When I have consultation calls with straight white cis writers, there will very often be an almost whispered question where the writer sheepishly asks if publishers still want books by people like them. They see so many agents and editors calling for books by diverse authors. Is their book dead on arrival?
The authors I speak to are invariably well-intentioned people and I’m really not trying to shame anyone for vocalizing their fears (much better to deal with it in the open, IMHO). But folks… have you browsed a bookstore in the last five years? What do you see? Unfortunately, the problem is still precisely the opposite.
In 2019, 6% of children’s book authors were Black despite being 13.4% of the population and 6% were Latino despite being 18.5% of the population. 85% of book editors are white. Yes. Still.
This is why I try to do everything I can to support We Need Diverse Books, an organization that I hope you’ll consider donating to this holiday season. The historic wrong committed by the publishing industry against writers and readers of color is not at all fixed. That’s what those calls for more submissions from authors from diverse backgrounds are about.
Moreover, the notion that there’s someone else out there who’s taking your spot is extremely, extremely pernicious. You need to grab those inklings by the root and yank them out of your system with all your might before they poison you into a monster.
Publishing is not a zero sum game. As editor Kristen Weber recently reminded her subscribers, there are not a finite number of books published. If publishers decide they really want a book, they can always make room for more.
Your book is going to do its own thing and there is plenty of room for it in the universe. You may or may not get a traditional publisher, but if that doesn’t happen it’s the forces of the market and plain old luck at work, not because there’s a Certain Kind of Author who’s taking a spot that’s rightfully yours.
There are lots of people out there who profit from whispering unjustified fears into your ear. (Well, these days I guess they shout them in your ear).
Shut them out. There’s room for everyone. There’s plenty of room for joy for other writers’ successes. And there’s still lots to be done to level the playing field.
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Art: Carousel by Vilmos Aba-Novák
And, also, support diversity in publishing by buying and reading more books from diverse authors.
Fair warning: I’m not going to impress anyone with my compassion here. Way back at the start of my artistic career, I played the villain in melodramas. People threw popcorn and booed and hissed. Maybe that’s the way this will be received. Nathan, thanks for the talking point.
I think it’s playing the role of Pollyanna to say “publishers will always make room for more.” Honestly, that’s what’s wrong with melding the arts with commerce. Artists always believe they’ll be the exception to the rule of profits.
Nobody who’s ever run a press would ever say, “We can always spend more money on something that we’re not positive will make the money back.” That’s what follows from a statement like “We really decided we like that book. We can always make room for more.” You can, if you can sell it. All the spots are up for grabs. Diverse authors will have the same burden as any other published author — they pay their way when they bring along their diverse readerships. At last measure, fewer than 40 percent of people read books at all. The number is not rising, either.
Sales has got to find and motivate purchases from people who are “reading more books from diverse authors.” If they don’t, no amount of the diverse course-correction mojo is going to maintain the swing of the pendulum. The pressure is on the sales end of the pipe, not on the creative end. For the sake of publishing, I hope the new mojo works. We don’t want too many more PRH acquisition ploys coming down the pipe. Consolidation is the cancer creeping through this industry.
I’m 64, white, and male, which makes my cohort the target of a lot of criticism. I never published anything in traditional presses. I say, Good Books do find publishers. The measures of who’s been choosing to publish books, up to now, all say that everything’s got to change about who decides what’s publishable. So change has begun, and no serious agent now summarizes their needs without noting that the non-cis, POC authors are at the front of the line of attraction for agent consideration. Yes, those books still need to be Good Books.
I have clients who are non-cis and POC authors. I assure every one of them they have a better chance now to get a publishing deal for their Good Book. Better than who? I believe someone still compares projects and proposals and chooses one over another. When an imprint only publishes 20 books a year, it has that many spots. Many times the assignment of a spot is made outside of the editorial offices.
“What might sell? Hey, maybe something we’ve never had for sale before.”
While the industry’s agents and VPs are in full-pivot to redress the sins of centuries, they’re going to have a sharper taste for stories written by non cis, non-white authors. Because publishers want to find people who haven’t bought the company’s books yet. The formula seems to be, “We didn’t publish all those stories before. Now that we will, people will buy what wasn’t available before now.”
Write well, revise plenty, get an editor. Everybody has been taking everybody’s spot for decades. Readers have choices, and publishers do, too. Books that go unpurchased are just as skipped-over as the ones that are unpublished. The difference is that there’s no remainders table for the unpublished books. Wait, there kind of is. It’s called self-publishing — or maybe not, if you consider Virginia Woolf and other icons of literature. Publishing, ah, what a maddening, glorious competition.
Sir, there is an idea that economist do not yet understand (because economists cannot quantify absolute consumable value): The value-correlated elasticity of demand. Simply put, as a product or service approaches absolute positive value, consumer demand increases to the limit (which can approach but never achieve the limit of a total population.)
