(Untitled)

[sartorias]

The unnamed agency in our previous post has chosen to come forward to present their perception of our exchange. We confirm that it was the agency we referred to. We stand by every word we wrote in our original article

Comments

[la_marquise_de_]

I have the feeling that public and private stances by gatekeepers are often very different, and that they are wary of revelations about the private ones.

[fpb]

http://fpb.livejournal.com/580373.html

[azdak]

The agency does not seem to me to be acting in good faith.

[sartorias]

sigh. There's no use whatever into speculating about motivations.

We did take a month to think this over, and we wrote several drafts. We really, really wanted to keep names out of it, because it was clear that there was a much larger problem.

[dancinghorse]

God bless Malinda Lo, who did the numbers and the charts--because you can whip those out to back up your article.

The agency was extremely unprofessional in its response. That will not serve them well in the long run.

The industry has a huge problem with sexual orientation and gender bias. They're being called on it, and they don't like it one little bit.

[rachelmanija]

I was enormously impressed with Malinda's work.

[asakiyume]

You guys acted in good faith on an issue that was important to you. And, from the responses to the Genreville post, it seems to have been something other people have experienced and something that deserves talking about.

It's very easy for the agency to take the route of saying, "Oh, well, their book had other problems." If that's their perception of things, fine. But the conversation is still worth having. Because, while on a personal level, of course you guys want the book published (and so do we!), that wasn't the reason you acted.

I hope, and believe, that your taking the brave step can still have a positive effect, if editors feel that there's a large readership out there. Maybe agents will take more risks, knowing editors are more open, and there'll end up being more books published that represent the true variety of young people's experiences and personhood.

[sartorias]

Exactly. Exactly.