It has been a while since I tackled discourse happening in the bookish world, but I wanted to jump in today with some thoughts on the conversation happening around HM Wolfe and Liara Tamani.
To recap, for those who are unfamiliar, HM Wolfe is the author of Daggermouth. A few months back, someone on threads grossly mischaracterized her and opened the door to racist engagement from other threads users. Which led to a massive conversation about racism in bookish spaces and inspired many of us to buy Daggermouth in support of Wolfe.
Fast forward to last week, and a different creator posted a photo of Liara Tamani's book, This Aint our First Rodeo, complaining about the art. The main characters are pictured sitting together on a horse, and this commenter was irritated that the horse's saddle didn't look realistic enough for them. Which, despite that being silly, became a huge problem when their comments began filling up with white commenters disparaging Liara, a Black woman.
There, you are caught up. So, why do I want to talk about this?
Because yesterday, an author posted a status expressing some frustration about the way that, from their perspective, the bookish community often shows up in force for authors who are experiencing racism, etc, while other authors are fighting for exposure that no one is interested in helping them reach. And many bookish creators (especially Black bookish creators) felt very disrespected by that sentiment.
I want to talk about that.
Before I dive in, however, I want to be clear that this blog is not about that author or that post. Because truthfully, he is not alone in feeling that way. I have heard that sentiment from many authors. From many creators as well, if i'm being honest. Every few months, a racist comes out of the works and does something so egregious that we have to rally together to protect and elevate one of our own. And behind that, there are always people who feel left behind. People who feel like they have worked tirelessly only to get outperformed by someone because of a racist.
Ok, let's talk...
At a quick glance, it can sometimes appear that experiencing racism (and other forms of bigotry) has been a significant catalyst in people's careers. However, from my perspective, that is actually almost never true.
Take HM Wolfe for instance (because I am more familiar with that situation). Daggermouth was incredibly popular before that commentary came for her. The book was already being talked about in every corner of BookThreads. It was already a book most of us had heard of and were considering reading. In fact, not only had I already heard of Wolfe, but I was already so impressed with her marketing that I had reached out to her to discuss a dystopian I am putting out through Left Unread.
Wolfe was already being discussed everywhere in bookish spaces. At least the areas of bookish spaces where Black readers congregate.
Which is exactly why that moment of bigotry had the response it did.
Because they came for someone we knew.
The idea that victimhood makes people famous, in my opinion, is actually a white supremacist talking point that some of us have taken to heart unintentionally. From the perspective of white creators who feel punished for resenting us, our passionate displays of community feel like an unfair advantage. But the truth is, community is the only effective tool that we have for consistently breaking through white supremacist barriers.
By standing together, Black authors and Black readers have forced the publishing world to take Black art seriously. Despite their continued refusal to create a fair and equitable industry for everyone, they have no choice but to acknowledge the existence and value of Black art and Black artists.
Community has always been how we break through.
Which brings me back to HM Wolfe.
Racism did not help her break through. Community did.
Because Black readers had already created space for her, when the barriers that we all face came for her specifically, the community was ready to say the fuck not.
This is what I need us to collectively take to heart. These moments of massive movement from Black readers is not evidence that we only care about weighing in on conflict. They are evidence that we are immovable force. That we move in community and cannot be stopped once we have begun doing the work to break barriers for one of our own.
If you look at some of the Black authors we love the most, you will find a long history of them breaking barriers only for the industry to repeatedly attempt to throw them back up. Think of how many very successful Black authors had to cut a series short and then pivot. Or how many times the community has had to show up in force to make bookstores take popular Black book launches seriously. Or even the way Black authors regularly have to stress the importance of their pre-orders, despite having successful books under their belt.
The industry, despite its promises, is designed to keep us out. Almost every single successful Black author you have heard of has broken through because community created space for them. And almost every single time, community has had to protect that space afterward.
And once again, I am not saying any of this to shame you if you have ever felt jealous of a success story. I get it. Sometimes it's hard to clap while you are drowning under the weight of seemingly unbreakable barriers. So I'm not here to shame you. I am here to help you shift the way you approach your own place in this industry. Because I do believe in you. And I have complete confidence that every barrier set up against us will come down if we work together.
So here are a few things I want you to really take to heart.
Racism is not a lucky break, it is violence.
Community is the only way we win.
Change is coming if we stay in the fight.
As a Black creator who works tirelessly to combat white supremacy in the publishing industry, I need you to know that white people do not move me. And that is true for the overwhelming majority of Black readers. The opinions of white readers are not deciding how we feel about books or which authors we fall in love with. And that is exactly what you are accusing us of when you suggest that responding to racism is what motivates us.
It's not true. It's never been true. It never will be true.
Black readers are focused on celebrating Black authors and stories. And that happens in response to Black joy, Black magic, Black pain, Black hope, BLACK EXISTENCE.
We are fighting to push Black authors forward. And that means we are rallying behind authors we love and both celebrating and defending them, depending on what they need in the moment.
My encouragement to a lot of you, whether you are authors trying to make space for yourself or creators trying to grow your platforms, is to make community a bigger part of your routine. And it's important for me to say that I am NOT telling you to use people. I am NOT telling you to pretend to like people so they will sell your book or help you grow. I am telling you to learn to care about the person next to you. Learn to clap for the people who win before you and to fight for the people still waiting after you break through. Center our collective effort to take up space in this industry and trust that as you fight for our collective goals, your place within those goals isn't going anywhere.
White supremacy has told us that there isn't room for all of us at their table. And in response, far too many of us have agreed to fight one another for the one or two chairs they allot us, rather than flipping the table and taking up as much space as we fucking want to. I need us to resist that. That's their approach to diversity in publishing. They want us to compete for room.
And I just don't accept that we have to.
I want you to know that this is not just a talking point for me. This approach is at the center of everything I do. It is why I started this community and why I launched Left Unread as an imprint. Because I believe that this industry is in need of real change. Not just in who is represented by the old white men who currently control every major publisher, but in the way publishing itself works.
We are doing things differently because we agree with you that publishing shouldn't be a popularity contest or a constant struggle for control. Publishing, the way we do it, is an act of community. We are in this together and together we will succeed. And we're not alone. There are many many people pushing for similar change. Many indie publishers, marginalized authors, even editors and professionals within trad companies. We are all working toward shifting the way this industry works and I have complete confidence that those efforts will pay off.
But in the meantime... stop believing everything white supremacy tells you. They aren't right about you. Keep going.
As always, I am so grateful for every single one of you who show up every day to engage with my content and to help this community be successful. If you are not already subscribed, please consider joining the community. Sign up for free for more content like this, and if you are able to, please consider subscribing at the $5 or $12 tier. Our paid subscriptions help us to invest in authors and work toward creating change in this industry. Thank you.
