“There are as many trans people as straight white men in publishing,” says Wilfred Reilly, citing “data from Lee & Low Books Diversity Baseline Survey” for the “publishing industry workforce.” Straight white men account for only 8-12% of people working in the publishing industry, compared to 8.1% who are transgender.
There are more LGBT people in publishing than white men. In addition to 8.1% of publishing employees being transgender, 4% are gay, and 3% are lesbian. About three quarters of all publishing industry employees are female.
Despite the fact that only 8-12% of publishing industry workers are white men, Publishers Weekly thinks there are still too many white men in publishing, saying that the publishing industry has made only “slow, incremental changes toward becoming more inclusive.” Apparently, diversity means no white men at all, to the progressives at Publishers Weekly.
Publishing industry staff are very undiverse politically. Very few centrists or conservatives work in publishing. It is harder to get published if you are centrist or a conservative than if you are a progressive. Mainstream progressive publishing houses sometimes turn down books that later become bestsellers after being published by conservative niche publishing house like Regnery Books (Here is one example of such a book, a best-selling book written by a conservative lawyer about the history and scope of the impeachment process, that got favorable reviews from the Washington Post and Richard Posner, the most famous federal appeals court judge).
Columbia University Press rejected a book about good policing by a centrist Democrat, criminology professor Peter Moskos, for not being anti-police. Columbia University Press’s diversity statement states it aims “to embody antiracist principles in all our work: in the recruitment of diverse authors” and “in ensuring that the books we publish elevate minoritized perspectives.”
At least one of its employees has previously tried to squelch books with a non-leftist viewpoint. Associate Editor Monique Laban signed a petition that demanded that Penguin Random House not publish Supreme Court Justice Amy Barrett’s book because of her vote to reverse Roe v. Wade.
