Some thoughts on published authors and race

[rainwaterspark]

Previously, I've rambled a bit about how LGBTQ romance/fiction (especially romance) is pretty darn white. This time, I want to muse a bit about published authors and race, using some numbers as a starting point.

I'll be looking at two indie publishers that have author lists that are small enough that I can go through them, but large enough that I'm fairly confident I can point out patterns. I want to note that I won't be listing their names, because this isn't a "name and shame" exercise. Importantly, I want to acknowledge that I am, at best, guessing at authors' races based on name and picture (since that's what I'm limited to, unfortunately), which means that I will necessarily make mistakes with authors who are white-passing/don't have a photo online, so consider these numbers more of an estimate, not exactly 100% accuracy.

(Also, these are numbers as of today's date.)

Publisher 1: 116 authors total / 6 authors of color
Publisher 2: 103 authors total / 4 authors of color 161 authors total / 13 authors of color [as of 7/19/17]

Just some interesting numbers to mull over.