Publishing Industry Still Overwhelmingly White

Publisher’s Weekly has released data from its annual survey of the publishing workforce. Despite all the talk about diversity in literature, the publishing workforce remains overwhelmingly white. Of those who responded to PW’s survey, 89% are white, while only 1% are African American. The racial disparity also comes out in the question about whether or not the publishing industry has made strides toward increasing diversity. 21% of white respondents said yes, while only 16% of nonwhite respondents said yes.

Another striking statistic to come out of the survey is the pay disparity between men’s and women’s salaries. While the average male survey respondent earns a salary of $70,000, the average woman earns only $51,000.

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Kelly Lynn Thomas reads, writes, and sometimes sews in Pittsburgh, PA. Her creative work has appeared in Sou’wester, Thin Air Magazine, Heavy Feather Review, metazen, and others, and she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University. She is hopelessly obsessed with Star Wars and can always be found with a large mug of tea. She also runs the very small Wild Age Press. Read more at kellylynnthomas.com.

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The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

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