Combinations to Reflect All Nations: Economic and Symbolic Capital in Diverse Children’s Fiction

As Children’s Laureate 2013-2015, Malorie Blackman raised awareness of the lack of racial diversity in children’s fiction. Underrepresentation of ethnic minorities within fiction and in the publishing industry’s infrastructure is a severe problem in the children’s book world, as proved by research on the last 15 years of publishing and current bestseller charts. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of economic and symbolic capital is important when considering how diversity is highlighted in the contemporary literary field, but his polarisation of the different capitals as motivation for creating art is reductive. Storytelling is about combining voices and experiences, and publishers can, and should, combine economic and symbolic motivation when publishing diverse fiction for children. Publishing a book because it will be successful economically and because it is the ‘right’ thing to do are not mutually exclusive; in publishing diverse children’s fiction, both can and should serve as inspiration.

perhaps not for [their children]' [The Telegraph, June 4 2013]). The report showed that only 4 percent of children's books published in 2017 included black, Asian or other ethnic minority (BAME) characters, and only 1 percent featured a BAME protagonist, despite 32 percent of pupils of compulsory school age in England at that time having minority ethnic origins (CLPE 2018, 5). Publishers need to take note of voices such as Blackman's and this shocking statistical evidence and ensure that books published today are not limiting and instead value multiplicity: that they tell stories of children from a range of cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Not only would this enable more children to see themselves reflected in literature, which has essential moral value, but from a more cynical perspective, by publishing books which only a limited market can relate to, publishers miss out on vast audiences and therefore revenue. Publishers must combine stories from a global range of cultures in order to break free from a limiting canon of white-centred fiction.

Capitals, and the Importance of Publishers Combining Them
Stories consist of combinations of voices, characters and experiences; the market of child readers is a combination of children from different backgrounds; and in order for 'reading and reflection [to] multiply [readers'] experience' (Gibbon qtd. in McMaster 2013, 45), publishers must invest a combination of capitals in diverse children's fiction (children who are currently well-represented in fiction need to read and learn about underrepresented characters, too). Economic capital (financial value a book can accumulate) and symbolic capital (cultural prestige and reputation) underpin publishing activity; Pierre Bourdieu argues 'the structure of the publishing field is shaped above all by the differential distribution' (1996, 9, emphasis mine) of these capitals. He consistently contrasts the two capitals as inspiration for cultural production, arguing art is either produced for economic gain, or (more worthily) simply for art's sake -and that 'it is these forms of capital that are particularly important in determining [a publisher's] competitive position ' (1996, 9). The rise of conglomerate publishers has seen companies' competitive positions altered as corporate giants contrast more dramatically with smaller independent houses. While John Thompson Thomas was originally 'far from convinced that she would find a publisher,' due to issues also highlighted by Blackman: agents 'were telling [Thomas] that books with black kids on the cover don't sell' (Noble 2018). However, two years after a 13-way publishers' auction, THUG has sold over 850,000 copies and spent over two years on the New York Times (NYT) Bestseller list (Kantor 2018) -with a 'black kid' on the cover. As well as economic capital from book sales (and a successful film adaptation), the book's reception demonstrates its accumulated symbolic prestige: it won the 2018 Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Amnesty Award, and 'many are calling it the defining book of a generation' (Noble 2018). Walker Books can count themselves among 'those who know how to reckon and deal with the 'economic' constraints inscribed in this denied economy…able fully to reap symbolic and even 'economic' profits on their symbolic investments' (Bourdieu 1996, 149 (Eyre 2018). THUG is primarily associated with the YA market but supposedly has cultural power and appeal across readerships (THUG features on adult fiction display tables in bookshops with a different cover design) -but while the writing may transcend age groups, this is not mirrored by transcendent symbolic or economic capital.
THUG has not been nominated for any adult prizes (which would give the book symbolic capital in the adult arena) and its position as bestseller has always been within children's/YA charts (demonstrating lack of economic capital in the adult market). Despite Daunt's statement that Thomas' writing has potential to stun readers of varied ages, this is not reflected in the economic or cultural capital gained overall by the book.

