I've been talking up an investigatory piece I did on the state of #Ownvoices in queer science fiction and fantasy. I know that's a bit specific for some of the members here, but I thought it may be of interest to others. I strongly suspect that there are parallel trends in other genres of fiction.
If you're not familiar with the #Ownvoices campaign, it started among YA authors, primarily of color, who were concerned that efforts to promote more "diverse" books don't always take into account authorship. The observation is that privileged authors get a lot of publicity and praise for "breaking ground" by telling the stories of marginalized groups, while minority authors, some of whom have been writing about their communities for years, have a lot more challenges in getting their books recognized.
I noticed that happening in queer sci fi and fiction, particularly gay SFF and decided to look at some data sources to quantify who writes "popular" gay SFF, and library-recommended gay SFF, and shortlisted and award-winning gay SFF. My preliminary research suggests that it's mostly non-gay authors: http://andrewjpeterswrites.com/?p=4276
Let me know what you think. I'd be interested in hearing about authors experiences with publishing in the genre, and you can PM me if you're more comfortable with that.
I've been talking up an investigatory piece I did on the state of #Ownvoices in queer science fiction and fantasy. I know that's a bit specific for some of the members here, but I thought it may be of interest to others. I strongly suspect that there are parallel trends in other genres of fiction.
If you're not familiar with the #Ownvoices campaign, it started among YA authors, primarily of color, who were concerned that efforts to promote more "diverse" books don't always take into account authorship. The observation is that privileged authors get a lot of publicity and praise for "breaking ground" by telling the stories of marginalized groups, while minority authors, some of whom have been writing about their communities for years, have a lot more challenges in getting their books recognized.
I noticed that happening in queer sci fi and fiction, particularly gay SFF and decided to look at some data sources to quantify who writes "popular" gay SFF, and library-recommended gay SFF, and shortlisted and award-winning gay SFF. My preliminary research suggests that it's mostly non-gay authors: http://andrewjpeterswrites.com/?p=4276
Let me know what you think. I'd be interested in hearing about authors experiences with publishing in the genre, and you can PM me if you're more comfortable with that.