State of Diversity Report 2019 out now!

The Ripped Bodice's report on "the state of racial diversity in romance publishing" for 2019 has now been published.

Harlequin as a whole isn't doing particularly well, with low proportions and falls in all imprints except for Carina, which came second overall in the table with 20.7% of publications by authors who were "people of color". Kensington came top with 27.5%.

Bethany House has consistently had 0% now for four years in a row, and Tule Publishing only rose above 0% in 2018.

See the report for full details, including breakdowns by publisher.

Renee Dahlia adds some context:

this is a USA based study, and the results should be compared to the USA general population. According to census data, the USA population is 60.4% White, 18.3% Hispanic or Latino, 13.4% Black, 5.9% Asian, 2.7% Biracial, 1.3% Native American, and 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
If romance publishing in America was equal, we’d see figures similar to this in the Ripped Bodice study. However, we don’t.

Indeed we don't. The figure for all romance authors of color in 2019 is only 8.3%.