We, a community of bookstagrammers, readers, authors, influencers, and educators, demand publishers to address their racist policies and practices.
On April 15, 2021, Post Hill Press, an independent publisher and distribution client of Simon & Schuster, announced a book deal with Jonathan Mattingly, one of the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor. Since then, Simon & Schuster has failed to truly recognize and address their involvement, reflecting the deep-seated issues of racism and oppressive practices within many publishing houses. Even if Simon & Schuster decides to not distribute this title, they continue to support and profit off of a company that has chosen to commodify Breonna Taylor’s murder.
For this reason, we are holding publishing houses accountable to change. Our long-term aim is to ensure that publishers are addressing and dismantling these problematic behaviors and policies. To help reach these goals, we continuously release a new set of actions for the book community to take.
The book community is watching. Do better. Be better.
This week’s actions
Week of 5/2/21
1) Email the Big 5 demanding that they publicly release workplace demographic data, along with statements of commitment to diversity and inclusion that include short and long-term action plans (be sure to change the subject line and fill in your name)
2) Amplify our posts on your feed. Follow us on Instagram (@DearPublishers) and Twitter (@DearPublishers)
3) Sign the Dear Publishers petition demanding change and the Simon & Schuster employee petition in solidarity with the S&S workforce
Share your story
If you have a publishing story that illustrates harmful practices within the publishing industry, we encourage you to share it with us. We promise to review each story for accuracy to the best of our ability.
For those who'd like to remain anonymous, we encourage you to still submit. In the "Name" section, please write "Anonymous." We may reach out to you to confirm details.
We take these issues very seriously - our goal is to foster equity within the publishing industry and we need your stories in order to continue holding publishers accountable.