“There’s no reason to think Black people, Black women, Black men that we can’t be bringing in a certain amount of audience or good business. Because we can. The thing is, is that books and publishing in general there has to be an investment, there has to be promotion, and there has to be leg work. Because you know what, people of color right now don’t trust you. They don’t trust you to get their stories right. They don’t trust you to pick authors telling great stories. So when you start doing your work, and start doing right, and start paying attention to them the same way you pay attention to these audience you’ll see better business in this area. If you don’t have good business in this area it’s because you haven’t built good business.”
Recent guest smashfizzle rightfully notes, as studies and data have shown, that there’s clearly an audience, particularly in the Black community, for media. So what barriers are there? If the business isn’t aware of how to reach the community or produce what the demographic would like to see via responsible representation, how will the demographic respond?