(no subject)
Sep. 13th, 2011 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Yesterday, Rachel Manina Brown (
rachelmanija) and Sherwood Smith (
sartorias) posted Say Yes to Gay YA, about difficulties they've had finding an agent for their YA novel with a gay protagonist; specifically, an agent offered to represent them—if they removed the gay POV character, and/or made him straight instead.
As you might expect, I find that infuriating. While they are my good friends, they are also talented and proven authors—and furthermore, the situation they describe is clear: the book was rejected not for quality, but for having a gay main character. And other comments around the blogosphere make it pretty clear to me that this is a systemic problem, not a one-off bad-apple.
I'm not going to natter on. Instead, I'll suggest you go read the article—all the way to the bottom, where they suggest what we (all of us) can do to help improve the situation. There isn't a lot most of us can do, but there is something.
Say Yes to Gay YA (or, if that site is down—it has been linked by Neil Gaiman and similar, which can be hard on a server—there's a mirror here.)
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As you might expect, I find that infuriating. While they are my good friends, they are also talented and proven authors—and furthermore, the situation they describe is clear: the book was rejected not for quality, but for having a gay main character. And other comments around the blogosphere make it pretty clear to me that this is a systemic problem, not a one-off bad-apple.
I'm not going to natter on. Instead, I'll suggest you go read the article—all the way to the bottom, where they suggest what we (all of us) can do to help improve the situation. There isn't a lot most of us can do, but there is something.
Say Yes to Gay YA (or, if that site is down—it has been linked by Neil Gaiman and similar, which can be hard on a server—there's a mirror here.)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 10:21 am (UTC)Yes indeed. And I've already seen at least one agent saying 'oh no, this doesn't happen' and declaring the agent in question to be a single bad apple - but I don't think the agent making that demand would see themselves as being 'way out there' but as 'making a mainstream request because otherwise it won't sell'.
I am ever so glad people are _talking_ about this.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 05:02 pm (UTC)