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Ixnay on the Gay: The Gay YA Controversy: A View from the Trenches!
Okay. As someone who has been directly affected by this Gays in YA? No Way! Controversy that’s been all over the net these last couple of days, I feel that I have a duty/responsibility to address it head on. In case you’ve been in a coma and missed it, the gist of the drama is this:
A blog post in Genreville, hosted by Publisher’s Weekly, and written by authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/g
Shortly thereafter, the anonymous agency came out of the closet by its own volition, in a blog post on Colleen Lindsay’s The Swivet, as the agency referenced in the original blog post http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2011/09/gu
The authors then responded to this revelation http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/g
While I am extremely grateful that this topic has been brought up and started a dialogue, I’m a little dismayed that the focus has now become mired in she-said/she-said, finger-pointing, and questioning the veracity of either party. In a nutshell, all of the bickering is irrelevant. This problem is very real and I should know. I’ve faced it myself.
I had originally posted anonymously on Colleen Lindsay’s blog. But I decided that was being hypocritical of me, especially on an issue that is so important. To that end, I’ve decided to “come out” again, so to speak, and share a rejection letter I received from an agent on a Young Adult novel I wrote and was seeking representation for. I’ve removed the agency name, as well as the name of that particular project, not for any fear of reprisals, but because this is a much larger problem than what one agent or one agency said. This is a systemic dysfunction in the industry that plagues not only agents, but publishers as well. I’ll let the letter speak for itself:
Hi Steven,
I really appreciate your sending the manuscript for ***** my way. I had a chance to read over it, and you really have a talent for writing YA with a paranormal/fantasy bent. The story was fast-paced, original and witty. I found myself laughing at numerous instances during the book, and there is definite series potential there. It's hard to make a book like yours stand out from the crowd, especially with the paranormal YA market as flooded as it is. You have accomplished this with *****.
Now here comes the hard part (and I'm sure you're no stranger to this feedback at this stage in the game) ... I love your story, but I just don't see a large enough market existing for *****. To begin with, readers in the YA market are primarily female, so generally speaking, it's harder to publish a young adult novel with a male protagonist. As much as I hate to admit it, young men just don't read as much as young women. In addition to this, your protagonist is not only male, but he's gay as well. Even if ***** could command a significant male audience, the element of a homosexual protagonist would reduce this demographic to a mere trickle of readers. Any YA books that have incorporated homosexuality as a major theme have not sold well, either (such as Between Mom and Jo by Julie Ann Peters). Publishers take note of these sales trends, which affect any their future decisions to purchase similar books.
Believe me when I say that I loathe grouping audiences in categories like this, since there are numerous exceptions to the rule and it makes no room for individuality. Unfortunately, selling a book to a publisher is a business transaction, and this means that publishers choose to follow general market trends when deciding whether or not to purchase an author's book. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the general market trend for YA audiences is straight and female. I regret it (as I'm sure you do), but market circumstances are just not favorable to selling a book like *****. As a result, I'm going to have to pass on offering you representation.
I really hope that this doesn't discourage you from continuing to write, because you do have a gift (and you can rest assured that agents DO NOT say this lightly). Please keep my agency in mind for future submissions. We wish you the best of luck in your writing career.
My first question after reading this letter is, uh, How the hell is this supposed to not discourage me, or anyone else who writes books with gay main characters? Would they have dared send this letter to someone substituting race or religion for gay? Try this experiment: Read the letter again, except everywhere it references “gay” or “homosexual(ity)” plug in “African American,” “Asian,” “Jewish,” “Muslim,” etc. See how ugly it sounds? Imagine what it must feel like to get a letter like this if you are a part of that minority being referenced. It’s truly hurtful and disgusting. I guess I could have kept this agency in mind for “future submissions,” as long as I wrote a book with heterosexual leads…sigh.
Now I’m not saying that all agents or editors share this view, or that this was the only issue that someone might have had with my manuscript. Of course not! I now have a wonderful agent and editor who believe 110% in diversity and a soon to be published novel featuring a main gay protagonist and supporting gay characters.
However, that being said, the fact that an agent could send a rejection letter like this and not even grasp the magnitude of the underlying implications is truly sad and eye-opening.
Some, including agent Michael Bourret in his blog http://www.dystel.com/2011/09/de-gaying-y
In closing, I’d like to urge the publishing industry, agents, editors, etc. to rise to the challenge and be more proactive in putting titles with gay protagonists out there for readers to discover. Even putting aside doing the right thing by being more inclusive and looking at things from a purely marketing perspective, one of the most popular couples in the television series GLEE, a show arguably targeting the Young Adult demographic, is Kurt and Blaine, a gay male couple. And have you read the fan-fic/slash fiction out there predominantly written by straight girls? Many straight girls love watching and reading about gay boys. And many gay boys read, too! There’s a huge, untapped market out there. So even if your hearts don’t move you to step it up, maybe your wallets will.
