A New Best Seller List Featuring Black Writers and The Black Book Accelerator

Last week, I was alerted to a brand new bestseller list from a long time trusted resource-- African American Literature Book Club. AALBC has been one of go-to resources to find great books by Black authors since I became a librarian; they have been around longer than that! And have always done great work.

The resource is BLK Bestsellers List: America's Bestseller Books Written by Black Writers from January 2024 to the present, sortable by month

They use the following data and methodology for this list as clearly stated on the bottom of the page:

Sales Data Source: Circana BookScan, January 2023 – May 2025, U.S. print sales, from thousands of retailers including national and regional bookstore chains; independent bookstores; mass merchandisers (e.g., Walmart, Target); Online retailers (e.g., Amazon); and supermarkets and specialty retailers.

Methodology: Books are categorized and filtered for Black Authors by the African American Literature Book Club. This bestsellers list is a sneak peek into a much larger effort led by the Black Book Accelerator (Learn More).

Here is why I love this bestseller list as a tool for us to do our work suggesting books to readers AND as a way to be actively anti-racist. This is not a list of the best selling books by Black writers. Rather it is a list of books by Black writers which were bestsellers. 

In other words, this is not a list others can try to disparage or even ignore because it is WOKE. This is a list of straight up bestsellers that were bestsellers on the white dominated lists in the last 18 months which happen to be written by Black people.

So when people tell me and Robin in our Actively Anti-Racist Service to Readers training programs (click here to sign up up for the next live offering) that people in our town don't read "those books," or, well we only have money for the bestsellers and it is not our fault that those titles are overwhelming white, or....insert lame and useless excuse here-- well here is proof that every single one of those excuses holds no weight.

Public libraries always buy the bestsellers. It is the first thing we do. As someone who did collection development for a community of 60,000 people, I understood that my job was to maintain a circulating collection of popular fiction. That meant having every book on the bestsellers list. It also meant exposing my readers to books that they would not find without my help, but which I knew they would like, be that up and coming writers, mildest stalwarts, small press stars, or books just like the white bestsellers but written by marginalized voices.

This new list, showcases that Black books are for everyone (which, has always been true). However, it also showcases the years of work done by AALBC to promote Black authors, in particular the Black Book Accelerator. From their homepage:

Empowering the Black Book Ecosystem

 

Mission

The mission of the Black Book Accelerator is to strengthen the Black book ecosystem and measurably increase overall stakeholder revenue. 

The Black Book Bestseller list not only celebrates cultural representation but also influences market trends, empowers readers to support Black literature, and inspires emerging Black writers by showcasing successes that might not have otherwise received recognition.

Methodology

Our data is based on monthly print unit sales provided by Circana BookScan. You may read more about Circana.

Since the book publishing industry lacks a definitive source of data on how authors identify themselves, we determine books by Black authors using a combination of BISAC codes and manual research.

We are actively collaborating with organizations in the book publishing industry to improve how authors can share information about their personal identities.

Blackness

The primary requirement for inclusion on the bestseller list is that the author self-identifies as Black or African American. We respect and uphold individuals' self-proclaimed racial and ethnic identities.

For our definition of “Black or African American,” we refer to the U.S. Census Bureau’s classification. This includes individuals with ancestral roots in any of the Black groups of Africa. It encompasses those who identify as “African American” as well as those who associate with more specific African ethnic groups, such as Nigerian, Afro-Cuban, Ethiopian, or Somali.

While we have established these criteria to highlight and promote authors of Black and/or African American descent, we recognize the vast diversity within this community. We are committed to ensuring that our selections reflect a broad spectrum of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We also acknowledge that definitions and categorizations evolve over time.

But the best part of the Black Book Accelerator project is how honest they are with themselves. From the FAQ:

Q: Couldn’t this information be used for bad purposes?

A: Yes, but we think the good outweighs the bad, and to do nothing is to reinforce the status quo, which is unacceptable.

Q: Don’t you think continuing to focus on race is a problem? Suppose someone published a list of the bestselling white writers; wouldn’t that be racist?

A: The purpose of this list is to address historical and systemic disparities by celebrating the most commercially successful books written by Black writers — whose work deserves more attention.

Q: What about authors who identify as Latino, Asian, LGBTQ+, etc.?

A: We hope our work can serve as a model for similar efforts within other communities. We welcome collaboration and are happy to share our insights with those seeking to elevate underrepresented voices.

They are doing the work AND having the hard conversations about said work. When Robin and I talk about being intention with your anti-racist service to readers-- this is what we mean. We are also constantly called out for being racist in favor of marginalized voices. But here's the thing, if you want to intentionally work against systemic racism, you have to tilt the scales to get there-- INTENTIONALLY. As they say above-- the status quo is unacceptable.

These "questions" listed above are the same things Robin always says are framed as "good faith": questions when really they are just trying to get you to stop doing the work. They are really there as "gottchas," from the asker. We see it all the time. I love that AALBC are very clear, open, and honest, that those questions are not worth exploring further for very good reasons. Full Stop.

This has been a long post, but everything here is important and connected. In order to summarize, here are the 4 points I hope you take away from this post.

1. AALBC is an amazing and longstanding resource 
2. Black bestsellers are everyone bestseller
3. Being intentionally diverse is not racist
4. If you are intentionally diverse over time, the brick wall that is systemic racism can be broken down, one brick at a time. 

Want more help? You can sign-up for the August edition of Actively Anti-Racist Readers' Advisory Service with Robin and I right now.