Editor’s note: The text of this post was written by Rachel Manija Brown, author of All the Fishes Come Home to Roost, and Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel and a great many other novels for adults and young adults. I am posting it in order to provide a pseudonymity-friendly space for comments from authors who have had similar experiences to the ones that Rachel and Sherwood describe. I strongly encourage all authors, agents, editors, publishers, and readers to contribute to a serious and honest conversation on the value and drawbacks of gatekeeping with regard to minority characters, authors, and readers, and to continue that conversation in all areas of the industry. –Rose
Say Yes To Gay YA
By Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith
We are published authors who co-wrote a post-apocalyptic young adult novel. When we set out to find an agent for it, we expected to get some rejections. But we never expected to be offered representation… on the condition that we make a gay character straight, or cut him out altogether.
Our novel, Stranger, has five viewpoint characters; one, Yuki Nakamura, is gay and has a boyfriend. Yuki’s romance, like the heterosexual ones in the novel, involves nothing more explicit than kissing.
An agent from a major agency, one which represents a bestselling YA novel in the same genre as ours, called us.
The agent offered to sign us on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation.
Rachel replied, “Making a gay character straight is a line in the sand which I will not cross. That is a moral issue. I work with teenagers, and some of them are gay. They never get to read fantasy novels where people like them are the heroes, and that’s not right.”
The agent suggested that perhaps, if the book was very popular and sequels were demanded, Yuki could be revealed to be gay in later books, when readers were already invested in the series.
We knew this was a pie-in-the-sky offer—who knew if there would even be sequels?—and didn’t solve the moral issue. When you refuse to allow major characters in YA novels to be gay, you are telling gay teenagers that they are so utterly horrible that people like them can’t even be allowed to exist in fiction.
LGBTQ teenagers already get told this. They are four times more likely than straight teenagers to attempt suicide. We’re not saying that the absence of LGBTQ teens in YA sf and fantasy novels is the reason for that. But it’s part of the overall social prejudice that does cause that killing despair.
We wrote this novel so that the teenagers we know—some of whom are gay, and many of whom are not white—would be able, for once, to read a fun post-apocalyptic adventure in which they are the heroes. And we were told that such a thing could not be allowed.
After we thanked the agent for their time, declined the offer, and hung up, Sherwood broke the silence. “Do you think the agent missed that Becky and Brisa [supporting characters] are a couple, too? Do they ever actually kiss on-page? No? I’M ADDING A LESBIAN KISS NOW!”
This Is Not About One Bad Apple
This isn’t about that specific agent; we’d gotten other rewrite requests before this one. Previous agents had also offered to take a second look if we did rewrites… including cutting the viewpoint of Yuki, the gay character. We wondered if that was because of his sexual orientation, but since the agents didn’t say it out loud, we could only wonder. (We were also told that it is absolutely unacceptable in YA for a boy to consensually date two girls, but that it would be okay if he was cheating and lying. And we wonder if some agents were put off because none of our POV characters are white.)
We absolutely do not believe that all our rejections were due to prejudice. We know for a fact that some of them weren’t. (An agent did offer us representation, but we ended up passing due to creative differences that had nothing to do with the identities of the characters.)
This isn’t about one agent’s personal feelings about gay people. We don’t know their feelings; they may well be sympathetic in their private life, but regard the removal of gay characters as a marketing issue. The conversation made it clear that the agent thought our book would be an easy sale if we just made that change. But it doesn’t matter if the agent rejected the character because of personal feelings or because of assumptions about the market. What matters is that a gay character would be quite literally written out of his own story.
We are avoiding names because we don’t want this story to be about one agent who spoke more bluntly than others whose objections were more indirectly expressed. Naming names can make it too easy to target a lone “villain,” who can be blamed and scolded until everyone feels that the matter has been satisfactorily dealt with.
Forcing all major characters in YA novels into a straight white mold is a widespread, systemic problem which requires long-term, consistent action.
When we privately discussed our encounter with the agent, we heard from other writers whose prospective agents made altering a character’s minority identity—sexual orientation, race, disability—a condition of representation. But other than Jessica Verday, who refused to change a character’s gender in a short story on an editor’s request, few writers have come forward for fear of being blacklisted.
We sympathize with that fear. But we believe that silence, however well-motivated and reasonable from a marketing point of view, allows the problem to flourish. We hope that others will speak up as well, in whatever manner is safe and comfortable for them.
The overwhelming white straightness of the YA sf and fantasy sections may have little to do with what authors are writing, or even with what editors accept. Perhaps solid manuscripts with LGBTQ protagonists rarely get into mainstream editors’ hands at all, because they are been rejected by agents before the editors see them. How many published novels with a straight white heroine and a lesbian or black or disabled best friend once had those roles reversed, before an agent demanded a change?
This does not make for better novels. Nor does it make for a better world.
Let’s make a better world.
What You Can Do
If You’re An Editor: Some agents are turning down manuscripts or requesting rewrites because they think that the identities of the characters will make the book unsalable. That means that you, who might love those characters, never even get to see them.
If you are open to novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists or major characters, you can help by saying so explicitly. When agents realize that LGBTQ content does not lead to a lost sale, they will be less likely to demand that it be removed.
