Say Yes to Gay YA

[sartorias]

Here is where Rachel Brown and I talk about a recent project which we thought would be an easy sell. It's a young adult dystopia with detailed world building, cool powers, futuristic razzle-dazzle, romance, horror, humor, and adventure. It is also gay friendly, and the main characters are not white. The sidekicks are. Click the link to find out

Comments

[asakiyume]

I thought it was a great article. I liked how careful you were to say that you didn't want it to be an attack on any given agent or agency, and I really liked the suggestions to agents and editors that if they're open to these things, they state so explicitly.

It's not just LGBTQ kids who want characters who are something other than straight, just like it's not only people of color who want characters who are something other than white--though those groups may have a more desperate and pressing need for such characters. As a kid, I longed for something different from what was all around me. I *loved* stories about people who were different, whose problems were different, whose family relations were different, etc.

[sartorias]

I think so, too. there is already plenty for white kids to read, and het kids, etc. I don't think that is ever going to change our problem here is that some editors have said that they never see material with other protagonists, and we began to wonder if agents were rejecting such material for the editors. Not necessarily because they are anti-whatever, but because stories with white, het protagonists are a much easier sell.

[anderyn]

well, goodness. I certainly would have bought/read that book, and would have happily given it to my grandchildren. I really don't understand the "portals" of media being so behind the times --- maybe it wouldn't have sold to a publisher, but I'm betting it would. Why cut it off before the editors had a chance to say yea or nay? I know agents have to eat, too, and maybe this one was just being careful about putting effort where he saw the possibility of a hard sell, but it seems to me that the world has changed and YA books with non-white/non-straight characters shouldn't be all that rare on the ground -- whether it's agents refusing to represent said books or publishers thinking they won't sell, it's still a silly attitude. IMHO.

Of course, I am a weird person who likes her fiction to be full of pretty boys snogging, so perhaps I am not the best person to be picking new books.

[sartorias]

lol!

[ide_cyan]

Is it okay to link to your account if I post the links on LJ/DW?

[sartorias]

Sure!

[ide_cyan]

Thanks. I linked from whileaway.

[queenoftheskies]

How disappointing. I know teens who would love to read the book.

[fpb]

"Diversity", of course, means nothing but "the moral duty to have a few homosexual characters, all of them utterly positive". You can keep it.

[lenora_rose]

I don't know. To me, diversity means that in the last couple of years, I've found it much easier to find fantasy and SF books about Chinese (Or Chinese American) characters written by Chinese (or Chinese American) writers, not white men. It means I've seen more characters explicitly mentioned as black, or Jewish, and who didn't behave exactly like a white Christian character in the same circumstances. It means I've seen a major character in a tv show speak fluent Spanish and reference a family life that wasn't white urban or suburban standard. It means I've read more books with gay characters as complicated nuanced and prickly people, not as a cardboard friend of the protagonist doomed to die tragically. I've seen more books with lesbians who aren't the EVIL daughter of the main villain. I've seen an increase in fantasy worlds based on something other than Northern and Central European history. I've seen instances of disabled characters and fat characters who aren't there to be mocked or pitied. (Though not enough of either, yet.)

[fpb]

The subject and heading of this discussion are not Chinese.

[arkessian]

Congratulations -- you read the first line of the post you were replying to.

Stretch yourself, do. Read the rest.