Member-only story
White English-Language Book Publishing is In Trouble . . .
Under bad management, failing, and little hope of recovery
I lost my house to foreclosure and was forced to file for bankruptcy because I tried to found a diverse publishing company (2012–2016). It’s what they call “startup failure.”
One fond (I use this term very loosely) memory: Is She Available? My husband and I spent approximately 300 hours formatting and creating this fully-featured Apple iBook / eBook: to my knowledge, the only such book ever made. As I’ve noted before, two of the other authors we would have launched with were one of the founding members of the American Chicano art movement, and a nationally-recognized Black American motivational speaker and educator, who had written lyrically about her experiences during the 1965 Watts uprising.
I’ve also had a few personal experiences in publishing my own writing that strongly illustrated to me the problems that the industry now faces. They are similar problems to the ones faced in several other industries, including fashion, food, healthcare, energy, transportation, technology — and yes, even weapons and arms.
Publishing is under bad management that makes bad decisions and — just like these other industries— has serious challenges in reforming itself from the inside.
