The new book club has an exteriority about it. In an ever more global world where publishers seek to keep up with a trend-led terminally online world, reading communities are no longer intimate.
book industry
The Bookclub Book That Could: Notes on rejection and staying true to your voice
We were positive that my book would be snapped up in an auction because it felt epic, genre-crossing and boundary-breaking. It was everything traditional publishers said they were looking for in book club fiction.
“Children’s books should be for all children”: A conversation with Jasmine Richards
Storymix is an inclusive fiction studio with social purpose that creates high-quality, original concept series with inclusive casts of characters, putting children of colour at the centre of the action.
The Self-Publishing Trials and Triumphs of Chinedu Achebe
It was neither purely a Nigerian immigrant story nor an African American romance—not even an urban tale. Reader, I decided to self-publish.
“Books work better when illustrators are allowed to shape the story”: A conversation with Dapo Adeola
Dapo Adeola spills on everything from how the publishing industry mistreats its illustrators, to how he pulled off publishing an 18-illustrator picture book in under a year.
“We’re not getting fresh voices, we’re getting fresh faces”: A conversation with Formy Books
What makes Formy Books different is that they are an independent, family-run CIC (Community Interest Company). The core team consists of Editorial Director, Curtis Ackie, and their partner, Ebony Lyon serving as Head of Marketing.
The publishing industry cannot continue to hide its anti-Blackness behind #BlackBestseller
Readers should be asking how these Black-authored titles would be different if they were also Black-edited, Black-designed, and Black-publicised.
All I want for Christmas is the death of lazy, “diversity” language
All too often we scroll across well-meaning publishing people using POC when they mean Black, racism when they mean anti-Blackness.