Oops, We Did It Again: Book Publishing's Inability to Help Itself from Making Racist and Misogynist Missteps

An inquiry into why Jann Wenner's new book, The Masters, was not flagged for what it is—interviews with seven of his white male friends that dismisses the achievements of women and artists of color

This weekend’s New York Times publishing story making the rounds centers Jann Wenner’s new book, The Masters. I mean, before we even get started, let’s linger on the title: The Masters.

Okay, let’s keep going. This book is a 368-page collection of interviews with Rock and Roll “masters” conducted by Jann Wenner, the seventy-seven-year-old founder of Rolling Stone magazine, and former owner of Men’s Journal magazine. He also happens to be the founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an organization from which he was expunged on Saturday as a result of this weekend’s scandal.

The scandal was completely of Wenner’s own making, stemming from an interview with the Times in which Wenner was asked why the subjects of his new book, The Masters, are only white men.

His response was truly extraordinary:

The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.

Ummm . . .

Wenner’s overt misogyny aside, I’m thinking about this story from the publishing angle. And the publishing angle is, What was his publisher, Little Brown, thinking? Does Little Brown know about #MeToo? Does Little Brown know about George Floyd? Is Little Brown aware that any all male, all-white panels at book events will be met by a big WTF? Has Little Brown been living under a rock?  

On the topic of why he didn’t include any Black artists in his book, apparently Wenner covered that in the book’s introduction.

Times Interviewer David Marchese:  In the introduction, you acknowledge that performers of color and women performers are just not in your zeitgeist. Which to my mind is not plausible for Jann Wenner. Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the list keeps going — not in your zeitgeist?

Janns Wenner: When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK? Just to get that accurate.

Oh good, just to get that accurate.

The interview should be required listening for a crash course in white privilege, entitlement, and defensive behavior. But the book . . . the book.

In 2020, as the country was heaving in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, countless publishers implemented new sensitivity requirements. In our submissions process at She Writes Press, we ask authors to flag possible sensitivity issues. All our in-house and freelance editors know that we want them to flag anything that makes them uncomfortable, that feels misogynist, racist, ableist. We hosted a training in 2020 for our editors, and one in 2020 and again in 2023 for our authors. Sometimes we push back on the editors, by the way. In a notable example, an editor suggested that Nabokov not be quoted in one of our books due to the fact of him being a problematic person, in her estimation “a known pornographer.” As the publisher, I overrode her recommendation. Nabokov was quoted in the book.

The point here is that publishers have all the tools and awareness in the modern age to flag things like . . . a book about Rock and Roll masters that only features white men. I heard about this story secondhand before I read the interview, and I immediately said, “What about Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks?”—the exact women Marchese cited in the pushback he rightly presented to Wenner in the Times.  

On the question of Black artists, to say that Black artists are not in your zeitgeist, and to have that as an explanation, written in your Introduction, as to why there are none in your book, doesn’t fly in 2023. It shouldn’t have ever flown anywhere at any time, but for years and years in book publishing, this ignorant (and racist) type of response has definitely flown. If you’re wondering why Black authors doubt the progress publishing is making, The Masters is a case in point among many.   

People are rightly outraged over this story for a lot of reasons. Specific to book publishing, however, the issues are deep-seated. Who at Little Brown either didn’t see or couldn’t confront the publisher or the editor pr the author on this book to say, Yeah—we need some diversity. Or maybe they did. After all, Wenner said in the Times interview:

You know, just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism. Which, I get it. I had a chance to do that. Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever.

A couple points of admitted speculation here: There is no doubt in my mind that Wenner doesn’t have any personal relationships and therefore access to women and Black rock-n-rollers—period. Wenner is a gay man of a certain age and privilege, and this matters to this story because publishing is super good at box-checking. I can imagine a conversation playing out in which concern was raised over all white men being in the book, and someone saying, Yeah, but Wenner is gay. Of course, his sexual orientation doesn’t exclude him from being racist or misogynist. Being part of a minority group doesn’t give you a free pass. Saying that women, or Black people, are not “articulate” is a trope. That someone (probably at Little Brown) apparently had the conversation with him about inclusivity and he dismissed the whole idea because he’s “old-fashioned” and doesn’t “give a fuck” doesn’t excuse the people who flagged the problem; it makes them complicit. What should have ensued internally is a conversation about the publisher’s responsibility to the culture in releasing a book called The Masters that only features seven white men. Anyone should have said, Let’s get this vetted. Let’s send this around. But publishing execs are so insular and sure of themselves that we see publishers stepping in their own shit again and again because the people at the power table think they know what they’re doing, or they’re blinded by the star power of their own authors, and their blinders are five feet long on both sides.

It seems important to say here, just in case I have “yeah, but” readers, that male writers are allowed to put together collections of interviews and/or stories that feature only men, just as women do, just as Black writers. But the subject matter is everything. If you want a collection of gay male erotica penned exclusively by gay men, great; if you want a series of interviews by male veterans, have at it. But you do not get to exclude women and people of color from the canons of greatness anymore with your selective lens. That’s what’s being called out here. It’s a myopic take on something that’s too consequential for that kind of approach. As a reader on Goodreads quipped, “A visit to the Mount Olympus of rock” - nah, Mount Olympus had women on it.”

I cruised over to Goodreads before hitting publish on this post just to see if The Masters had suffered the fate of so many “canceled” books before it, getting the blowback of one-star reviews on the platform in the wake of author suicide. As of September 17, there were only seven 1-star reviews in response to the Times piece. This shows us that TikTokers are not huge Times readers, and that Goodreads pile-ons skew toward the younger generations. Still, Wenner is suffering consequences already. Being removed from the Board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is likely only the beginning. Wenner deserves his fate, but Little Brown’s oversight—and I would argue negligence—helped him dig his grave.

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Some stories and scandals from the past few years in book publishing:

Barnes & Noble cancels race-swapped classic covers:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/05/barnes-and-noble-diverse-classics-backlash

The controversy over the new immigration novel American Dirt, explained: https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/22/21075629/american-dirt-controversy-explained-jeanine-cummins-oprah-flatiron

Racism, scandal, and the rat race of publishing: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang:
https://www.cardiffreview.com/review/racism-scandal-and-the-rat-race-of-publishing-yellowface-by-r-f-kuang/

Racism Scandal In The Romance Writing Industry:
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/04/793572217/racism-scandal-in-the-romance-writing-industry

Scholastic wanted to license her children's book — if she cut a part about 'racism’:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/15/1169848627/scholastic-childrens-book-racism

Roxane Gay and Other Authors Reveal Salary Disparities With #PublishingPaidMe Hashtag:
https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/publishingpaidme-takes-twitter-with-roxane-gay-other-authors.html

Scholastic pulls book by 'Captain Underpants' author Dav Pilkey with 'harmful racial stereotypes':
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2021/03/28/captain-underpants-author-dav-pilkey-book-pulled-racist-themes/7037308002/

Woody Allen's Publisher Cancels His Memoir 4 Days After Announcing It
https://time.com/5798335/woody-allen-memoir-canceled/

What Will It Take To Eliminate Racism In The Publishing World?
https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/racism-publishing