You are in > manchester.com  > News > Arts Council attacks book industry

Entertainment

Arts Council attacks book industry

09/05/2006

Not enough books in Britain's bestseller list are being written for readers from ethnic minority backgrounds, the Arts Council have claimed.

New research published this week found that only one per cent of the 5,000 bestselling books sold so far this year were written by black or ethnic minority writers.

Publishers and booksellers have expressed their concern at the findings of the Arts Council survey, which was conducted using reader research in bookshops across the UK.

Industry experts have suggested that the lack of availability for books written for the black and ethnic minority market means that publishers, as well as readers, are missing out on a chance to fill the vacuum.

"When businesses do not pursue a market as prominent as this, there is a barrier," Samenua Sesher of the Arts Council's Decibel initiative told the BBC.

"The fear can be of getting it wrong, of offending, or of being politically correct".

Although authors like Zadie Smith and Helen Oyeyemi have helped redress the balance, commentators have urged the entire industry needs to concentrate on remedying the disparity in both its commissioning and marketing sectors.

© Adfero Ltd