Post by siobhan on Jul 8, 2014 18:05:34 GMT -8
Hi everyone.
I'm not sure where to begin other than my "creation" story. A year ago, I left a very stressful job and entered the ranks of the unemployed for six months. Well, I guess that I was technically self-employed but just not making money. My original plan was to crank out series after series as I thought it would be the best way to make a livable income. Then I joined another writer's board where the tone was very negative towards self-publishing. I began listening to their negativity. I started querying. I joined contests. I wasted months trying to perfect my query letter. By the end of the six months, I only had 1 novella and 1 novel to show for it.
I got some nibbles from agents. I also received some "constructive" criticism. Namely, on the very first page of my novel, I used the term "nigga". I frequently heard this word spoken by youth--not just Black youth but also Whites, Asians, and Latinos. It was a word commonly used among the younger folk. In my story, the word was used by a teenager trash talking during a basketball game. I thought that I was being authentic.
Apparently, this type of "street language" was frowned upon by many agents. I was told that if I got rid of that one word then maybe my story would be marketable. Well, as a Black author of multi-ethnic heritage who lives in an urban environment, that bothered me. Why would the use of that one word make my store unmarketable?
As I have mingled with other minority authors, I began to hear similar stories. If you made this character White instead of Black, your story would be marketable. If you made the names a bit less ethnic then your story would be marketable.
When they say marketable, they really mean that the story could be consumed by non-Black audiences, most specifically White readers. Maybe if my story was a bit more literary and focused more strictly on deconstructing racism and racialism then I might have gotten away with using the term "nigga"; but my story was a funny, romantic piece. Nothing literary about it.
Anyway-- I'm Siobhan, aka the Admin. I'll be using this account to post my own opinions. The Admin account will be for maintaining the site.
Thanks for stopping in.
I'm not sure where to begin other than my "creation" story. A year ago, I left a very stressful job and entered the ranks of the unemployed for six months. Well, I guess that I was technically self-employed but just not making money. My original plan was to crank out series after series as I thought it would be the best way to make a livable income. Then I joined another writer's board where the tone was very negative towards self-publishing. I began listening to their negativity. I started querying. I joined contests. I wasted months trying to perfect my query letter. By the end of the six months, I only had 1 novella and 1 novel to show for it.
I got some nibbles from agents. I also received some "constructive" criticism. Namely, on the very first page of my novel, I used the term "nigga". I frequently heard this word spoken by youth--not just Black youth but also Whites, Asians, and Latinos. It was a word commonly used among the younger folk. In my story, the word was used by a teenager trash talking during a basketball game. I thought that I was being authentic.
Apparently, this type of "street language" was frowned upon by many agents. I was told that if I got rid of that one word then maybe my story would be marketable. Well, as a Black author of multi-ethnic heritage who lives in an urban environment, that bothered me. Why would the use of that one word make my store unmarketable?
As I have mingled with other minority authors, I began to hear similar stories. If you made this character White instead of Black, your story would be marketable. If you made the names a bit less ethnic then your story would be marketable.
When they say marketable, they really mean that the story could be consumed by non-Black audiences, most specifically White readers. Maybe if my story was a bit more literary and focused more strictly on deconstructing racism and racialism then I might have gotten away with using the term "nigga"; but my story was a funny, romantic piece. Nothing literary about it.
Anyway-- I'm Siobhan, aka the Admin. I'll be using this account to post my own opinions. The Admin account will be for maintaining the site.
Thanks for stopping in.