The same goes for other identity issues. If you are interested in YA fantasy/sf with protagonists who are disabled, or aren’t white, or otherwise don’t fit the usual mold, please explicitly say so. General statements of being pro-diversity don’t seem to get the point across. We ask you to issue a clear, unmistakable statement that you would like to see books with protagonists or major characters who are LGBTQ, people of color, disabled, or any combination of the above.
If You’re An Agent: If you are open to manuscripts with major or main LGBTQ characters, please explicitly say so in your listings and websites. Just as with editors, simply saying “we appreciate diversity” could mean anything. (In fact, the agent who asked us to make our gay character straight had made such mentions.) You can throw the gates open by making a clear and unmistakable statement with details. For instance: “I would love to see books whose characters are diverse in all or any respects, including but not limited to gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, and national origin.”
If You’re A Reader: Please vote with your pocketbooks and blogs by buying, reading, reviewing, and asking libraries to buy existing YA fantasy/sf with LGBTQ protagonists or major characters. If those books succeed financially, more like them will be written, represented, and sold. Your reviews don’t have to be positive; any publicity is good publicity. Review on blogs, Amazon, Goodreads, anywhere you yourself read reviews.
An annotated list of YA sf/fantasy with main or major LGBTQ characters is available here, with links to Amazon. Please bookmark this list for reference. It will continue to be updated as new books are released.
Characters of color/non-white characters are often also relegated to the status of sidekicks in YA sff, and are depicted as white on the covers of the few books in which they do star. Please vote with your pocketbooks and blogs to support novels in which they are protagonists.
An annotated list of YA sf/fantasy with protagonists of color is available here, with links to Amazon. Part I: Author surnames from A – L. Part II: Author surnames from M – Z. Please bookmark these lists for reference. They will continue to be updated as new books are released.
The usual protagonist of a YA sf/fantasy novel is a heterosexual white girl or boy with no disabilities or mental/neurological issues, no stated religion, and no specific ethnicity. Reading and reviewing novels whose characters break that mold in other ways would also be a step forward.
If You’re A Writer: If you have had a manuscript rejected because of the identity of the characters, or had an agent or editor request that you alter the identity of a character, please tell your story. Comment here, or leave a link to your own blog post. If you would prefer to use a pseudonym, feel free to do so; see this post for more information on Genreville’s pseudonymous comments policy and credibility verification option.
If You’re Anyone At All: Please link to this article. (If you link on Twitter, please use the #YesGayYA hashtag.) If enough people read it and take the suggestions, enormous and wonderful changes could take place.
Who We Are
This article was written by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith. Rachel Manija Brown is a TV writer, poet, and author of the memoir All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India
Our YA post-apocalyptic novel, Stranger, remains unagented and unsold.
—–
Editor’s note: Please see the follow-up post here.
I’m so glad this issue is finally coming to light.
Six years ago it altered the entire course of my career.
I had published three science fiction novels under my own name, Anne Harris. All of them had lesbian characters, two of them as protagonists. So I was shocked when I pitched my editor a YA sf novel with two gay male protagonists and his first words to me were, “Do they have to be gay?”
He passed on the book, and the agent I had at that time did not want to represent it. I wound up firing that agent over the matter, and writing a different YA series — one without gay male protags — for my editor.
I have as yet not sold that YA I pitched, but I did insist on writing more books with gay male protags. What I found was that I could not sell them to mainstream YA SF/F markets.
I now do most of my publishing with ebook publishers who specialize in erotic romance and welcome books with gay male protagonists. I use the pen name Jessica Freely and I write sf, fantasy, and contemporary, but not, needless to say, YA.
I’m glad to have found a workaround and a way to get my stories out into the marketplace. However, to this day I find it very painful that YA books with queer protags have such a hard time getting published in mainstream SF/F. This is SF/F for crying out loud! Aren’t we supposed to be the literature of the possible?
I can’t agree more with those who voice their concern for queer youth who don’t see themselves represented in the books they read. I know how frustrating I’ve found this situation to be — as a reader and a writer.
It really does seem like high time something is done about it.
I’m glad this issue has been raised. The resistance to gay and lesbian characters in YA has been one reason why I’ve never bothered to write YA, but kept in the adult sf&f genres.
I am probably missing the point as I am 54 year old straight male with no interest in fantasy beyond True Blood, Lord of the Rings when I was in school, Game of Thrones, etc. That being said I kind of like the idea of making protagonists sexual orientation more acceptable by revealing it after the publisher, editor, and public are already invested in the character and the series by having them totally come out later. I assume this what many people do already in real life and would only confirm we all live side by side with all sorts of people that are great and just happen to have different sexual orientations. Plus there is no way the plug would be pulled on a popular series that was generating revenue for the publishing house. Readers, especially readers going through the same thing would identify with the character and the readers who didn’t identify with the character would readily accept the orientation. Can I make a reference to it being sort of like a when Judas Priest singer Rob Halford came out after all those years of fronting the band. You’ve got another thing coming, indeed. Anyway that is my two cents worth and I hope whatever methodology is used to render you LGBT characters is successful.
Speaking as a gay twenty-year-old, I think that can be valid and pretty cool. I’m going to speak in terms of homosexuality/bisexuality, because that’s what I’m most familiar with – I know gender identity and other sexualities have their own thorns, but…
When that’s the -only- way for this kind of story to be published, it starts to feel… isolating. When I left for college, my mom told me, ‘It’s okay to be gay and out of the closet. But only tell your very closest friends, after you’ve known them for a long time – after they’ve had a chance to get to know you, so they already care about you, and won’t beat you up.’
