A change the air: book industry eyes the market and goes after diverse talent to reach it.

Diversifying the publishing industry is a work in progress, according to industry experts. A few years ago, the leading book publishing trade association began to promote racial diversity in the industry. Since that initiative by the Association of American Publishers in 2002, and a separate program sparked by author Walter Mosley in 1997, progress has been glacial but moving forward.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 80,000 people work in the publishing industry. A racial breakdown was not available. Nevertheless, experts in the field confirmed that the industry was overwhelmingly white.

"Back then, publishing in the trade and commercial sectors was Caucasian, up to the mid-90s [in percentage];' said David Unger, director of the Publishing Certificate Program at the City College of New York, which trains people of color for the industry. "Academic publishing was ninety-nine-percent Caucasian:'

A combination of incidents or phenomena over the past decade resulted in deliberate efforts this decade to diversify.

Lynnette Velasco, president of New York-based Black Americans in Publishing and a consultant to the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, said: "Terry McMillan happened. She was a good writer and promoter. E. Lynn Harris happened"

"Walter Mosley happened;' Velasco continued, "and he was a staunch advocate of diversity."

Advocate indeed. In the late 1990s Mosley challenged his literary peers. Essentially he asked why publishing houses were white as blizzards in January? Then, the author mirrored his fictional character Easy Rawlins. He took action: In 1997 Mosley launched a publishing program at City College of New York with $10,000 seed money to train black and Latino students for entry into publishing houses. Publishers committed several hundred thousand dollars to the program.

In 2002, Mosley, addressing a question about why he invested in the CCNY program and why he gave the publishing fights to Gone Fishing in 1997 to a black publisher, Black Classic Press, told the New York Daily New. "It's very important for black people to be involved in publishing. I remember when people used to say black men don't read. Then one day, it hit me. Black men don't read The Scarlet Letter and the thousand of other books that don't have black people in them."

So far, 111 students have completed the CCNY program and 63 were employed in the industry, Unger said.

The Publishing Certificate Program is open to City University of New York undergraduate students for credit or as non-matriculating students. For information call 212-650-7925 or send e-mail to [e-mail]

Book Industry's Initiatives

Kathryn Blough, a vice president of the Association of American Publishers, said that diversity had become an issue for publishers in the 21st century. The association's 300 members include all large book publishing houses, producers of trade [consumer] books and textbooks, also scholarly books and multimedia.

Was there a defining moment or flashpoint that spurred the moves to desegregate their publishing houses?

"It happened in a variety of ways;' said Blough. "The [black book] market has been there. There was more recognition of diversity. Publishers working collectively have been watching the recent developments. Publishers are being proactive in this area."

Ken Smikle, whose Chicago-based company Target Market News tracks black consumer habits, reported in 1996 that African Americans spent $258 million on books, dollar signs that challenged the careless assumption in the publishing world that blacks did not read. In 2003, Target Market News reported that black consumers spent $326 million on books.

Blough said the organization has a Diversity Recruit and Retain Committee that was founded in 2002.

"We started a campaign called 'Book Yourself a Career; to increase diversity in all areas of book publishing;' said Blough. "It's natural for an English or journalism major to consider book publishing, but not a law school student. We want to make sure people who are interested in book publishing consider all areas, and we want to attract the best in finance, business, legal and design.

"No matter what career you're interested in, there is a job in publishing that might be a good fit," she said.

AAP launched a Web site, www.bookjobs.com and uses the site as a clearinghouse. The 300 publishers are posting jobs and internships. Blough said the initial focus was listing entry-level jobs.

Black Colleges Targeted

Another AAP task force, College Outreach, promotes publishing opportunities said Blough. "We identify colleges with high academic standards and diverse student bodies. We called 130 schools about bookjobs.com. Colleges that responded included Medgar Evers, City College, Hunter and colleges in California. We've sent bookmarks, magnets and fliers."

A list of 106 participating colleges included two dozen historically black colleges and universities: Howard, Hampton, Spelman, Morehouse and others; Ivy League schools, state universities and other private colleges.

Blough of AAP says her industry is providing opportunities to change the culture of its publishing houses, and Black Americans in Publishing has praised their efforts.

Why publishing remained largely unintegrated for so long is a result of many factors, experts said. Publishers Weekly, the industry trade magazine, reported last year, for instance, that many publishers have traditionally reserved jobs for their sons and daughters from Ivy League or Seven Sister schools.

Other barriers might be the high turnover in human resource departments of some publishing houses that make it difficult to establish relationships for recruiting, PW reported.

Even a structured program like CCNY's is perceived as a social welfare program, Unger said, because the people of color pressing to get in are working class and book-publishing employees have traditionally been elite whites.

"The situation is better today," Unger continued, "than when the program started in 1997." Wayne Dawkins is founder of August Press LLC, in Virginia.