Simply put, if you create a product or serve that is great enough, that creates the greatest possible value for the greatest number of people, then the demand for said consumable will approach–but never achieve–the absolute limit of consumer demand. This is why, for example, millions of people still listen to Beethoven’s 5th every day (on Judge Judy; despite it’s musical perversion, it’s still the 5th; or a portion thereof). Peace.
Thank you. I get that publishing is a business. And I also get that there is far more profit from fear than coexisting.
Whenever a publisher can be motivated by coexisting, they can make room and take a chance on a book from a debut author. Those “is there any chance for my book” questions come from debut writers. Corporation publishing, the kind that controls such a huge share of the market, isn’t much motivated by coexistence. Its relentless downsizing that’s driven so many editorial pros into the freelancer ranks stands as a testament to how being afraid has pushed great talent into new places. Our job, just as it is to buy and read diverse literature, is to employ that disbursed editorial talent for our own books — whether the books’ destiny is traditional or self-published.
Very interesting, Nathan. Oddly enough, I watched a podcast last week by a best-selling author suggesting the very opposite to your view and reporting that his agent was retiring because of that. Mileages do indeed vary, it seems.
As a reader I rarely know the race, sex or age etc. of an author. Indeed I wonder how people figure such things out, even if there is an author photograph, which most books do not have. In particular, I wonder how anyone figures out an author’s sexual orientation. In any case viewpoint diversity interests me more than any of the immutable identitarian characteristics of people.
Could you point me to the podcast?
It’s one of Andrew Klavan’s podcasts, Nathan. He does a lot of them but It’s a recent one. I’ll try and find it again tonight and get back to you if I do.
I had a feeling it was someone in that zone.
“In that zone” made me wonder what zone you were referencing. I’m guessing it’s the conservative zone, considering where Klavan’s podcast can be found. I can imagine why the agent of a 67-year-old white male author would want to retire. Those two have probably been together a long time, reaching back into the dim mists when nobody talked about cis or color. You only had Walter Mosely crushing it in crime fiction, without much chatter about his race. He just wrote Black heroes that sizzled. We just want to tilt toward more opportunity for the new Moselys, don’t we? And not make Walter give up his spot.
Stephen King is 74 and I haven’t heard of his agent retiring… I don’t think one agent choosing to retire adds up to any kind of proof things have materially changed for white authors, particularly not successful ones.
Look at the stats, not the anecdotes. There are stories that certain people want you to believe that just aren’t true.
Forgive me for hijacking this very fine comment string. I have a few notes.
I think any advisory that begins with the words “Stephen King” is pretty much helpful to nothing except the act of arguing. King is the perfect storm of immense talent, limitless drive, and opportunity taken between the teeth. What applies to him applies to almost none of us, unless we talk about the days when he was as green as any debut author of today. Except he was green when fax machines didn’t exist. A few things have changed for debut efforts.
That agent of his, I believe, would only retire if he feared his heirs might use his estate for nefarious ends. And I’m pretty sure King’s royalties would still revert to that agent’s estate. And what difference could an agent make to an author like King, now that he’s earned his spot on the Mount Rushmore of bestsellers?
The statistics — those deserve a closer look. The librarians from your cited poll have a lot to say about how much change is already underway — before the pendulum swing of BIPOC and non-cis kicked into its new gear. Everyone’s deserving, and it seems the librarians believe that it’s happening for those kinds of authors. In their 2020 letter, they welcomed the number of “outstanding books speaking to the many-faceted lives and experiences of BIPOC” (their quote) along with thrills about debut BIPOC authors, the books acknowledging race awareness and racism’s impact on children and teens — even picture books about activism and resistance.
All of this reply of mine comes from a nonfiction writer of 40 years’ experience, living in a slave state that’s become a red horror (Texas!). I’m also weary, by now, of having every competitive venture, artistic or sporting, determined by statistics and analysis. Once upon a time, in that distant day of no fax machines, literature was judged by its merits. Not whose byline or author name appeared on the front page or the cover, with special exception given for their race or identity. I wish we could root for books and stories of merit to win spots. It seems that’s less important than statistics — and so we now judge literature like we use linescores on the sports pages.
And the only politics I’m talking about here is the campaign to elevate author identity to the same level as artistic and entertainment merit. Editors root for A Great Read, first and foremost. We’re talking publishing here, not just writing. If great writing is being published, we all win.
Vaccines, racism . . . i can get politics anywhere. This blog is very good at what it does, talking about writing. I can do without the politics. I just want to read about writing.
You don’t have to read it!
And if you don’t think this has something to do with writing and publishing, I don’t know what to tell you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5J0moceZKM&t=302s
It’s after the 66 mins. mark. Klavan says similar things elsewhere, as do other professionals. And still others argue the converse, like Nathan. Like I said at the start, mileages vary.
I recently discovered the Representation Matters program, a program started by several big 5 editors to help those who have historically been excluded from positions in publishing: “Two-person teams of editors (one senior and one junior) volunteer to be mentors to self-identified BIPOC who are considering a career in publishing. The program is currently focused on editorial only, but may expand to other areas of publishing in the future.”
You can read more about it (or donate!) here: https://repmatters.org/