Yet Another Whitewashed Bookcover
We have a black president. People like to talk about us living in a post-race society (of course we don’t…but some like to say so). Generally, being overtly and obviously racist is Not A Done Thing. Not if you, you know, want to stay in business.
Except, apparently, in the publishing industry. Can you tell me why this keeps happening?
I’ve had this book Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon on my to-read list for a while after seeing a lot of good reviews of it and all of the awards it’s won. It is set in what is a historically accurate pre-China. The main character is Asian.
← This is the original cover. It’s beautiful and accurate to the book and the character.
But apparently, some book buyers in charge of acquiring books for the major chain stores insist that this cover won’t sell. They insist this often before the book ever makes it to the bookstore. Before anyone who goes into the bookstore to buy books ever has a chance to buy the book with its original multicultural cover.
The bookcover gets redesigned so it will “sell better”.
Here’s the new version →
Hmm. This is a book set in historical Asia, pre-China. Why does the character appear to be wearing modern clothes? And is she Asian? You can’t really tell. She rather looks like a modern goth girl ready to go clubbing. Is this Yet Another Vampire Novel? No? Then why?
They wanted to make her look more white. It’s even more obvious on the cover for the sequel to Silver Phoenix. The model is very clearly white. There is nothing to indicate that the story is set in Asia or that the character is Asian.
If there is anything whatsoever to indicate the plot or even the feel of these novels anywhere on these new covers, I can’t find it.
If there is a picture of a character on the front of a book, I want it to reflect the character that I am reading about within the pages of that book. I want it to reflect that character’s ethnicity and beauty, regardless of whether that beauty is white.
If the character is not white, I definitely don’t want to see a white girl on the cover. This has happened again and again, and is specifically rampant in YA novels.
Why does this keep happening? When will the publishers get a fucking clue and realize that people want their literature to be just as multicolored and diverse as the world is around them?
There’s only one way to combat this sort of thing. Let the publishers know that this is absolutely unacceptable. In this case, the publisher is Harper Collins, but they are hardly the only ones guilty. Bloomsbury has had a particular habit of doing this sort of thing. Contact them and tell them to make their covers reflect the story inside, instead of turning every character everywhere white.
But don’t stop buying the books. To do so only punishes the author and reinforces the idea that diversity in books does not sell. It cheats the author out of the royalties for what may be a very good book, regardless of what the publishers decide to put on the cover.

















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