Natalie Kon-yu and Emily Booth on the “unintended knock-on effects” of publishing diversity initiatives

Researchers Natalie Kon-yu and Emily Booth recently released an academic paper titled “We Don’t Want to Hear Anything Else from You: Culturally ‘Diverse’ Authors and the Australian Literary Industry” in Australian writing journal Text.

“Marginalised creators are faced with the responsibilities of cultural representation in ways that other writers are not,” they wrote of the results of their project, which involved interviews with First Nations and culturally diverse authors in Australia. “The Australian publishing industry is not unique in this but, nonetheless, we suggest that the pressure existing authors feel from audiences could be lessened over time with an increase in the number of authors from culturally diverse backgrounds being published.” 

Here, they speak with Books+Publishing about the implications of their findings for those of us behind the scenes.

What do you think are the most urgent 2 or 3 actionable insights gathered from your paper that you would most like to share with booksellers and publishers? Is there a quote or two that has really stuck with you from your interviews?

EB: I think the most significant thing that came from the research is that one of the unintended knock on-effects of advocacy around diversity in the industry has been to increase the burden on the First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse writers who are already established.

Nobody was against the advocacy, but there was a sense that, now that this part of their identities was more scrutinised, these writers were feeling less seen as “artists” in the broad sense but more as “diverse artists”. Crucially, this pressure was not coming from publishers, but rather from the reading public.

NK: One of the quotes that has stuck with me is, “You can only do a memoir or you can only write migrant stories; we don’t want to hear anything else from you, ’cause you’re not qualified […] to be an Australian; to write an Australian story.” It encapsulates the limitations that the First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse authors who spoke to us feel very keenly.

EB: In terms of actions, I would say that our recommendations from this paper are mostly for the reading public:

First, readers can reflect on how they are approaching books by First Nations and culturally diverse authors and ask themselves: “Am I going into this expecting to read about The Migrant Experience™? Or am I coming to this with the same openness that I bring to Sally Rooney or to a romantasy?”

Second, readers who want to be actively involved in supporting First Nations and culturally diverse authors can do so by buying or borrowing, reading and promoting the books to people they know. Attend their panels at writers festivals, write reviews, film a crying TikTok (if applicable) – just get the word out.

Third, particularly focusing on new writers is something we’ve recommended in order to help them establish career longevity. If more First Nations and culturally diverse authors are established in the industry, the burden to “do the advocacy” will hopefully be distributed much thinner, and allow authors the chance to step back from it more when they need to focus on their art.

In your findings, the first and deepest impact you mentioned was in relation to audience expectations, and this is further elaborated in terms of the personal and artistic costs incurred by authors contending with this. The paper emphasises that, while there have been internal pushes in certain spheres within the industry to work on diversity and inclusion, the expectations and actions of general readership are creating an unforeseen consequence of these moves. What is the role of publishers, booksellers and the broader literary community in challenging these expectations among readers?

NK: I think the main thing that struck me from our interviews was the burden of responsibility all the writers felt to represent their communities in some way – whether it is in their work or in public-facing appearances. They are asked to comment on their identity in ways that other authors don’t seem to be asked to. Many of them felt frustrated that their identity was prefaced over the craft, and I think that this is something that publishers, booksellers and the broader literary community can do something about.

For example, I’d love to see craft get more or equal weighting as identity when it comes to authors who are seen as “diverse” in Australian publishing. So if you’re a bookseller or work in publishing, make a point of promoting craft at the level of metaphor, structure and plot in these books. I don’t think people shouldn’t mention the cultural identity of writers; just make sure it’s not the only thing you talk about.

EB: Speaking as a former bookseller, going out of your way to read First Nations and culturally diverse authors so that you can add them to your recommendations pool is really important. When I was bookselling, I only felt comfortable endorsing things I’d actually read, so making sure I could reach for these titles with ease was crucial.

Bookselling is not a lucrative occupation, though, and obviously this can be expensive to do – which is why I always appreciated publishers sending copies (or manuscripts) of upcoming or requested titles to the store. I think that proactively sending copies of these books to booksellers, and maybe including a brief note to booksellers about it (including “we think this is for readers of [insert author]”), is very helpful at getting things on my radar and in my recommendation pool – again, in my experience.

