to ask anyone who knows about books or publishing if this will be a dealbreaker

[myavatareatsveganpasta]

I've written a book. It took me about a year of drafting, revisions and research and I'm quite proud of it. I know how hard it is to get an agent and accept that the odds are against me though I've started to send out a few queries.

A couple of friends have well meaningly said the same thing to me though and it's got me wondering whether this could be an issue.

I am a middle class middle aged straight married woman and my main character is a gay man. He is portrayed sympathetically as a character who lives in a time and place where he cannot be out about his sexuality and ends up having to marry a woman with whom he finds a kind of happiness though obviously lots more happens in the story than that, and that's only one of the plot lines.

Friends said that they thought that in today's climate a straight woman writing about the LGBTQ community would be poorly received by agents and readers - are they right? Will agents discard my book without reading it because I'm writing about a community I'm not a part of?

Also, there is a character in the book who is very homophobic though she is clearly portrayed as a villain and comes to a bad end. Would that also not be ok?

Any advice welcome.

Harry Potter shouldn’t exist because J K Rowling isn’t a teenage boy at wizard school.

This is an absurd comparison. Harry Potter is fantasy. It's very different from writing about the experience of Mexican immigrants in the US when you've never left your semi in the London suburbs. And JKR isn't speaking for people who should be allowed their own voice.

Not an absurd comparison. No one is stopping them having their own voice, except social media.

I don't think that a gay male character written by a straight woman would be all that much of a deal, compared with all the other obstacles that stand between your ambition to have a book published and the cold economic reality of towering slush piles in every publisher's and agent's office.

Have you thought about self-publishing? There are so many platforms now that make this an attractive and viable option.

Honestly a ton of women are writing about gay men without much comment these days (Hanya Yanigahara only now started getting hmm why do you only ever write about gay men… sort of questions with her latest, very uneven imo book, that I caught wind of anyway). Especially in YA - Heartstopper is one of the biggest hits in a while. (I found this very cloying and obviously written by a woman but to my surprise it went down a fucking storm at a pop music forum mainly populated by gay men I frequent.) Madeline Miller’s book. That one about the Prince and the ambassadors son of whatever it is. Historically Iris Murdoch and Mary Renault wrote brilliantly about gay men. I think if the book is good, it really won’t attract comment.

Yeah, any book which has a rave review by gal-dem can get in the bargain bin frankly.

The problem you're anticipating only happens with books that are successful enough to be well known. There is so much high-quality writing out there that it is extremely, vanishingly unlikely that your first book will attract that kind of attention. Of course I hope I'm wrong and that you're the exception that proves the rule, but it's far more likely that an agent or publisher will like your book but tell you to write another.

It’s generally meant to apply to your main or POV character. Make that person like you, and populate your book with a diverse cast. Obviously this is simplified advice and writing, editing and publishing are more nuanced but most backlash comes when writers co-opt another culture for their main character, eg Taylor Jenkins Reid and Carrie Soto, and overshadow books actually by writers from that culture. Largely because it tends to be people of privilege – white, straight, etc – profiting from historically marginalised groups.

There is a HUGE trend for female authors to write gay male characters and gay male authors aren’t thrilled by it. Same as if male authors persisted in writing main character/POV lesbian experiences.

Nb “like you” isn’t meant to be exact mimicry as no character should be a blanket copy. But if you’re white, straight, NT, able-bodied etc you’re more likely to get that right in the writing than if you decide you’re going to write from the POV of a gay neurodiverse person of colour – you’d have to be fantastically good to pull that off and most debut authors aren’t! Publishing just loves a debut and a fresh voice but most writers get better and can branch out further with each subsequent book.

Just dye your hair blue, and hey presto, you are now “queer” and beyond reproach

Any book which has a rave review by gal-dem can get in the bargain bin frankly.

Seriously? You'll reject a book purely on the basis that a site you dislike gives it a good review? Do you even know anything about Nikesh Shukla?

Name changed bc it's identifying.

I'm in this industry and my advice is don't do it. I have a friend / colleague who is a brilliant author, makes six figures a year, huge fanbase etc and she launched a new romance series where the mc of book 1 was a black woman. Call her naïve but I think it came from a place of wanting to write more diverse characters and that was just the story that came to her. She brought in sensitivity readers who gave her the thumbs up.

She was in absolutely no way prepared for the backlash that ensued and her mental health has never recovered. I'm not even sure she's published a book since as she's probably suffering from her own form of PTSD.