Peritext Emphasising Symbolic and Economic Values
Discussing books that could achieve both strong sales and symbolic capital, Thompson suggests 'all too often the criteria diverge' (2010, 10), but THUG is, overall, an important counter-example of this. In the children's market it enjoys economic and cultural success, and in addition to a book's content and reception, its peritext (the physical product and its important markers) demonstrate how both economic and cultural motivations were behind many of Walker Books' production decisions. Considering THUG's peritext can also illuminate if and how diversity is prevalent in children's publishing.
Peritextual elements often have dual purposes: achieving publicity strategies (with the goal of accruing economic capital) and emphasising the content's importance (hoping to increase symbolic value). In terms of emphasising predominantly symbolic content, THUG's cover and preface are the most important. Multiple editions have been published, but the initial English and American covers, as well as the film tie-in edition, feature a black teenage girl. This is paramount to the book's cultural relevance, as Thomas discussed the rarity of seeing children's books with black characters on the cover -as, of course, did Blackman.
Further cultural importance comes from peritext at the beginning of the book in a letter from Thomas to readers. This acts as a preface, which Gerard Genette argues 'has as its chief function to ensure that the text is read properly ' (1997, 197, emphasis in original).
Thomas tells readers, using direct address, about the importance of activism: 'Art is activism. Writing is activism. Find your activism and don't let anyone tell you what that should look like' (Thomas 2017, i). 'Authors often have a fairly specific idea of the kind of reader they want, or the kind they know they can reach' (Genette 197,212) -it is evident that Thomas wants to reach passionate young people, dedicated to making a difference.
Thomas also writes that 'When you make your voice heard, we're gonna be even louder on your behalf. We've got you. I promise we do' (2017, i), showing exactly how the preface can be 'no longer precisely a matter of attracting the reader [as they are already holding the book]…but of hanging onto [them] with a typically rhetorical apparatus of persuasion' (Genette 1997, 198), as Thomas makes the reader feel she truly cares about them. The preface can give an author's 'statement of intent' (Genette 1997, 221), and Thomas' intent through her letter and THUG's plot and themes is clearly to inspire readers to stand up for social justice.  (McDonald 1997, 14) misses some of the nuances and overlapping of publishing intentions.

Authorial Representation in British YA
Despite these positively diverse developments in children's fiction, the literary field remains, as Bourdieu (1996) (Bold 2018, 397). YA novels, 'especially bestselling YA, typically feature protagonists who are white or ethnically ambiguous [and] cisgender' (Bold 2018, 392), and this is mirrored by the published authors, who are predominantly white, cisgender females. Bold's study also showed 'authors of colour were more likely to publish with conglomerates, and less likely to self-publish and publish with independent publishers, than their white counter-parts' (Bold 2018, 400): KO's establishment shows some positive development since the report's publication, suggesting independent publishers are gaining in confidence and ability to publish diverse authors.
John Guillory opposes the binary of economic and symbolic capital, pointing out that 'playing the literary game to win in no way cancels the work of making art as an expression "for the love of art" ' (1997, 397); working in publishing with the aim of creating a commercially and economically successful book does not negate the fact that you can also simultaneously intend to publish a meaningful, symbolically and culturally potent book.
Angie Thomas' THUG shows young adults the reality of racism and potency of social justice in America; Walker Books saw this symbolic potential (proven by the fact that they submitted THUG for awards which the book went on to win) -but as a larger corporate publisher, they would also have intended for the book to be very successful economically, and reaped financial rewards from award money and subsequent sales. Bourdieu argues that it is 'impossible to account for the structure and functioning of the social world unless one reintroduces capital in all its forms and not solely in the one form recognised by economic theory ' (2011, 78); this is true, and the coexisting motivations of accruing capital in multiple forms must also be acknowledged. To fully understand the social world we live in, we must consider and understand different forms of capital including economic and symbolic, and they must all overlap -and this must also happen not merely in the real world, but in fictional writing based on this real world, and production of this fiction by publishers.
Choices and combinations -multiplicity -are crucial, and what we crave in stories:

Pride 'and' Prejudice; The Lion, The Witch 'and´ the Wardrobe; Noughts 'and' Crosses.
Stories are combinations of experiences; the readership of children's books are a combination of readers, and different types of capital must be combined to create powerful books for children. By breaking free from singularity and constraining limits, and acknowledging that publishing economically successful art and art for art's sake can be coexisting motivations, the publishing industry can nourish inclusive writers, develop inclusive fictional worlds and publish inclusive books. Ethical, moral and commercial motivations can be honoured as publishing a book because it will sell and publishing a book because it is the 'right' thing to do are not mutually exclusive aims.
From a moral perspective, it is obvious that children should be able to see themselves and others reflected in the books they read, in order to learn and grow. CLPE's report on representation stated that 'in the current socio-political and economic climate the risk of marginalisation of minority groups is heightened. If in their formative years, children do not see their realities reflected in the world around them…the impact can be tremendously damaging ' (2018, 9) -books are one of the most powerful ways this damage can be limited. From a cynical business perspective, this is imperative too: the wider range of authors and stories a publisher represents, the wider market they have potential to attract. Furthermore, Blackman suggested that the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in children's fiction could discourage marginalised children from reading, and writing books themselves (Independent 2014). If this scenario became widespread, the publishing field would suffer a lack of renewal of capital and, devastatingly from an economic and symbolic perspective, perhaps deprive the world of the next generation's Angie Thomas or Aimee Félone.
In children's fiction, it is not just the experiences of white characters that matter.
And similarly, it is not just economic or symbolic capital that matters. Both types are significant, and are most powerful and effective for publishers when they are combined.
Strength comes from combinations -professionals in children's publishing must work together to counter structural inequalities in the industry and create inclusive fiction for children, and invest economic and symbolic capital into these products. Readers do want to buy diverse fiction: THUG's success, KO's growing prestige and economic value and the presence of some diverse books on bestseller lists prove this. Books reflect reality but they can also actively influence it. Growth of inclusive fiction where BAME children are the heroes has the potential to lead us closer to a world where no young black girl is told -in a book or in real life -that, simply, 'black people become secretaries' (The Telegraph, April 4 2014).