Knowledge is power!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for continuing to raise awareness!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Jessica Leader mentioned you in her recent New Voice interview on Cynsations: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-voice-jessica-leader-on-nice-and.html
To the stats: BOO, HISS.
ReplyDeleteEdi just sent me a few more titles; we're now up to 58.
ReplyDelete