One of the central conflicts that Yellowface explores is the complicated and exploitative nature of the contemporary publishing industry. June's first novel is shuttered between two editors and as a result, fails to gain any traction. Because the second editor who inherits her project devotes no effort toward promoting it, the novel falls through the cracks, and June is left totally demoralized. Her failure is all the more apparent when she compares herself to the attention that Athena receives after her first novel. Athena's success leads June to conclude that the popularity of Athena's fiction is influenced by her race and the racial themes of Athena's novels, which all focus on Chinese culture and history. "Once you're writing for the market," explains June, "no one cares about the inner musings of a plain, straight white girl from Philly," in reference to herself.
But contrary to June's perspective, Athena's own career wasn't as easy as June believes. As Candice reveals at the end of the novel, Athena was pushed into writing narratives that conformed to what the industry wanted her to be—a symbol of Chinese-American identity. She was forced into writing what the publishing houses thought would sell: identity fiction that allowed the publisher to promote themselves as promoting "diverse" voices. This role restricts authors like Athena, and, per Candice's explanation, is usually nothing more than a performative effort that seeks to capitalize on the current market trends. Publishing houses still often pick up only one "diverse" author like Athena, who "knew the rules" of how her identity could help her gain sales and therefore, "milked it," as Candice relays to June.
June manages to capitalize on this publishing industry trend of publishing fiction centered around an author's identity by assuming a facade of pseudo-Asian identity. She publishes under the name "Song" and reshapes her social media presence to reflect a false interest in Chinese culture, as well as convergent topics like racial justice that will make her more appealing to readers.
At the root of this conflict is the publishing industry's rapidly accelerated focus on commercial success. It is no secret that the publishing business is in a precarious position. Although there are no officially reported statistics, it's not unreasonable to estimate that only a few books out of every hundred turn a profit. The conglomeration of publishing into large, corporate structures also led to a shift in how books move through the publishing process. As Dan Sinykin writes in Big Fiction, a history of the publishing industry's development after World War II, the conglomeration of publishing houses led to the rise of publicity and marketing departments. Where in prior decades, a book may have passed through a couple of hands before making it to the market, each book now becomes a project involving several departments, from rights, to marketing, to publicity, to production, and so forth. This expansion of various "branches" came about as a result of the need to turn higher and higher profits as the book publishing industry at large began to struggle with falling sales, especially in the post-internet age.
Publishing houses began to focus more on single books that could become bestsellers. It's more profitable to have a single team dedicated to making one book that generates a disproportionate amount of sales than having many people spread across several projects that may or may not deliver the returns that the publishing houses are seeking. June's first novel becomes a victim of this process; because it doesn't necessarily fit a current trend or niche, the publishing house that releases it doesn't see the need to promote it or use their human resources to make sure the book sells. The Last Front, on the other hand, fits with the industry's fixation on making money and capitalizing upon the public's interest in "identity fiction"; as such, June gets significantly more attention from the publishers, marketing team, and agents who work with her once she brings them work that they believe will perform well due to its identity-related subject matter.