For the literary community, again – readers, read! Make it a rule to give at least 5 books a year as presents to friends, even friends who you think “don’t read”, and tell them how much you loved it and you think they’d love it, too, you want to discuss it together, and so on. I love this strategy because you boost the sales of a beloved book (telling publishers: more, please!), you can reignite a passion for reading among friends who’ve fallen off the wagon, and you can also introduce different kinds of books to reader friends who maybe are a bit stuck in their niche, or perhaps don’t realise their usual pool of authors is not as inclusive as it could be – which means they are missing out!

And, in a follow-up to this, I’m thinking about what strategies you might recommend for those editors and publishers working directly with these authors in house in order to provide effective and informed support in these situations (without creating implicit pressure to write or not to write particular sorts of stories). I note here that the paper explicitly calls for publishing more diverse authors so that the problem lessens, but I wonder what you might recommend in the meantime as well.

NK: Expanding the pool of diverse writers is definitely a solid strategy, and one which could be helped with mentorship programs for aspiring writers and aspiring editors from First Nations and CALD backgrounds. I’d love to see more programs aimed at aspiring writers from these backgrounds. The greater the pool of stories we have, then the more variation we will start to see within those stories. At the same time, I’d like to see reviewers and festival coordinators and people who host author talks really give diverse writers the chance to talk fully about the craft of writing.

EB: Given that our article did not find that this pressure was coming from editors and publishers, I feel like this is probably already known … But simply meeting your author as a whole person, and perhaps making reasonable adjustments to standard processes where possible. For example, someone may not be able to meet a deadline around a particular time due to a religious holiday or a need to step up for community responsibilities. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach here, and I think that’s the point. Again, we didn’t find any complaints here; everyone we spoke to affirmed they had had great experiences with their publishers.

I read your description of “the spectre of ‘the authentic voice’” with interest, and thought of it again when you shared Mycak’s work on “conflation between author and narrator”. What can be done about this phenomenon behind the scenes? Are there spaces you see it playing out (perhaps unconsciously) in terms of how books are represented to potential readers? I’m thinking in particular about marketing, publicity, reviews, writers festivals and so on. But maybe you have other thoughts.

NK: The rise of social media has had a big impact on our desire for more narratives, and a competitive and under-resourced publishing industry has also meant that publishers are looking for points of differentiation in selling authors and their books. The author has become more of a product now than ever before. It is hard to imagine a JD Salinger or even Elena Ferrante surviving in this marketplace. Again, I think authenticity is a problem born of a paucity of diverse voices within the industry.

EB: I think that some parts of the reading public genuinely don’t know how to read the authors of some communities because they have no experience with it, or they have only been taught to read books by certain authors as exemplifications of The Migrant Experience™, and so on, such as through school. So, to a certain extent, that’s not their fault. The challenge is then connecting them to other books and helping shift their expectations to something that will allow for a more genuine engagement with the art.

In the marketing and publicity side, I think that one of the most fascinating shifts I saw while bookselling was the arrival of depictions of non-white people (for lack of a better umbrella term to use here) on the covers of genre fiction specifically. Fantasy, science fiction and romance specifically did really well here.

I love that romance fiction has also taken this further in recent years and made characters explicitly non-heterosexual on the cover (although I think this is more skewed to male pairings than female pairings, still). I think this really helps to shatter the stereotype that a certain kind of person will necessarily be linked to a certain kind of story. The kinds of covers I see now were unimaginable when I started as a bookseller in 2012, and so I give huge credit to publishers for stepping up there! More, please!

This might be a bit of a niche question, but it’s of interest to me! I noted how your research methods contrast with the APA/UniMelb publishing baseline survey, conducted by Susannah Bowen and Beth Driscoll in 2022, which is primarily a quantitative demographic study, as suited the research question at the time. You chose to focus on semi-structured interviews. As we begin to see the impacts (positive and negative, expected and unexpected) of diversity initiatives, do you think there is a need for more open-ended questions in our monitoring of progress and outcomes?

