🔍📚 How bad is structural inequality within the U.S. publishing industry, how did it get that way, and what can we do to make it better? Industry experts and activists contextualize, illuminate, and identify some of the key inflection points that perpetuate inequality and get into what every book lover can do to enact change.

This episode features:

Industry expert Mike Shatzkin, Founder and CEO of The Idea Logical Company and co-author with Robert Paris Riger, of The Book Business.

Jalissa Marcelle Corrie, marketing and publicity manager at Lee and Low Books, contributor to anthology A Phoenix First Must Burn, edited by Patrice Caldwell, and planning committee member of People of Color in Publishing.

Nicole Johnson, Executive Director of We Need DIverse Books

Arthur Levine, founder of the Levine Querido and for 23 years, Publisher at Arthur A. Levine Books at Scholastic.

Catch up on the series so far:

Episode 1: Publishing 101

Episode 2: Agents: Who Are They, What Do They Do, And How Do You Get One?

Bonus Episode: Publishing in the time of COVID

Episode 3: Selling Your Book (Part 1)

Episode 4: Selling Your Book (Part 2)

Episode 5: Advances (Part 1)

Episode 6: Contracts

Episode 7: After the Book Deal

Discussed in this episode:

• We Need Diverse Books

• The Lee & Low Books Diversity Baseline Survey 2015

• The Lee & Low Books Diversity Baseline Survey 2019

• P&L Statements

• Dana Canedy, new publisher of Simon & Schuster

• Barnes & Noble selling to Elliott Advisors

• James Daunt

• Waterstones

• The American Booksellers Association

More Information:

• "People of Color to Publishing: We're Not Okay," in Publisher's Weekly

• "A Conflicted Cultural Force': What It's Like to Be Black in Publishing," in The New York Times

• "In Publishing, 'Everything Is Up for Change" in The New York Times

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Track Changes is produced by Hayley Hershman. Zan Romanoff is the story editor. The music was composed by Dan Bailey, and the logo was designed by Collin Keith.