They see negative business consequences to saying yes. They need to see business consequences to saying no.
Have you read it? Because it's strictly slit-your-wrists time. NOTHING like anything I would read for fun and entertainment.
But you know... all those queers look the same anyway.
*groan*
All the best,
Colleen
This is nonsense from where I am sitting. I read and write in the world of fanfiction, where M/M is hugely popular among women, readers and writers both. Many identify as being straight, and they love the gay characters. Good God, this is so uninformed it's pitiable. Fanfic has left the publishing world so far behind in terms of courage and enlightenment. Obviously I read fanfiction because I am a fan of the original works, and also because my collection of published fantasy with gay/bi protagonists is precisely ...two.
There's a market for well-written GBLT, YA and adult. We want it, and I am sure people are writing it. Publishers, for Pete's sake, sell it.
Edited at 2011-09-17 09:45 pm (UTC)
Yes, there definitely is a disconnect between the publishers and their perceptions of what the readers want.
Hopefully, dialogues like this will help them open their eyes to the truth and their publishing patterns will change accordingly!
It would be nice to think so. Best of luck with your own writing :)
Thanks again,
Jill
Bravo!
Re: Bravo!
Said that, I totally agree with your words.
Let me start by telling that I'm Italian and I'm not even sure we here have a business only for "Young adult audience", so I speak from the outside, knowing little to nothing about the situation you and many of your fellow author are and I hope you'll forgive me if I say something wrong. :)
On with my opionion!
I truly am disgusted by the letter you got, and not strictly for the sender (who was doing his job and being - thankfully - straight-forward instead of playing politically correct and find some other excuses to say you "no") but for the whole environment this person works. It's disgusting that editors and publishers, who praise themselves to "know their readers", don't actually know a damn about them. I mean, as other commenters said before me, there is a huge amount of females of all ages interested in gay (more M/M than lesbian) stories of all genre, from fantasy to sci-fi, me being one of them: the prolieration of slash fics (and the interest in yaoi mangas and in Marvel's Young Avengers, but that's another story) it's the example and I cannot believe these people who publish books don't know about the slash genre and who is behind the phenomenon. Either they think the slash authors are a bunch of "frustrated gays" (please highlight the quotation marks!) behind slash or they haven't understand a thing - and, by the way, whoever could be behind the slash, those are a huge catchment area - or they're more bigot than I feared. I mean, let's forget moms and grandmoms who enjoy slash (Star Trek first Kirk/Spock fans, anyone?), there are many, too many teenagers writing and reading slash: if they are interested in reading and writing about to males in love or in a sexual relationship, why shouldn't they buy good written books with M/M content, if these were advertised like "straight" ones? I do remember when I was a teenager, ten and more years ago, and most of the times girls (and boys) tend to read what they hear from other friends or tv: if society makes you feel ashameed to buy a book with a gay or lesbian character, then you publisher shouldn't shy away but push and push. Gay literature is the new golden goose: they should just risk, I'm sure they'd have their profits. They're just too scared for media reaction and protests from anti-homo activists.
I (and I'm sure there are many others like me) would never choose to buy/not buy a novel only for the character's genre or his/her "alternative sexuality" - as said by an agent - but after looking the summary and reviews and judging it of my taste. It's not the character's sexuality that sells, it's the adv and the story, it's the publisher's duty to to make a book attractive - or why should an author share his profits with a publisher, if they don't do this?. Stating that a book won't sell because it's main character is gay is bullshit, to me, and a poor excuse to mask bigotry.
Probably the error is wanting to advertise the books for their genre and not their stories (not in your case, I mean generally). Who give a thing if the main characters are two women in love or two guys or guy/woman? Invest on the plot: the plot is wonderful? Than don't push on the "genre" thing. It's my opionion, but I fear that by rubbing LGBT's book on the "hater" 's faces won't do no good for the LGBT community.
Your book should be judged (and published and read) for its content, how's written, language's fludity and grammar, how the plot develops, how character's are portrayed and so on, but not for the main character's sexuality, especially if (as it's clear from the letter) he doesn't even have this "oh so dirty bad gay sex" but it's just explained he's in love with a man.
Damn, I feel so enraged for what you and other authors have to face everyday. :(
Ach, very long rant. I'm deeply sorry for this probably unwanted "spamming"! Well, anyway, keep up with your job: don't stop writing and fighting! :)
You sound like a very understanding person who is attuned to the market and the importance of diversity in literature.
I hope you get a chance to read my novel when it comes out and let me know what you think.
Thanks again!
Gays in YA? No way!
Re: Gays in YA? No way!