This feels pretty similar. But… what if I want to walk down the street holding my girlfriend’s hand? A lot of the ways healthy, comfortable adults express their sexuality are -visible- – they live with their partners, they hold hands, they go out on dates. Gender identity and so on are often less visible, but they still come up in everyday life.
I’d like to write a gay couple that lives together and raises children, or the hero’s best friend who’s in a gay relationship. Or the hero themself, who has crushes and thinks about identity and attraction, like most high schoolers do. If that’s an integral part of their character, I can’t hide it until the third book. A musician can hide their personal life, but in a book, we’re watching the protagonist’s thoughts themselves; it’s a lot harder to keep things under wraps.
Not unless I take drastic steps to hide their sexuality, and as a writer and a reader, that makes me feel like homosexuality is something that needs to be hidden, that’s shameful and embarrassing. I need to -trick- people into liking me. And that feels… a lot like being back in the closet.
I have been publishing YA novels with gay, lesbian and transgender characters since 1999 and have never had any agent or editor ask me to make a change like this. There are lots of other people writing these books too. If you doubt me, check out the Lambda Literary website for winners in the Children’s/YA category or look up ALA’s Rainbow booklist. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, just that I don’t think it’s a widespread problem.
LGBTQ characters in YA books where it’s ABOUT being LGBTQ are pretty common. The only 3 YA books with transgender main characters I can think of aren’t sf/f and are pretty much entirely about the character being transgender.
LGBTQ characters in mainstream YA books are not uncommon.
LGBTQ main characters in SF/F YA books? Harder to come by. As the list being compiled on LJ shows. A fair number of the titles listed are self-published, ebooks, or small press.
It just gives the impression that SF/F _and_ LGBTQ is just one step too far away from ‘normal’. One or the other, please! Not both! And don’t you dare also make them Indian, Deaf and Muslim!
I am somewhat frustrated by your response, and by similar responses. “It didn’t happen to me” is not the same as “It isn’t a widespread problem”.
If responses like yours were the only comments here, then it might be reasonable to say “It’s not a widespread problem.” However, by my count nine people in this thread (Emblebee, Nina, Seanan McGuire (in a link), Scott Tracey, Lore, Nicola Griffith, Anne Harris, Anne R. Allen, Sandra S ) have encountered this problem; and that’s not counting the people who had problems 10-20 years ago.
One person’s experience of no problems does not negate nine people who did have problems. Nine people in one Genreville thread — note that there are zillions of YA writers who didn’t even encounter this thread or this hashtag — is a substantial problem. There are enough agents and editors acting as gatekeepers to prove that there’s a gate that needs dynamiting.
I’m wondering if this is much different than saying, no vampire stories, or I don’t do paranormal or fantasy. If this doesn’t appeal to an agent, or he/she thinks he can’t sell it, then look at a different agent. In this agent’s opinion he/she thinks it would work better without the gay character, probably because of the market he/she wants to approach. An agent has a right to likes and dislikes just like readers do.
I’ll probably have people angry at me for expressing my opinion. But why is it necessary for everyone to believe the same way? Isn’t that what diversity is all about?
It is different.
The agent didn’t just say that she doesn’t represent books with GBLT protagonists. She asked the author to change them. By your analogy, that would be like telling an author that in order to get published, she had to turn her vampire into an ordinary human, or to excise all the fantasy and paranormal elements from the story. It makes for a completely different book.
Not the same thing as “I don’t rep X” at all.
No, it’s not the same. Queer people are real. Vampires are not.
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Is the main thing editors do go to dinner with lazy agents – the ones who not only invented genres, but insist the writer do their work by sticking to the rules, rather than pushing any book they’re hired to push into the right market? I’ve found mainstream, bestseller books describing an Egyptian Pharoah “christening” his sword in battle and feeding his horses alfalfa. The reason the middle-men are sneering at “niche” markets is they can’t get their snouts in the trough. I, in the meantime, have had a worldwide “niche” artist since 1986, and the cash amounts from self-publishing are growing all the time. I was also one of the small press author/publishers Booksurge called to ask about what we wanted before Amazon bought the company for Createspace. You’re Welcome.
I know YA editors at almost all the major houses, all of whom are looking for a wide variety of diversity in their books, and in fact we’re working on reaching out to schools, writers, and the industry at large to encourage diversity (Rose, I’m pretty sure I’ve told you about this before; I’ll let you know the site when we feel ready to share–we’ve been working on this for about a year and we should have a site to share soon). So this is an issue that a lot of us are looking for ways to solve.
Personally, as far as protagonists of color are concerned, that’s why I started Tu Books–to showcase characters of color who are the heroes of their own story. A book like this is right up our alley, and I want to encourage writers who are writing middle grade and YA fantasy, SF, and mystery about POC, including LGBT characters, that they’re welcome at Tu (agented or not). Check out the link under my name for our submission guidelines. We’re launching this month with our first books, which we’re very excited about, and I’m acquiring into 2013 at this point.
