Diversity is Not Enough: Race, Power, and Publishing

[Jabrosky]

Some posters here might regard diversity and representation topics a dead horse beaten to a smear, but this editorial critiques not so much fantasy writers but the mainstream publishing industry. Might be of interest to writers of non-European descent and those who care about this sort of subject:

Link to Buzzfeed article

I like this quote in particular:

In the New York Times last month, children’s book illustrator Christopher Myers wrote about “The apartheid of literature — in which characters of color are limited to the townships of occasional historical books that concern themselves with the legacies of civil rights and slavery but are never given a pass card to traverse the lands of adventure, curiosity, imagination or personal growth.”

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I have no doubt that Daniel is right to an extent. But I have no idea how great that extent is or might be. What I do know is that here in New Zealand when they show us images of childrens school books on the telly for whatever reason, there's as often as not a Maori or Pacific Island person on the cover. (Being a kiwi that's probably the more important ethnicity included here as persons of colour.) So while I might agree to an extent with him, I'll also have to say that the problem is as much one of perception in my view as it is one of actuality. (Of course there is that old buzz that sometimes perception is reality - but that's another matter.)

However, probably the most important force in publishing these days that fights against this issue is self publishing. And that's not because of any racial ideology. It's simply because the world of self publishing allows anyone to publish provided they have the requisite (too often minimal) skills. Mr (or Ms) Older (who I assume is Hispanic from his middle name) could publish any book he or she wants, use any name he or she wants, and I would not know anything about him or her. And he or she could portray any characters as they choose, as perhaps belonging to a particular ethnicity or not, and no one could really say squat. Sure maybe caucasions will respond better to other caucasion characters, but I'll assume that will be the same across the board for all ethnicities, negro's for example responding better to negro characters. And I'd also assume that that's just human nature at work.

So I say lets celebrate one of the pro's of indie publishing and assume that one day because of it, this perceived problem will be no more.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Jabrosky]

Hi,

I have no doubt that Daniel is right to an extent. But I have no idea how great that extent is or might be. What I do know is that here in New Zealand when they show us images of childrens school books on the telly for whatever reason, there's as often as not a Maori or Pacific Island person on the cover. (Being a kiwi that's probably the more important ethnicity included here as persons of colour.) So while I might agree to an extent with him, I'll also have to say that the problem is as much one of perception in my view as it is one of actuality. (Of course there is that old buzz that sometimes perception is reality - but that's another matter.)

I believe the article's focus is on the American publishing industry, so it may not apply so much to New Zealand or any other non-North American country.

I agree with your point about self-publishing. In fact that's actually what I was thinking when I first chanced upon the article.

 

[Mythopoet]

There is definitely a problem in the traditional publishing industry. Here's an excerpt from a blog post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (a white woman from the Pacific Northwest) about the trouble she had with traditional publishers when she dared to write a detective novel with a black man as the protagonist set in the South in the 1960s.

I retreated into writing. I wrote one novel just for me. (And when I sent it to my agent, she made my cry by telling me in great detail how unmarketable the novel was. I should have fired her right there. Live and learn.)

Then I wrote a detective novel. I picked an unusual setting—Memphis in March of 1968, just before Martin Luther King’s assassination. My detective, Smokey Dalton, happened to be black, because I knew he had grown up with Dr. King. Characters come to me first, and I let them dictate.

But aside from the setting, the novel was classic—almost too classic—detective fiction. My loner detective sitting in his office in a dingy part of town gets a visit from a beautiful blonde. There’s a mysterious will. There are family secrets.

When I finished, I thought the novel’s biggest problem was its classic framework.

Nope, my agent told me. The novel’s biggest problem was me. I’m white and Smokey’s black. Apparently, there’s a rule in traditional publishing that white people (white women?) can’t write about black people (black men?) at least from a first person point of view.

But once the agent established that I was not planning to hire a black actor to play me in public (seriously; she said that. Why in hell didn’t I fire her?), she marketed the book to all the big publishers. In the late 1990s, Oprah’s book club dominated the book world, and all of these traditional publishers figured Oprah would love this book because she’s black, and Smokey’s black, not factoring in her actual tastes. The publishers saw major dollar signs.

I had several six-figure offers on the table. Then my lovely agent called and said that one publisher in particular wanted to know if I could tour with the book. My agent was panicked, because I’m a white woman from the Pacific Northwest. She was thinking of lying now. I didn’t understand the problem.

Of course I can tour, I said.

She told them that, and told them I’m white.

The offers vanished. Literally vanished.

It shouldn’t have been news to me that traditional publishing is racist. I saw a major black sf writer lose his temper at his white editor when he saw the cover of his next book. The book had a white woman on the cover, even though there were no white people in the book. He was furious.

I figured it was an sf problem. I was naïve. It’s a traditional publishing problem. I’ve been told to my face that only white people read books (this from a sales rep). I’ve been asked what was wrong with me; why did I have to write about black people? (From a vice-president in a publishing house). I’ve been told…well, you’ll see.

You see, I had always believed that if I wrote a really, really, really good book, one that readers clamored for, one that got all kinds of reviews and awards and fantastic word of mouth, those books would sell better with each volume, and would make my career.

The Smokey Dalton series had good books, readers clamored for it, got fantastic word of mouth, award nominations and more. It got starred reviews on multiple books. Readers demanded copies. Bookstores told me that they had ordered the books and the publisher had not fulfilled the orders (!). Libraries wanted the books. I kept hearing from people all over the country that they wanted to buy the books and couldn’t get them.

For the first time in my career, I had done everything right—and I knew it. I had written the right kind of book, I had gotten better with each volume, I had readers who loved the series and told friends about it—and the books failed.

Not because of me.

Not because of my editor, who was a gem.

Because of my publisher. They refused to go back to print on the later books. They “tried” to send the books out big, but never printed enough copies to fulfill to the bookstores. Let’s not even talk about the covers, which are spectacularly ugly on the books that they wanted to take big.

I watched as this publisher destroyed a series that could have been popular, if the publisher actually acted like it wanted to sell books.
- See more at: The Business Rusch: Murder Most Foul « Kristine Kathryn Rusch

It's worth reading the rest of the post which goes into detail about all the trouble she had with the series which traditional publishing managed to kill a few books in and which she is now finally able to revive thanks to self publishing.

I don't know why traditional publishing has a problem with racism and bigotry in general. Perhaps because it's so steeped in old fashioned thinking. I've always been strongly of the opinion that critic and readers and editors and agents shouldn't dictate what a writer writes. Writers shouldn't be pressured into writing more "diverse" material if that's not what they want to write. But obviously they shouldn't be stopped from writing such material either. A white woman should be able to write about a black protagonist if that's what she wants to write about. A writer should be able to write whatever they want and the only gatekeeping that should stand in their way is the kind that readers exercise with their wallets. This is just one reason that I think the traditional publishing industry needs to change or die.

 

[LeoWolfish]

I have noticed this as well in terms of non self published books. That being said I liked it when Rue in the hunger games was from what I can tell represented as she was supposed to be in the movies. Even if it caused some idiots to hate on the movie because of it. Apparently they where shocked at Rue being black even though I imagined her to be either that or dark skinned anyway based on how the book described her. Not Blonde as most of the haters complained she should be according to them.

That being said I do think things are slowly improving.