Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.
Author Kelly Yang and Mount Holyoke student Sam Pittman ’23 critique Barnes & Noble’s 2019 policy for negative impact on marginalized authors.
Olivia Wilson ’24
Books Editor
On Aug. 18, bestselling middle-grade fiction author Kelly Yang posted a video to her Twitter expressing her disappointment in international bookstore chain Barnes & Noble concerning their 2019 bookselling policy. According to NBC News, this policy allows for the shelving of only the top two bestselling hardcover books per publisher each season, which has led to the rejection of thousands of authors, even those who had been stocked by the company in years past.
This is the case for Yang, who stated in her video that the fourth novel in her award-winning “Front Desk” series, “Key Player,” was among the middle-grade books that received the ax from the bookselling conglomerate. Yang posted the video, which garnered over 300,000 views, to her Twitter page after receiving the news. The media discourse attracted immediate criticism from authors and readers alike.
Midlist and marginalized authors were particularly impacted as thousands received the news that their books would not be displayed on Barnes & Noble shelves. Large bookselling retailers like Barnes & Noble are consequential to a book’s exposure and distribution, which contribute directly to garnering the sales needed for an author to continue writing.
In an interview with NBC News, some authors expressed their concern that in an industry that is vastly white, cisgender and straight, stories by authors in marginalized communities are vital for young readers who wish to find books where they are represented. As this policy takes effect, that may become harder to do as authors lose bargaining power from high sales. Barnes & Noble’s decision likely means that the books that will continue to receive attention and make profit are the ones that receive mainstream attention to begin with.
Laekan Zea Kemp — one of the affected authors — stated in an interview with NBC News that, “Straight, cis[gender], able-bodied and white-centered books” would continue to receive all of the attention, ultimately having a harmful impact on marginalized authors and readers.
According to a 2018 study by The New York Times, only 11 percent of published books in 2018 were authored by people of color, and a 2017 study by The University of Wisconsin-Madison found that their elementary and teen book collections in 2017 contained only 3.68 percent of books that prominently feature LGBTQ+ content – less than half of which were written by LGBTQ+ authors. As this new policy continues to impact exposure and sales from marginalized communities, authors worry that the numbers of diverse books will decline.
Mount Holyoke education studies major Sam Pittman ’23 was taken aback by the new bookselling strategy and offered another perspective on how Barnes & Noble’s policy would affect generations going forward. “I’m going to be a teacher,” Pittman said, “Something [education students] have been talking about a lot … is mirrors and windows in books, and [how] it’s important to see yourself in media and in books, but also [how] reading into other identities and experiences that are beyond your own … creates empathy and validates you.”
“Something [education students] have been talking about a lot … is mirrors and windows in books, and [how] it’s important to see yourself in media and in books, but also [how] reading into other identities and experiences that are beyond your own … creates empathy and validates you.”
Pittman continued by expressing their disappointment in Barnes & Noble’s new policy and the effects that it could have on students in the future. “When companies like Barnes & Noble say that only these bestsellers can be stocked, it sends a message of whose voice matters and [they’re saying] that is cis het authors who are white, because those are the people who get picked up by the] publishing companies.”
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt stated in an interview with NBC News that he disagreed “fundamentally” with the accusations levied by critics online, and that the purpose of the new policy was to allow the company to “exercise taste in the selection of new titles” and “Send lower initial quantities to stores.” He further stated that the new policy was part of an initiative by the company to give local store buyers more of a say in the book-selection process in the hopes of boosting company sales. He asserted that any critics of the new policy, including those with concerns about how diversity would be affected by the policy were “jumping at shadows.”
The long term effects of Barnes & Noble’s decision remain to be seen, but authors like Yang and Kemp and readers like Pittman are skeptical as to whether or not audiences in the future will be able to find books they relate to.
“It sucks,” Pittman said, “Books that can make such a difference in someone’s life are not going to be available in a bookstore.”