I think it’s only within the last few years that the market has started to show that it’s there for books like this as far as YA SFF goes; SFF for young readers has been traditionally very conservative in many ways, looking back in nostalgia. But the conversations on Twitter with this hashtag have listed a number of books, like Malinda Lo’s Ash and Huntress, that have been commercially successful recently, showing its potential. Look particularly at Malinda Lo and T.S. Ferguson’s feeds for discussion of this, the latter being an editor who worked at Little, Brown and acquired several LGBT titles.
I myself have not yet published a title with an LGBT character, though we have one coming out next spring with a gay main character who isn’t a POV character. The problem for me so far has been finding the right book that also reflects our imprint’s mission of POC main characters, but this post tells me that maybe I’m not reaching all the writers whose books would fit us. So please feel free to pass on the word that we’re looking.
Fuck that! I want to read your *UNEDITED* book. Can you publish it someplace where we can get to it? I’d pay. Hell, in this case, just to hork off the rep in question, I’d bloody well pay double.
Please, please make sure we get to read your version. I’m begging. I’ll post pictures of me on my knees begging, if it’ll help.
I do not doubt that Sherwood and Rachel had the experience they did with that agent, and I’m sorry that they went through it. For what it’s worth, I’ve had the opposite experience. I’m often asked how hard it is to sell an LGBT YA novel (it’s the most popular question I get), so I blogged about my experience here if anyone is interested in reading more:
http://www.malindalo.com/2011/04/how-hard-is-it-to-sell-an-lgbt-ya-novel/
I hope that more agents, though, will indeed state their positive support of LGBT YA novels in their submission interests. I think that would be fantastic. (When I queried, I did submit mostly to those who included LGBT in their interests.)
After I left my comment here, I also wrote a post about this on my blog. Here’s the link:
http://www.jessicafreely.com/2011/09/do-they-have-to-be-gay.html
One of my favorite books of all time is the Last Herald Mage trilogy, by Mercedes Lackey. The incredible success of these books should PROVE to any agent or publisher that not only is there a market for gay characters, it’s a powerful one. Even today, people talk about how Vanyel resonated with them as the first gay character they’d ever read.
“The only person I’ll ever love just happened to be born in the same sex body I was!”
It’s a quote that resonates with me even today.
No one should ever support censorship; least of all should they support censorship of an already oppressed minority.
Noble Romance Publishing has a YA line (http://www.nobleyoungadult.com/), and GLBTQ is absolutely welcome. The same can be said for Prizm Books, (a subsidiary of Torquere Press), which is exclusively GLBTQ YA (http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/) Neither of these publishers is likely to land you on the NYT Bestseller list, but they’re both reliable small publishers with a proven track record. Just a thought.
Thanks for writing this terrific article to start a dialogue about homophobia in the publishing industry. I’m trying to sell a YA fantasy with a gay male hero, and I hope I don’t run up against a similar experience.
I think you make a great point that the agent who was direct about the feedback might not have been homophobic on a personal level. Agents/publishers certainly have a right to make a living. There’s a case to be made that a “good” agent knows the market, and will help you sell your book for the highest price she/he can get. For us authors, we can choose to write to the market with tried and true heterosexual formulas; I don’t think anyone can argue against the fact that it’s easier to sell a book that way.
But I share your view that we need more books with good LGBT portrayals, so if that means I’ll make less money writing LGBT, writing what I believe in, I’m willing to make that sacrifice. It’s a matter of finding an agent and a publisher who shares those values.
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So sorry to hear that this has happened to you both! I know it’s a frustrating situation to be put in when deciding how to go public with this information – What’s safe? What’s comfortable? Nothing is ever safe or comfortable when talking about issues like this. Which is why it’s so important to keep talking about them. And though the fear of being blacklisted is a very credible one (and really, since we’re all human, who doesn’t keep “score?”), someone has to take a stand. Somewhere.
In the interests of adding a data point: last year I sent my agent a proposal for a YA fantasy series wherein a number of the female characters, being under a vow of celibacy, had sexual relationships with each other instead. (They’d sworn “to lie with no man,” so it didn’t violate their vow.) This included a plan for the main character to spend some time in a relationship with the widowed young queen (who couldn’t risk the possible political consequences of an affair with a man). The protag was also attracted to a male character, but held back because of her vow.
The series didn’t sell, but none of the editorial comments I saw made mention of the lesbian relationships as an issue, so I can’t judge whether that was a factor. I do want to mention, though, that my agent — Rachel Vater, now at Fine Print — thought the concept was great, and never said boo about the homosexuality. (She’s also enthusiastic about trying to sell a new proposal of mine, with a universally non-white cast.)
I would have loved to have read that series if it had been published.
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Despite being the “land of the free”, it seemed to me that in the US you were only free to participate in certain religions…provided you never spoke about them and never made any indication of your involvement.
I remember in school we had a number of Asian Buddhists and one kid was American Indian and his dad was a shaman. How many other cultural and religious differences existed in that class is hard to say.
I decided to write a YA novel that pulled the curtain away from these differences and made them explicit, in order to encourage greater tolerance. One character has a Vietnamese mother who keeps a little shrine at the door.
Then just as I finished the book, 9/11 took place. I thought, great, what an important time to put out such a novel. Agents and publishers thought differently. I repeatedly received rejections that said, “Your writing is professional, but we feel uncomfortable with the material.”
We hold such high ideals for publishing from having read those works and those authors who changed the world with their bravery. Sadly, publishing is a business, and people trying to make a living within it rarely have the vision, insight, and courage to publish from a place of integrity and social justice. Perhaps we should find a way to acknowledge the publishers/editors who show the bravery to stand by certain works, and thereby encourage sterling behavior.
