We have been hearing for several years about the need for publishers to produce diverse books. Thanks to Lee & Low Books, we have some data to support this request. This article explores what else we can do as publishers beyond getting authentic books into the world to support the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in our industry.

Audit Your Catalog and More

Something you can begin doing right now is auditing your own list of books. What areas do you look for when it comes to diversity? For us at Cardinal Rule Press, we made a list of themes we’d like to touch on, which included social economic differences, differently abled individuals, LGBTQ+ people, and so on. Our goal isn’t to include all these themes into one book but to touch on them all, in authentic ways, across our catalog. We also create our stories so that the theme of the book is not centered around diversity; rather, diversity is naturally a part of the story.

It’s important to examine your current catalog through a DEI lens, but it’s also important to look at your current list of authors and illustrators and consider what your team looks like in terms of representation. Is the group diverse? Hiring people of different backgrounds and experiences helps enrich the work you do.

DEI efforts take time, but without auditing what you are currently working with, you can’t make goals for future change and progress.

Survey Submissions

To get diverse books out into the world, you need submissions. It’s harder than you think to get the word out to various writing communities as a small press.

One way we have handled this is by surveying the writers who submit to us about themselves. Although the survey is optional, it has taught our team so much about who submits to us. For two years in a row, for example, we had a very small percentage of submissions from people who identify as male, and we have a very small percentage of individuals who are from the Indigenous population.

So, what have we done with that data? We look for ways to target these writing populations in our marketing and advertising for our open submissions. We have done this through Facebook Ads, paid ads with writing groups, and guest blogging on influential platforms in that community.

Think Outside the Box

I know I am not an expert in these concepts, but I have been intentional about educating myself and my team. I was part of the IBPA DEI Committee for two years and learned so much from that experience. I think it’s important to note this because just because someone is not an expert doesn’t mean they can’t learn and make progress in this area. Imagine if we all thought we needed to be experts at something to do it and make a difference; we wouldn’t see much change in the world.

Sometimes we need to get ourselves outside of this box or, as many call it, the bubble we are living in. For example, we have been offering author Zoom events for several years to our community. It hadn’t occurred to me to offer an American Sign Language interpreter and have captions on until I started making it a goal of mine to learn more about how publishers are changing their programming in DEI.

Inflation has been a challenge for many of us small publishing presses. We are always trying to figure out ways to improve our DEI reach without going over our budget. We have slowly been translating our books into Spanish over the last two years. The cost is low for us and includes translation, design, and printing fees.

Another way we have thought outside the box is by taking our current picture books and hiring an audiobook description writer and voice actor to develop and perform an audio script that describes the pictures in our books for the visually impaired community. I heard a session by Richard Rieman at the last IBPA Publishing University about the small number of books that are available to those in the visually impaired community.

Last Step

How can you continue this process throughout the year? Many DEI experts suggest a focus group or committee that makes the effort to become educated in areas of DEI and help bring your team on board. This same group will be the team reviewing the surveys and audits from your press to make future decisions.

Something to remember is that procedures and processes are also areas to evaluate and revise. For example, if you put out an ad every year in a certain publication, in the future, you may select another industry-related platform to advertise on that will reach a greater variety of audiences.

These are just a few concepts to spark ideas as you think about how your company can make positive strides in providing books that all people can relate to or feel seen by.

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