Toni Morrison said, “I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central … and let the rest of the world move over to where I was.” 

BIPOC writers are so often told that there is ‘no market’ for their stories or that their work is too similar to an existing title. But BIPOC-led marketing and publicity teams know that such thinking is simply unimaginative. What happens when we claim BIPOC stories as central? A Publicity Manager, an Assistant Director of Marketing, and a Marketing Coordinator at Big Five publishers will discuss their experiences working with debut authors like Zakiya Harris, as well as established writers like Nikki Giovanni and how they are challenging prevailing ideas about readers and the stories they care about. 

Milena Brown joined Atria Books in June 2017. She was previously at Penguin Random House where she managed publicity campaigns for a wide array of authors including Mike Tyson, Phoebe Robinson, Mamrie Hart, music journalist Greil Marcus, pop culture writer Anne Helen Petersen and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Stephen Hunter. While in publicity at Atria Books she managed publicity campaigns for bestselling authors such as Alice Walker, Kevin Powell and Karin Tanabe. Milena joined the marketing department in 2019 where she develops and executes marketing campaigns for a variety of commercial fiction and narrative nonfiction.

Camille A. Collins is a literary publicist at HarperCollins where she’s publicized works by Nikki Giovanni, Paulette Jiles and numerous other leading authors. She is also the author of the novel THE EXENE CHRONICLES.  She likes writing about music, and has contributed features and reviews to Afropunk, BUST and other publications. She lives in New York City.

Imani Gary is a Marketing Coordinator at HarperCollins Publishers, where she directs and assists on a number of campaigns for novels from the William Morrow imprint, home to New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors. In addition to managing campaigns, Imani curates and builds two industry newsletters and contributes to imprint social media channels. Before beginning her career in trade publishing, Imani obtained a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Roehampton University in London and interned for two literary agencies.

From Border to Center: Marketing & Publicizing BIPOC Stories