I would LOVE to read this book.
I’m coming at this wearing two hats:
1. As a writer, one of my novels, Still life With Devils, was originally written in 1993 and submitted to my then-agent. I was told that the brother and sister protagonists “shouldn’t be black – you’re a white writer.” I came back with “Really? Should I take all the male characters out of my books, as well?”
The characters stayed the way they were because that’s the way I’d seen them; I write from the character-driven POV and I’d seen them as African-American from the get-go. I hadn’t “decided” to write them that way. I wasn’t “trying to make a point”. I was being neither politically correct nor politically incorrect – I was just writing the characters I was seeing.
2. As an editor and small press publisher, we’re interested in a well-written story, period. As a small press, we possibly have more latitude in publishing what we love than the larger conglomerates. Since our Big Book for the summer of 2012 will be Rituals, the first volume in Roz Kaveney’s dark fantasy tetrology, we’re pretty clearly fine with GLBT protagonists and protagonistes; Roz herself is one of the leading writers of the UK trans community, and its poet laureate. It depends entirely on whether the book makes us happy as a well-written book. Speaking from the editorial chair, diversity in a well-written book is not only something I’d encourage, it’s something I’d leap at.
This has happened to me three times. Three times I had an agent call and say she loved the book (all different novels) but would I make one tiny change? Would I make the protagonist’s best friend straight so she could marry him? Would I eliminate the subplots about the gay people? Could I make her long-lost daughter not be a lesbian? Her father not trans? I’m still unagented. I don’t write YA, I write romantic comedy. So it’s the same everywhere. I also have a good friend who’s been shopping an anthology of stories by megastar gay authors. He has an agent, but editors are telling her “gay doesn’t sell any more.” This is more than a problem with YA. It’s everywhere.
“tiny?”
wow.
“Gay doesn’t sell anymore”? As if it were just some fad?
That’s disgusting.
Another note from a publisher. I’ve noticed a growing trend in agents behaviour that seems to me to be representative of the industry as a whole: an abandonment of the idea of the story as a work unto itself. Sure, publishers _must_ consider the “product” nature of a work, but why in hell would an agent so utterly betray their author client in this manner?
One of the reasons we started Plus One Press was because the entire publishing industry is broken. While our main complaint is with the productization of the finances of book publishing, this intermediate screening by agents is certainly a factor in that. It’s another instance of people in the publishing food chain forgetting why they’re there in the first place.
Authors do not write product; they write stories. Now, as an author, editor and publisher, I firmly believe that for _any_ story, there’s an audience. I firmly believe that an agent’s job is to help an author navigate the maze of the industry to find that audience. Not to try to homogenize the story into an “acceptable” form that might not offend a “mainstream” reader.
Bluntly, an agent who asks an author to change a story is working from one of two perspectives: first, they’re being honest with the author and they are working in tandem to craft a specific work for a specific, pre-identified audience. A working partnership that’s designed to hone a story to be the best it can be for a specific reader.
That’s not the case here, or in virtually all of the cases of agent-requires-changes I’ve seen. And in those cases where is is a willing partnership, it’s manifest in that the agent will always cede the final decision to the author, and will then do their professional best to place the story as written.
Which brings us to the second, and far more common case: the agent is simply being lazy. Unprofessionally so.
Look, open LMP and you’ll find thousands of small press publishers. Each and every single one of them is interested in some subset of the entire publishing spectrum. For any given story, regardless of theme, there are at least hundreds of publishers desperate for such a work. Placing _any_ well-crafted story is not difficult. It just takes effort.
Yes, the work must meet quality standards, and agents are certainly in position to provide that guidance and filtering, and yes getting the “right” deal isn’t always easy or possible. But a flat statement that “I can’t sell this” made by an agent to an established author with a readership and an audience is complete and utter bullshit. Any agent that makes such a decree should be fired on the spot.
Again, any given work may be difficult to place. Perhaps extremely difficult. But it’s never impossible.
Now, this particular column concerns LGBT characters, and an agent’s willingness to represent a work containing them. My rant above is a bit more general, but the point stands: an agent who _requires_ rewrites that completely change the nature of key characters–and thus the complete story–on the grounds that it’d make it easier to sell to a non-specified publisher has abandoned the first responsibility of the agent: to serve the author/client.
Many, many agents have their preferred hit-list of publishers, and are scared shitless to stray outside of their Rolodex and actually shop a story. They’re comfortable with a handful of editors, and prefer to submit works they know those editors will likely buy.
That’s fine, but it means that the agent is representing those editors, and not the authors. The process _must_ be that if an agent can’t place a work with one editor, they move on to another. And another. Until you run out of your rolodex and crack open LMP and start going through a few thousand other possibilities. An agent that gives up after submitting to their favorite half-dozen editors is not an agent; they’re a secretary working for the publisher on a commission earned on the author’s back.
Nic Grabien
Publisher
Plus One Press
(ps: Hi, Sherwood!)
This is brilliant Nic. I’d like to quote a couple of lines in my blogpost on the small publishing alternative on Sunday.
