Some publishers say they would love to publish more writers of color, but either don’t receive enough submissions from BIPOC writers or don’t think they can successfully market books about the BIPOC experience to their customer base. Zarazua says that if you want more submissions from writers of diverse backgrounds, you need to pay attention to how you interact with diverse communities and how you present yourself. This has always been a goal of Pochino Press. In terms of their customer base, Pochino acknowledges there’s always a financial reality to consider. They quickly saw that marketing some of the books they were excited to publish we’ve loved and published, knowing there was little to no financial reward, but that’s not sustainable. A pivot we did was to become a non-profit so we could apply for grants, giving us more freedom to focus on the would be a challenge. “There are works that work and not worry as much about sales,” Zarazua says.
from most people we’ve met in the publishing world. Collectively, we also have dozens of years of work in education and youth development, so view publishing as an extension of our community work,” he points out.
REFLECTING THE LOCAL BIPOC COMMUNITIES Pochino Press aims to have every aspect of their business reflect their local community, which is primarily Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). This includes whom they publish and hire, where they hold their events, and the vendors with whom they collaborate. “We do our best to make our events attractive to our community, which is incredibly diverse. This includes people from all backgrounds who don’t see themselves as readers and don’t ordinarily visit bookstores. In addition to the places you would typically expect to find book lovers, such as book fairs, we’ve done events at a local fashion store, have an ongoing open mic series with a Black- owned barbershop, have partnered with high schools for writing workshops, and prioritize relationships with library branches directly serving our community,” says Zarazua.
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