Here’s a not-so-secret practice in the book community: hyping books based on their authors. I’ve been guilty of this before. Various novels have made their ways into my recommendation lists or preorder baskets simply because the author’s a big name in YA fiction. But here’s the truth: it’s time I stopped doing that.
This, as all things are, is for various reasons. However, I’d first like to talk about the elephant in the room: the large majority of “instant-order” authors, with huge fan bases and dedicated publicity teams, are white. There have been so many fantastic releases by authors of color in the past year, which were completely overshadowed by white authors. And I get it. Publishers only have so much they can spend on individual campaigns, and from a business perspective it makes total sense to focus on books you already know will be bestsellers. However, I think the book community needs to change its perspective on promoting marginalized voices. Of course, read widely and well, but also acknowledge the fact that books pushed at you are often done so on a default basis. A great example of this is to see which books win GoodReads Choice Awards, and the EpicReads Book Shimmy Awards. In my opinion, a large swath of last year’s winners weren’t actually the best books. However, they were by authors with large fanbases who would most likely vote for their books over another, less popular author’s. Take YA Fantasy & Sci-Fi for instance. The winning choice is The Wicked King by Holly Black. I’ve read and enjoyed the first book. However, some other selections up for the win include: Wilder Girls, A Curse so Dark and Lonely, and The Gilded Wolves. All books featuring a diverse cast of characters with POVs for sapphic rep, cerebral palsy, and indigineity. The most widely publicized book was The Wicked King, though, and more readers mean more votes. It’s not an easy instinct, to seek out books that aren’t automatically pushed. In my encounters with friends and family, there’s a base assumption that recommended books are the cream of the crop, and they deserve to be considered first because they’re well-crafted. I want to challenge that position. I think we as readers need to do a better job of seeking out marginalized voices, because of the systemic inequality that keeps books by white, cisallohet authors on the bestseller lists. An author’s existing body of popular work serves as their resume. This is great! Past work is a good indicator of the quality of future books, it’s true. However, we need to consider that even a few years ago, a large majority of published works were from white, allocishet authors, and they’ve had a greater time in which to build up that resume body. This leads to their current books being placed favorably on shelves over books by authors of color, queer authors, disabled authors, and otherwise marginalized authors. What can we do in response? Keep an eye on new voices, both those of authors and readers! They'll always have a great, diverse recommendation for you—take my list of 2020’s queer YA, for example. Try new things! Sometimes we revert to what’s comfortable out of a sense of habit—I caught myself considering purchasing a book by an author I’ve read before, whose work I swore off of, just because I was unsure about picking up a new book, but that new book turned out to be amazing! Next: support debut authors! Get their books from libraries or bookstores, go to their events (on Zoom or in real time, when we’re able). This ensures they’ll be able to keep writing more books. Keep your biases in mind—you might be curating your tastes to ingrained societal expectations, and that can be unlearned. Thank you for reading and keeping an open mind—together we as readers can show support and make a difference.
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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