I am gay, and an avid reader. I write, but not at a publishable level (that’s an idle dream that’s not likely to be acted on with any great seriousness). As I grew up in the 80s and 90s I had not one single book where any of the characters was gay. Given how many gay people and people of other non-heterosexual orientations I now know are out there, this is an astonishing thing. Maybe if I had been reading YA fiction with the occasional gay character I wouldn’t have spent years struggling to figure out who I am, just because I would have had more information on the table. Since I didn’t know any openly gay people, all I’ve really had is the internet and I dread to think what I would have done if that wasn’t around.
So, generally yes I’d love to see more books on the shelves which represent the diversity of the world and the people in it. I’m slightly wary that there might be a temptation to do it just for the sake of it, and I’d rather see no gay characters than the ‘token gay man’, but I’m sure there are enough authors around talented enough to not do that. I also don’t think every book necessarily even needs to mention that kind of thing, but somewhere underneath sexual identity is important to every character, so authors should at least know in their heads who the characters might be attracted to. Gay characters don’t have to face prejudice and bullying and discrimination like they do in the real world – maybe it would be nice to see a world where being gay is completely normal and accepted. I could certainly have done with that when I was young.
I am fortunate now to live in a small part of the world where my friends accept me wholeheartedly for who I am, and tease me about my dates just as mercilessly as they tease the straight people. But it wasn’t easy to get here, so for the sake of the kids growing up now and the kids still to come, please do this. Don’t make all your characters gay, don’t demand all-gay books, but encourage the reflection of the true diversity of the world and its people. All these things can help to make it a better place.
I wholeheartedly agree with the author of this post, but I would caution against shoehorning in “diverse” characters, or forcing a race or sexual orientation upon an inappropriate character just for the sake of creating the illusion of diversity. What we need are not more characters who are defined by the fact that they are gay, or black, or asian, etc. but more characters whom everyone, regardless of orientation or race, can identify with while still having their particular diverse trait be important to them as a character.
Note that this point goes for characters that are white and straight, too. I’d love to see more books with well-written colored, handicapped, or homosexual protagonists, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having well-written caucasian, non-handicapped, or hetero protagonists either.
As a lesbian who had zero lesbian narratives available as a teenager, I disagree. I’m all for shoehorning, if that’s what it takes. I would have appreciated it.
It isn’t that there’s anything wrong with well-written caucasian, non-handicapped or hetero protags–it’s that they are allready so very well-represented, while the others are absolutely not well represented at all.
“…forcing a race or sexual orientation upon an inappropriate character… ”
What character, in your opinion, would be inappropriately gay, or asian, or even female? The primary character? A doctor? A teacher? A homeless person? A vampire? Where is someone’s non-white, non-straightness inappropriate?
“What we need are not more characters who are defined by the fact that they are gay, or black, or asian, etc.”
Yeah, actually, that’s exactly what we need. Really, we do. Better written is a huge plus, but– considering the plethora of popular, badly-written novels out there? Poorlywritten queer characters will do until the good stuff gets available.
I think that the OP may not so much be saying that having a character be a minority would be inappropriate, but may be referencing the living character method of writing.
Some people, when writing, figure out who they’re going to write about and then do it. Others come with a sense of a loose story with the characters that have come to their mind, and try to write what those already existing characters will do. Often they’re writing with an inspiration in their head, or a character that just popped in.
For the first type of writer, it is easy to change an aspect of the character and go with it. For the second, it throws them completely out of the way that they write and forces them into the first type.
Also, I have to express my disappointment with hearing so much (not just your own) arguing in favor of bad or mediocre literature with forced characters. I think that is one thing that is more likely than anything else to get people /not/ reading LGBTQ YA and other stories, if they think there is a lower bar for them. “Man, the last five stories I’ve read with this type of protagonist were badly written! I’m done with this type/press!”
Why are white characters as default okay, but “shoehorning” in others not?
Note that this point goes for characters that are white and straight, too. I’d love to see more books with well-written colored, handicapped, or homosexual protagonists, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having well-written caucasian, non-handicapped, or hetero protagonists either.
But who said there’s anything wrong with that? That’s what the majority of books out there have.
On a writing forum I used to frequent, there were many debates over whether it was worse to have no minority characters at all, or to have them but only as “tokens”. The only thing we could ever agree on was that they were both rotten ways to write and we should try to do better. I agree with Asterisk’s caution against the tokenism, but I think people often overestimate the risk of writing a character “wrong” when they stray from the white, straight, and able default. You can always fix flawed characterization once you’ve got it down on paper.
Making a character more generic, or falling back on the default, doesn’t make them more identifiable-with. Making them well-rounded, fleshed-out, fully-formed, on all axes of their character, is what makes them easier to identify with.
I’ve been working on and off at a novel about a not-white (and therefore outcast) anorexic girl who makes her first tender sexual experiences with boys and girls of another species alike – and at once. I guess my manuscript would be turned down immediately.
The reason why I write characters like her is not attention or drama, but because this is real. This is what teenagers deal with, may they live in our world or a fantasy world. Teenagers are looking for orientation, and no matter if they’ll feel “straight” later or gay or bisexual etc etc, the teenage phase is a time of insecurity – an insecurity that usually gets halfway-cured by turning to the best friend first instead of a member of the opposite sex. It is natural for teenagers, especially these days, to question “straight” and “white” molds. It is realistic for us to be different, and to be afraid of it, yet we can only help our kids to overcome that fear by supporting them.