Don't underestimate the power and cruelty of "the woke mob" when they are out for blood and you are villain of the week. They will accuse you of stealing money directly out of their pockets (putting aside the fact that it's very well known many black romance authors write white characters because that's where the money is, and my friend was essentially "shooting herself in the foot" profit wise or at the very least taking quite a gamble that the sales would be low. Nope, she was exploiting an entire class of people and writing stories that did not belong to her.

There's another quite popular Youtuber Lindsay Ellis who was a bonafied leftie all her life, made one little "problematic" mistake, and was subsequently ruined and has never posted again. They are vicious. They will dox you. They will trawl the internet for any little piece of ammo to use against you.

Right now it's ALL about #ownvoices and #stayinyourlane. The general public probably won't give two hoots, but the backlash that MIGHT come at you personally is horrendous. I'm in the world of self publishing myself so I can't say for certain but I'd imagine the big houses (and you'd only ever want to sign with the big houses) will be very aware of this.

Make of that what you will and best of luck whatever you decide. Personally the only time I touch characters of different races / sexualities / abilities etc is token side characters where their race / sexuality / disability isn't key to the story. Which is horrendous - but I value my livelihood and my mental health too much!

Not an absurd comparison. No one is stopping them having their own voice, except social media.

You seem to have completely missed the point, @SleeplessinScarbourough . It is not social media stopping underrepresented communities having a voice, it's lack of opportunity, lack of encouragement, and structural discrimination in the publishing industry.

"the woke mob"

How is this characterisation helpful?

Hence the air quotes.

a pair of quotation marks gestured by a speaker's fingers in the air, to indicate that what is being said is ironic or mocking, or is not a turn of phrase the speaker would typically employ.

Hanya Yanagihara is a very successful female author who's main characters are always gay men.

Nope, not just on that basis. On the basis that that's the only quote they could get or that they feel is a credible voice.

No, I've never heard of him.

I concur with this. I have written a book based on a true story, the crux of which is about racism and antisemitism in prewar Europe. One of the two main characters is Jewish (my grandmother) the other is black. I have spoken to a couple of agents who say that though they really like the writing, publishers are petrified of putting a step wrong and even with sensitivity readers wouldn't risk putting out a book written by a white Jewish woman that talks to a black experience. This literally means there would never be a book reflecting this theme unless it was written by a black Jewish woman.

NameChangeyy that's quite terrifying. So sorry for your friend.

And so sorry you've come up against this too, LondonMummer. Would you self publish your book?

I really didn't want to self publish. It feels like promoting the book would be a full time job (I already have one of those!) and I wanted the benefit of working with an editor without laying out for one myself. I have a few more agents to contact but I'm pretty resigned to getting consistent feedback so suspect self publishing will be my only option.

I wouldn’t worry about it, just use a gender neutral name in your correspondence. If someone denounces you on twitter it probably give you publicity. I’d get a sensitivity editor to read it though, although the publishers will arrange that.

Nope, not just on that basis. On the basis that that's the only quote they could get or that they feel is a credible voice.

It has a quote from Candice Carty-Williams on the front, ffs.

No, I've never heard of him.

I guess you're not interested in race, identity and immigration then. Pity, he's an award-winning writer with a fantastic profile.

I'm in the industry. I am published by one of the big trad publishers.

Sadly, I agree with this. I think the tide will turn again, I do, but right now I think this would be problematic for you.

I am sorry

Don't underestimate the power and cruelty of "the woke mob" when they are out for blood and you are villain of the week. They will accuse you of stealing money directly out of their pockets

Not remotely patronising of you to explain air quotes to me, @NameChangeyy. Can't see any irony in your description above. It's utterly vicious.

Thanks Crushmonsters. I hope the environment does change again. No one benefits IMO if writers are restricted to only writing about what they’ve experienced directly!

How about you don't chuck out all your work? If you decide not to pursue the option of publishing companies - You can register as a publisher on Amazon at no charge. It's easy to work through the process of setting up a book there for them to sell. Loads of helpful videos out there as well. Get the final manuscript copy edited before putting it up. Publish on Amazon under a fake name (loads of people do it). Do your research on how to promote Amazon books. I've got one up at the moment that's best seller in a particular category this week.

P.S. Publishing on Amazon will cost nothing, and it's print on demand so no cashflow or stock. You can get a good cover designed by someone from Fiver for about £10.