Indie Publisher Drops Author Over Twitter Dispute Regarding OwnVoices

[zodgory]

Another day of drama on book twitter though the current argument is about who can write what. It all started when writer Alisha Hillam tweeted about how white authors shouldn't write from the POV of non-white characters and should have sensitivity readers. This also goes for cis/het authors writing LGBT+ characters and abled authors writing

Comments

[jazzl3t]

Erm... Why are some people fighting for white people to write non-white characters POV? That's really silly and not at all a solution to creating a diverse set of characters in the book/story world. TBH a lot of white authors are not equip to tell that story.

Black, Indigenous and other authors of color should be telling their stories with that POV. I'm not going to sit here and call for promoting white authors to tell MY story.

I think the point of the argument is that non-white authors NEED TO BE published more so we can have non-white characters' POV and more POV in general. lol.

[addictedgal]

I'm surprised too. I really started doubting my gut reaction to this post when I started reading the comments and wondered, am I too sensitive? Have I gone too far?

I'm not sure if people don't see there's a distinction between having a cast of diverse characters (which I am very much here for! and that means several backgrounds, not just a token!) and having a POC POV. I can see it in a multi-POV book but if there is only one POV and the author is white... I just don't see how that will come authentic. I won't ~cancel the author but I question why people don't see that we could just be publishing more #ownvoices books - the assumption that all our heroes would be white is based on the assumption that the majority of authors for these books should still be white.

[jazzl3t]

Same to your first point. I thought I was going crazy. lol.

And completely agree with your 2nd paragraph. Every word.

[addictedgal]

Yay, honestly I see how ONTD posts become so skewed depending on how the tone is set on the first page. I wasn't going to comment until I got to the 3rd page and saw comments like yours and felt reassured that I wasn't just ~far left.

[addictedgal]

Yeah, I think POV is the important point here. With TV and film it's easier to have multiple writers and even then we saw the issue with Killing Eve not having an Asian writer which caused problems that were NOT APPARENT TO THE (probably well-intentioned) WHITE WOMEN WRITERS.

But it's different with books. With books when there is often a sole author, it would be tough to have them write a POC POV main character.

This author in the post clearly doesn't get it as shown in her quote below and that's why POC readers would be wary even if we want to give passes to well-intentioned ones and not claim "all white authors".

So no I don't explicitly say a character is from X place but it is obvious from context. And my characters should resonate on many levels with readers, I hope, but my black characters are not meant to resonate more so with black readers and vice versa, if that makes sense.

This is some colourblind bs. Characters from specific backgrounds should resonate more deeply in that regard with readers of that background.

[anydoppelganger]

Great comment and totally agreed.

"Though I suppose if white authors wanted to write PoC POV I guess I would prefer it didn't consider race as much then try to pander with comments about how the character feels about colourism? Idk, it is a topic I'm not fully certain how I feel about."

tbh this is why I just don't want a white author anywhere near this subject. Either way would be repellent to me.

[thelxienoe]

your last pargraph hits on what (to me) seems like the best solution for an author who really wants to or is asked to write from outside of their demographic or from the most represented demographic (and therefore perhapd easiest to write demographic, because examples of doing it right are everywhere). i don't know why co-authorship isn't more of a thing, esp. when we already know that many many voices influence a finished work, even to the point of cutting out plotlines, merging characters, etc. it also seems more fun to write with someone else, imho. i'm not social, but if i had a publisher who teamed me up with a talented writer so we could write a deep and resounding set of characters, i'd be so happy.

[addictedgal]

I think book & author culture is changing so much now with social media and more interactions between authors, publishers, and readers. But still writing is seen as a solitary endeavour and there's a lot of ego and pride involved in it so it would take a lot for the culture to really shift.

[adb7]

The fired lady is definitely arguing in bad faith but I don't disagree with her entirely. I dunno, I think they're both kind of wrong here. Alisha makes that broad sweeping statement but she doesn't see the irony in what she's doing. She's trying to speak for black people but also saying remove all black people from representation and focusing on individual authors, not the publishing houses that only publish white authors. I'd argue there are ways non-black people can write people of color. It just requires a lot of work on the white author's part.

[addictedgal]

I have been sort of amused at seeing all the debates between white women on the book internet

[thelxienoe]

single authorship is a complete myth. if we need diverse books i think it needs to be widely accepted that editors can, at times, be a form of author, and that plural authors can produce one cohesive work. if you want to write diversely, write with other people. idk 🙃

[addictedgal]

This would be a really interesting shift to see, like how other media with writing teams work.

[thelxienoe]

i think it could do so much. i gave up on the idea of writing by trade because it is /so fucking hard./ one person shouldering a first draft and shopping it around while more established authors have a doorway open already is untenable for new talent, full fuckin stop. literary journals are shutting down so there's fewer avenues for exposure that way. but if you're a team collaborating and trying to sell a manuscript from the jump? fun. also less emotionally isolating. and then it'd make more JOBS. if there's only one "author" per book, then, welp, there's not many good jobs in writing. if we accept that better books have multiple heavy living influences and decide to take that fact and normalize co-authorship, we can double the number of opportunities. win win win win i believe i solved writing, you guys. (i hope my sarcasm is obvious, lol. obviously this "solution" introduces a new set of problems, starting with dividing up already sparse book deals.)

[addictedgal]

Yup I don't know the financial side to really know and I guess like you said a lot of the established authors probably do get a lot of behind the scenes support already and we just don't know it.

An aside, I maintain that the decline of Downtown Abbey is that Julian Fellowes was almost entirely the solitary writer of all the episodes.

[maltwhitman]

Ugh. This is why I don't read. And no I did not read these white ladies' tweets.