The Importance Of Diversified Voices In The Media, From A Publishing House Founder

In honor and recognition of Women's History Month, this March, we're highlighting the voices of leading women in the well-being space. Each week, look out for the latest Follow Her Lead installments, where you'll find inspiring stories, ways you can help, and of course, new faces of women worth following.

From the television we watch to the books we read, it's so important for people (and especially children) to see representation from various races and ethnicities. And no one knows this better than founder of Row House Publishing and Wheat Penny Press Rebekah Borucki.

I'm a publisher. I founded Row House Publishing after leaving my former publisher for a lack of diverse representation, both among the authors and the characters in the books they were publishing.

Another one of my huge passion projects is Wheat Penny Press, which is our children's imprint, and by extension its nonprofit, the Little Readers Big Change initiative. We donate books, do online workshops, and arrange author visits to kids everywhere, with a focus on children in under-resourced districts.

Row House is the one that was really the big, audacious project, where we were trying to raise $900,000—and that turned into 1.2 million. We were trying to blow the lid off the industry in terms of the inequity and pay, so we introduced this 4040 model, which gives a $40,000 advance and 40% royalty to every single author, regardless of the size of their platform.

So, one of the major challenges was doubt. Many people told us it was impossible—that we couldn't do it because it had never been done. The other challenge was raising money and awareness and getting people involved, especially from traditional routes, like venture capitalists—a lot of people were looking for me to fail. I was constantly having to not only justify the mission of the company but also really justify my existence as a person in business. It was demoralizing, it was frustrating, and that's why we went the crowdfunding route.

I know from experience: Some of the best stories I've ever read, and the most inspirational people in my life, came from more under-resourced communities, where finding an agent can be a challenge, which is why at Wheat Penny Press and Row House Publishing, the majority of our authors are unagented—meaning they're able to get their work actualized without that added step.

If it wasn't for our community having faith in the business and actually putting their money, time, and resources where their values are, these amazing stories would never be heard or seen—so that's what inspires me.

The mission lies in our motto: Raising the volume on voices that matter. The second part of the mission is in our CRED statement, which stands for community, responsibility, equity, and disruption.

But the big goal is for someone like a Black transgender queer woman walking into any publishing house in New York City and saying, "Hey, look what Row House is doing! They're offering this 4040 deal, and I don't want you to just match that, I want you to do better because I deserve it."

Self-care is community care, and all the nourishment that I receive is from being in community. We have been sold a lie about being self-sufficient, about being self-made, about these mythical "bootstraps" that make you worthy of success.

I know that every single bit of my success comes from being in community with other people—and not just women but people in general—who have a belief in what I'm doing and are doing cool things themselves.

Oh my gosh, that's so hard. I'm not going to say one specific woman—it's the movement being led by Black trans women that I feel most grateful for. They are, I think, paving the way for all women to feel safer, healthier, and more respected and valued.

As a woman of color in the industry, I think a lot of people look to us as caretakers, or having to be in service.