In the end, the reason why I don’t buy a lot of YA anymore is that most heroes and heroines are so awfully generic and just boring. There are no conflicts in them, they all get “straightened”. Literally. Yet no conflict, no story. Dear agents, please give us the conflicts to work with. We can handle it. Really.
A shocked storyteller, reader and book-buyer.
Just a question (,great article, haven’t read the comments). The three first books I reviewed on my blog -Dragon Haven and Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb. and Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton- have prominent gay characters. I didn’t mention this in my reviews, do you think I should have? -As a promotion, NOT a warning.
A bit of context: I have LBGT friends, and live in Norway. The Norwegian Lutheran Church (State run/funded) allows same sex marriage in church (,the individual priest can refuse, but the couple have the right to marry in the church of their choice).
For me the sexuality/sexual identity (,and race/skin colour/religion,) of a character is so secondary that I don’t even feel that it is something that needs a special mention.
-Should I continue to do what I do, or should I make a mention to promote these books to people who want LBGT characters in their fiction?
I feel I should add that the forth book I reviewed, Soulless by Gail Carriger, also has a prominent gay character, just to be fair.
I personally prefer to make it clear without harping on it–to treat it as normal. So in a review of a romance novel, for example, I might write “Dan and Steve’s romance is both tumultuous and sweet” just as I might write “Dan and Susan’s romance is both tumultuous and sweet”. I almost certainly wouldn’t call it a “gay romance” because that’s just inviting people to pigeonhole it based on their assumptions about what “gay romance” is.
Thanks for your reply.
I’ll try mention it when I review books in the future.
-And I will treat it as normal, I was brougt up to see it as such, and I do. -Wish everyone would see it as normal, and stop trying to control other peoples sexual/gender preferences.
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This does not surprise me. I’ve gotten several editing requests for GLBTQ characters myself, and often, there’s little chance but to bow to it.
This creates an atmosphere where gay characters are considered BOTH “pushed by the mainstream” and “pushed out by the mainstream – MM’s comment is a good example. Notice that due to supposed “mainstream opinions”, gay characters do often get changed to straight in the editing process – and then we get comments like MM’s, who seems to truly believe that it’s the NOT mainstream opinion to force people to stop being gay, the existence of actual camps where teenagers are tortured with electroshocks to “cure” them of gayness nonwithstanding (in other countries, this would be illegal).
The gay person thus can only lose, everything works against them. In the same situation, people will use both “the mainstream is for gay people!” and “the mainstream is against gay people!” as a weapon against having happy gay people.
My real problem against this has a christian basis. Some small christian groups seem to believe that their biases define all of their religion, and that their point is the christian point.
And yet: There are many happy gay christians worldwide. Not even once did Jesus say that gayness is wrong. In fact, the older bible texts use terms that suggest that the cured servant of the roman centurion was more than just a, ah, servant. The only negative mention of it in the new testament is in letters from a guy who not even once met Jesus.
But actually writing a mention of this in a YA novel? Editors just won’t let it happen.
I wondered if you’re familiar with the popular anime and manga genre of boys love or shounen ai/yaoi (and the lesbian counterpart shoujo ai/yuri). They are mostly gay oriented romance comics (or short novels) in varying degrees of explicitness targeted at girls, but for lgtb readers they can be interesting, even though most of the romance isn’t very realistic and follows a heterosexual type cast. A lot of it is pulp, but there beautiful jewels in there. Many fangirls also actively take a stand against the gay is not okay vibe.
Because of the popularity of yaoi, now anime and manga conventions arise centered around that genre, I myself am part of the staff that organizes YAYCON in the Netherlands. There YaYuCo in Germany, Yaoicon in the US and a new convention in France is just starting up. For YAYCON we actively try to bridge the gap between the target reader group of yaoi and your and lgtb readers and put extra effort in bringing over lgtb artists as special guests.
I’m a comic book artist myself and next to my more regular comic work I also work for Fireangels and doujinshi circle OpenMinded who publish works in the yaoi and yuri genre under my pen name Ealynn.
Is there a post this on facebook link too? Posted in on twitter :)
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As a nineteen year-old book lover I find this so incredibly frustrating!
Why should it be so difficult to find a book with a well developed character- especially if they are LGBTQ? When there are books out there like Twilight and it’s ridiculous one dimensional characters who are continuously described as ‘perfect’ in every way- it makes me want to scream. No one is like that- how is that a more realistic or relatable character?
I have a close friend who is coming to terms with being asexual, which is a sexual orientation I have NEVER seen represented in a book- especially not YA. I think there is a much larger market for LGBTQ or diversity of any kind to be represented in books than the publishing industry must realise. Lets face it- it is not only gay teens who will read LGBTQ YA books, just like not only white straight non-ethnic religiously ambiguous teens read the books with those character who ARE getting published.
I have resorted to reading a lot of fanfiction,as there is very little oppression of voice or diversity. I personally read mostly LGBTQ fanfiction because it is different from what I can find in the bookshops or libraries.
Thank you for commenting. I’m not replying to all comments because I’m a bit overwhelmed by the amazing response, but in case your friend would enjoy some recs, that there is one YA novel I know of with an asexual character, Karen Healey’s “Guardian of the Dead.” (Listed and linked with the LGBTQ books here.)
Jo Walton’s adult fantasy “The King’s Peace” have an asexual heroine.
