As the bibliographer in charge of the NextReads Romance newsletter, I am VERY familiar with this issue, which (alas!) is something of a vicious cycle:
- Comparatively few books by/about POC are published.
- Even fewer are reviewed in trade publications, meaning that
- Libraries are less likely to purchase these titles, meaning that
- Romance readers may not ever find them, meaning that
- Publishers have little incentive to publish more.
Now, the Book Squad can't fix publishing's institutional blindspots, but we CAN use our librarian powers to shine a spotlight on multicultural romance.
-Gillian