The Woke Mob Is Ruining Publishing!

Here's what you can do about it...

(Image by Joshua Chaplinsky)

Ha! That title? Not true. It’s not clickbait though; I’ve actually heard people say that. Women. Queer writers. Writer of color. Someone is always ruining publishing and that’s why these people can’t get published. Anyway, let’s get to it, shall we?

Back in 2019, online arguments about cancel culture were a daily thing. At the time, I wrote a piece about it (which I cannibalized for this newsletter!). Reactions, as always, were passionate and mixed. I’d made my point. No, seriously, I was ready to let it go. However, the thing about those conversations is that they never went away. No, the lingo changed, but the stupidity is the same. Now folks complain against censorship and woke mobs. And, unlike me, most of them aren’t joking. There are many writers out there who are convinced the reason they're not getting published—or landing an agent or selling a million books or not getting a bunch of reviews—is because they're not a person of color or female or a member of the LGBTQ+ community. These folks are convinced that there are a bunch of evil gatekeepers in the publishing world who are actively making it impossible for people like them to get published or to do well once published.

Let me break things down for you. Don't worry, I won't fill your head with numbers. That said, I've been researching diversity in publishing for years, have written extensively about it, and have given keynote speeches on the subject, so I have to throw some facts out there. For example, as a book reviewer, I belong to the 3% or 4% (depending on the year) of book reviewers who are Latino/Latinx. Three fucking percent. Sigh. Moving on. 

A study done by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the School of Education in the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the percentage of books depicting characters from diverse backgrounds is abysmally low. The study found that 10% of books featured African/African American characters; 7% featured Asian Pacific Islander/Asian Pacific American characters; 5% featured Latinx characters; and just 1% featured American Indian/First Nations characters. However, 50% of books featured white characters while 27% featured animal characters. Yeah, kids are exposed to talking animals in literature before they are exposed to black and brown folks. Obviously there are no gay characters. In any case, some of the same nonsense can be found in all other genres with little degrees of variance. Also, I’ve been using the Lee and Low Diversity Baseline Surveys for years. What do they show? That things are slowly getting better, but publishing is still overwhelmingly white and straight. Also, there was a very detailed report by the Government Accountability Office in late 2022 that showed Latin@s continue to be underrepresented/misrepresented in Hollywood, news, and—surprise!— in publishing. According to the report, we make up...wait for it...7% of the industry. That means in ALL of it: authors, agents, editors, etc. As always, we brown folks are hanging out with the Black folks, who have slightly better but still awfully low numbers. Get the fuck outta my face with that “you gotta be a person of color to sell a book these days” bullshit.

Anyway, I promised you I wouldn't drown you in numbers, so I'll leave it there. Want more? Come out to see me next time I give a keynote near you. 

The idea that minorities have somehow taken over publishing is preposterous. The idea that those who have taken over are doing all they can to keep (insert group here) from getting published is so stupid I think even Marjorie Taylor Greene would have a hard time coming up with it. Publishing, by and large, is still white. That said, I know why some writers are complaining. Here are three important reasons: 

— Otherness is finally getting a bit of attention and publishers, agents, and editors are realizing how many amazing narratives there are coming from its core. We still have a long way to go, but there are now more BIPOC and LGBTQ+ stories, for example. That’s a good thing.

— Readers have started reading outside their comfort zone. When I wrote about this back in 2019, I had just gotten back from a trip in which I talked to a huge room packed with librarians in Chicago. About 99.9% of them were white women. You know what? They all wanted to talk about diversifying their recommendations. This, my friends, is a beautiful thing. Also, shout out to librarian extraordinaire Becky Spratford for being a force of nature and one of the strongest agents of change in that field. 

— Writers of color are kicking ass. Look at Roxane Gay, Stephen Graham Jones, S.A. Cosby, Atticka Locke, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tananarive Due, Cynthia Pelayo, Marlon James, Saeed Jones, Steph Cha, Celeste Ng, Carmen Maria Machado, Alma Katsu, Nalo Hokinson, Mariana Enríquez, Jesmyn Ward, Nnedi Okorafor...the list goes on and on and on. Publishers and readers alike have noticed. Sorry, edgy white dudes, but your shit can't suck it anymore. Want to get published now? Your work has to be good.  

There is still a lot of work to be done, but the face of publishing is changing, and that bothers some people. When you see folks yelling about the woke mob “censoring” books, what they mean is that people are now saying, “Nah, your book is racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic bullshit and we don’t want to read it.” That’s great. In fact, that’s freedom of speech in action.

Anyway! Things are slowly changing and many white agents and publishers and editors are doing their part and great straight white writers are blurbing upcoming POC, female, and queer writers. That doesn’t mean no one is white in publishing now. It also doesn’t mean that someone calling out a book is trying to censor the book. No, there is no evil group of women or queer folks running the whole show. To those who think that, let me say this: Fuck you. Write better stories.

Instead of trying to write a punchy last paragraph. Im going to once again recycle the last paragraph of an old keynote and offer it to you here as an invitation, a call to action, and a warning:  

"We no longer need to explore the homogenous nature of publishing and other creative endeavors. We have already stared at it for too long. We know what it looks like, how it acts, where it comes from. We understand how it affects people and how it limits opportunities for writers from a variety of groups. What we need, friends, librarians, readers, publishers, editors, and reviewers, are interdisciplinary approaches to the problem that bring forth solutions. What we need is to use our power as writers, readers, agents, and publishers to scream against a system that has perpetuated the status quo for too long. What we need is to explore how fiction and nonfiction narratives can help us better understand, communicate, and process the immediate and lingering effects of displacement, change, acculturation, border crossing, bilingualism, colonialism, alienation, assimilation, homophobia, self-imposed exile, transphobia, racism, diaspora, transnationalism, and hybridity. What we need is to work collectively to shine an equal light on all experiences, on all stories, on all writers. What we need is to construct a discourse that makes the importance of diverse narratives obvious to those who are seemingly blind to it. What we need is to give each other the strength to say the following: The time for diversity is here and you have three options: you can work with us, you can get out of our way and let us do our work, or you can stand in front of us to impede our progress...and watch us chop you down."

Have a nice day. Take care of yourselves and each other. More soon.

PS - The hardcovers of The Devil Takes You Home is only $9 on Amazon right now! Dig it:

https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Takes-You-Home-Novel/dp/0316426911/