NK: We think the more research – from different methodologies and different viewpoints – the better. We have really loved talking to people in the industry. It’s allowed us to get into the weeds with specifics that our own quantitative research did not.

EB: I agree – we really need all kinds of approaches brought to the table, as they all reveal different things. As Natalie said, we’ve also conducted quantitative research in the past, so we do appreciate the value that numbers can bring. That said, my skills are in qualitative research methods, so this is where I am happiest: I love to learn from people, and interviews always give you that opportunity.

What has been the reception to your research so far within the academy and within the industry? Do you plan to conduct further research to build on your findings?

NK: We’ve found that authors have really enjoyed being able to talk about the issues they face with the protection of anonymity. Writing a book is a lonely endeavour, and people are doing it while juggling so many other things, so it can be hard to build community and consensus. At the moment, we are currently wrapping up our interviews with publishing professionals, and we will start publishing these later this year.

EB: I think Natalie and I have both seen changes over time with how our work (separately and together) has been received, and we feel like there’s a much stronger appetite for it now, which is great. As Natalie said, our current project is entering its final stages, and we already have our next initiative after this planned. We’re not slowing down!

If you like, I’d also be so curious to hear your individual pathways towards conducting this research and whether they connect to anything you’ve learnt via your respective professional backgrounds, particularly in relation to the Stella Diversity Count and teen reading. Do you see applications of the findings in your other working lives at the moment? Reading the very practical suggestions at the end of the paper, I thought to ask, how can we take action on these scholarly findings within our individual spheres of influence (in this case and more broadly)?

NK: As a creative writing teacher at Victoria University, I am really invested in mentoring young writers through teaching, and it is important to me that all my students feel that they are able to expand their imaginations and their skill sets. Doing the Stella Diversity Count was an eye-opening experience. Not only because I began, through that project, to glean the depth of the issue, but also because I realised how stymied writers felt in talking about it.

In terms of practical outputs, then I think that readers and booksellers can do a lot to promote the work of great diverse authors – word of mouth really does work. I also think that getting more diverse authors into the industry could lessen the burden of responsibility that we know diverse authors feel in representing their communities in particular ways. And, finally, reviewers and those excellent people who organise author talks – whether at festivals or libraries or book events – can make sure that diverse authors get to talk about their craft.

EB: I actually began my research career interviewing Australian young adult authors from historically marginalised communities about their experiences in the publishing industry, so this area is my origin story! My first publication with Natalie was actually my 10th journal article in the field, and teen reading came next as a logical step because I specialised in kidlit and YA when I was a bookseller. (Shoutout to the many fabulous authors, publishers, and guests at the YABookmeet event I ran!) Now I’m looking at how narrative and literary craft ends up being a facet in conspiracy theories (yes, really), so I’m just generally fascinated with how what and who we read influences us.

A thing people can do individually is to do an audit of your reading, say, for the last year or 6 months – whatever gives you a decent sample of your reading (which will vary between people). What authors and genres did you read? From this, you can set some goals, like “I want to read at least 2 books by First Nations writers in 2026” and then look out for things that help you achieve it. Rather than viewing it as homework, I think “book bingos” are a fun and flexible way of doing this. This year, my goal is to read more translated works, so I have bingo slots for some specific titles and authors and then more open, genre-based ones!

Natalie Kon-yu is an associate professor at Victoria University. Her scholarly research is focused on women and culturally diverse people and their connection to cultural authority. She is the co-creator of the Stella Diversity Count and the Chief Investigator of the First Nations and People of Colour Writers Count – the first study in Australia which looked at cultural diversity in the Australian publishing industry. She is the author of The Cost of Labour: How Women Are Trapped by the Politics of Pregnancy (Affirm, 2022).

Emily Booth is a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research spans teenagers’ reading practices, diversity in Australian book publishing, and online misinformation and radicalisation. In 2021, she received the Frances Henne Research Grant from the Young Adult Library Services Association.

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