Thanks for mentioning your asexual friend, JenBee, and for the book recs, Rachel. At twenty-eight, I’m years beyond being a teenager, but for the past year I’ve been coming to terms with the realization that I am asexual. And I can’t help thinking that if I’d ever seen representations of people like me anywhere in fiction, maybe I could have discovered this about myself years ago, instead of spending more than half my life assuming there was something wrong with me.
I’m glad your friend has someone as supportive as you on their side, Jen. That can be so incredibly helpful. And I know what you mean about fanfiction; I read a lot of that as a teenager too, for just those reasons. It does seem like diversity is more readily written about and accepted there than in most published fiction. (Though ironically, most of the stories the fanfics are based on are pretty typically straight, whitewashed, and so on.)
It seems bizarre to me that such nonsense is being pushed upon authors. Teenagers are fully aware of diverse sexualities, and thank goodness for that. How can realistic, positive non-straight, non-vanilla role models in literature be more of a problem than the morass of fear and ignorance which older generations were left to flounder through?
I haven’t had any agent or publisher grumble about the sexuality of my characters yet, but they have tried to dictate other equally tunnel-visioned concepts. Consequently I placed a link to this article in my blog today as a show of support.
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*sigh* This is depressing on so many levels, although reading that some agencies and editors are making a point of stating that they welcome LGBT characters gives me some hope.
I’ve been wrestling with this some lately myself because one of the key characters in my series (not YA) is gay. I just released a short story collection where the longest story – twice as long as the others – focuses on him and his boyfriend. I went the indie route on the book, mostly because nobody will publish short story collections, but now I’m glad I did for other reasons, too. The character isn’t him if he’s straight. Like H. Scott Beazley said about his character, it’s not the main thing about him, but it is one thing and it helped shape who he is.
The idea that an agency or an editor would want to change something that essential to a character — that’s like changing a character’s family life or other key elements that have shaped him/her — it’s not the same person. S/he won’t react the same way in situations.
I’ll definitely be passing this link on, and thanks to PW for publishing the entry so the word can get out.
So glad to see authors fighting this fight for our gay youth! Please keep on fighting!
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I seriously can’t believe that agents/editor/publishers etc. are getting a free pass on pretending that it’s nothing personal. If you choose to work in, and fall in step with, an industry that dictates ridiculous and hurtful standards that contribute to prejudice, it IS personal. You are part of the problem; you are perpetuating it unless you take a stand against it. How pathetic. “Market conditions” etc. are the same reasons given by people who wouldn’t support black or Hispanic or female candidates for high level executive positions with public visibility. It is gutless.
As a publisher of GLBT YA specifically, I can only say that it’s sad to know that industry representatives don’t want to let all teens see themselves in the books they read. We also encourage readers, bookstores, and libraries vote with their money and time to support diversity in fiction.
I think that beyond the whole publishing side, the stereotype that if you read slash or femslash (using the fan fiction terms because that’s how my friends and I refere to it) then you must be gay or a lesbian is absolutly horrendious. My best friend is bi but hides it because he knows if he comes out he’ll be kicked out of his house, his ex-boyfriend was reading a book called “The God Box” by Alex Sanchez. Our other best friend and myself borrowed the book and read it. I could tell my bes friend (coincidentally also my ex-boyfriend) really wanted to read it, but was terrified of the rumors it would start if he did.
I really would like to see more slash on the market. Of course I was plesantly surprised when I picked up a book at the bookstore randomly and enjoyed the back cover and began reading it to find out that the two main characters were gay. I would have squeeled except I was at home and my parents strongly disaprove of slash and I really want to finish that book. I’m working my way through writing a slash book of my own, though Dec’s being a bit of a brat about sharing info.
Yet of course, plenty of red-blooded heterosexual men enjoy lesbian porn. And scores of women of all orientations enjoy slash fiction. To assume the automatic reaction of anybody who isn’t gay to LGBTQA themes is “squick” is…misguided, to say the least. Good luck with your book, by the way. I’m in the same boat as you (reading and writing LGBTQA stories secretly), but through some sweat and a lot of editing I was able to sell an original slash story to an e-publisher under a pseudonym. It’s not YA, but I like to think it helps encourage a more positive enviornment in its own small way. Your story can, too.
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I’m sure the comments above have already covered the inherent diversity and other issues. From a business standpoint these agents should consider how much money Fox has made off of a television romance with two male characters and get over themselves.
Wait, what show is this?
Oh, I see Glee mentioned further down and I guess that’s the show. Pity it’s not an SF/F show! I was trying to think.. House? Supernatural? But they weren’t it. :)
But books->television get straight-washed (what’s the real word for that?). Witness Lifetime’s adaptation of Tanya Huff’s Blood books. Tony is cut out entirely and there’s not even a hint that vampire Henry is bi.
They even changed him from a romance writer to a graphic novelist! More manly? Hrm.
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How ironic, that a genre that came from the formerly outcast “nerd” society, is rejecting outcast points of view. One of the finest YA fantasy books ever, Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe, is written from a girl’s point of view. That’s a large part of what drew me to SF/F in the first place. Marion Zimmer Bradley included sexual diversity in her stories as well, long before anyone else did.
On behalf of my good friends who are GLBTQ, as well as my own behalf, I say “thank you” for taking this intiative. I agree wholeheartedly, these characters need voice in YA literature.