Diversity In Book Publishing Isn’t Just About Writers — Marketing Matters, Too (NPR)

In 2015, Lee & Low Books, an independent publisher of multicultural children’s and young adult literature, launched the first major study of staff diversity in publishing. Over 40 publishers and review journals participated. The findings revealed that across the board, nearly 80 percent of those surveyed who worked in publishing self-identified as white.

Drawn to the abyss: literature’s fascination with homelessness (The Guardian)

So what is the attraction of being down and out? For some, the prospect of real, hard-hitting subject matter has proved irresistible, while for others the route to the streets has been paved with anguish. Historically, those who have deliberately flung themselves downwards, as London might have put it, have tended to come from middle-class backgrounds and been almost exclusively male – a privileged position from which to explore the abyss, before rising again into comfort and security.

Rejected By Publishers, He Became A Literary Agent (Entrepreneur)

Setbacks and discouragement(s) by people are part and parcel of one’s life. But if you still want to attain success in life, then your passion plays a pivotal role in it. And when it comes to publishing, it is all the more difficult for an individual to carve his/her niche and make a name that can be recognized by people. The story of Kanishka Gupta, founder of Writer’s Side faced it all before he became a literary agent. Entrepreneur India interacted with him and peeped into the pages of his success story.

Black science fiction writers face ‘universal’ racism, study finds (The Guardian)

The world of speculative fiction publishing is plagued by “structural, institutional, personal, universal” racism, according to a new report that found less than 2% of more than 2,000 SF stories published last year were by black writers. The report, published by the magazine Fireside Fiction, states that just 38 of the 2,039 stories published in 63 magazines in 2015 were by black writers. With the bulk of the industry based in the US, more than half of all speculative fiction publications the report considered did not publish a single original story by a black author.