Hi, this is maybe a bit of a rant or just some thoughts I have about book spaces and the book industry in my country (Germany, hi!).

A few months ago, I noticed that fewer diverse books are being published by the big publishing houses here compared to a few years ago. Flipping through the seasonal publishing previews, there seem to be fewer and fewer intersectional and queer books coming out.

When looking for sapphic books, you’ll often find some translations from English and plenty of self-published titles, which I’m grateful for. But even then, most are by white authors, so there’s not much intersectionality.

Especially "mad" makes me one publishing imprint that claims to be really diverse, by women for women and so on. They’re pretty new (two years ish, but they have already published alot of books), but backed by one of the biggest publishing groups. And guess how many books by PoC's or queer literature they have... It’s not zero, yay, but it's not even one hand.

I read a lot in English, which makes me privileged to have so many books to choose from, but when I think about people who aren’t comfortable reading in English or remember my younger self, it just makes me sad.

I feel like there’s definitely a broader range of diverse books being published now, including stories about sexualities that weren’t discussed much years ago. But it often seems like it’s still just one token book in a publishing preview, and that’s it. And don’t get me started on the marketing choices of some publishers. Take a new imprint (again but a different one), for example: they release four books, three with cis/hetero relationships and one with a queer couple. Guess which three get the sprayed edges and are heavily featured on their own Instagram…

And to end on a positive note, the small independent publishers never disappoint! For me, they have become the backbone here in Germany, with many “small” ones truly working to amplify marginalized voices, and I’m grateful for that.