Industry consensus recognized white women from the ages of 35 to 60 as publishing’s primary market, which offered an alibi—often tacit, coded in professional pablum—for rejecting work by nonwhite writers. When Roberts successfully sold books by authors of color, she focused on “editorial strengths” and, crucially, deployed comparative titles, or comps, by successful white writers.
Comps are powerful in publishing. Publishers use them to better gauge the value of a prospective acquisition: Which titles from the past few years does it most resemble? Agents choose comps carefully because of the weight they’re given when making a deal. The ubiquity of comps by white authors sustains white dominance and compels nonwhite writers to either play up marketable ethnic expectations or match a white standard. One study showed that from 2013 to 2019, more than 95 percent of the 500 most-used comps were by white authors. The paucity of nonwhite comps means there are far fewer paths by which a nonwhite writer can present a convincing case to an acquiring editor.