Who decides which authors are listed in a library, when there must be a limited capacity ?

A genuine question. If an author becomes popular and successful because they are promoted in a bookshop is it because of their talent, their publisher's connections or interest from the public? There must be an editorial board, or decision making team who read books for these booksellers and decide which books deserve attention and which don't? Can someone help with the answer? Thanks.

So, after discovering new and exciting books, or maybe learning about an author from the past who should have been on our radar, the next step was trying to source the book. Not every book is online. Not every book is in stock in your local bookshop. So there was a lot of sleuthing and again, Instagram was a lifeline on this particular issue. Libraries were going to be the best way to access books without breaking the bank, but here again, it wasn't always straightforward. The state of UK Libraries is a separate issue, but in our experience, even some of the "classics" by black authors just were not standard issue in most libraries, not even close. If we do not study these books in schools, do not hear about them in daily life, do not realise that many black experts in many fields write books, scholars, scientists, actors, musicians, novelists, artists, poets, we risk thinking that it cannot be done and that we as a people have nothing to say. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When we first started this project, we spent a lot of time on research, into books, best seller lists and looking in the literary press here in the UK. Shopping around in the main bookstores was challenging because it wasn't always easy to know where to find the black authors. We had it all wrong though. There is no single genre associated with black authors, as of course everyone writes books about everything. So it was time to find black authors and delve into people who inspired them, their reading lists and their heroes. And that was the beauty of Instagram. Following many different book reviewers from all over the world opened up a Pandora's box of passionate readers who happily introduced us to a wider list of African, Caribbean, African American writers than one could ever find in a library here in the UK. The Bookstagram family really home in what interests them, and by sharing their knowledge, it is easy to learn what is trending, what is being published but more importantly who is really writing interesting literature and what they are reading too. But then, it was a matter of where can I get these books? In my local mainstream bookstore? No way. Not unless it was a massive best seller.

At Essential Curriculum we love reading and learning and that means reading and learning about ourselves too. As we are based here in the UK, most of the books and media revolve around British or European lives, but that often doesn't include Black people. We know however that Black people are a part of British and European life and have been for centuries. And our families in Africa, the Caribbean, The US, South America and elsewhere also have stories to share, so our stories are world stories and we want to read them with you.

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