YA Publishing Industry De-Gays Books: What Are The Options?

I write fanfiction–gay, straight, long, short, with male, female, white, and non-white characters–and post it for free on the internet. In return my writing has reached tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of readers. I’ve met hundreds of fans of my works, I’ve had gifts of fanart, fanfiction, my fare paid at conventions, and good old fashion exchange of goods. I’ve gotten to be on panels with academics and pro writers alike.  I’ve had my fanfiction quoted in academic journals, and taught on the syllabi of college and high school English courses. I do not need the publishing industry to validate my writing. And it’s true, my characters didn’t all originate with me. But, as we should all know by now, that’s hardly a requirement for being a legitimate writer.

Because I write fanfiction, to me the idea that legitimacy as a writer comes from the size and nature of your platform is bupkis. People who write for free do it for the same fundamental reasons as people who do it for profit. The difference is that we also stand outside of the publishing industry, and no one’s foot is in our face.

Honestly? Leaving all professional desires aside, leaving all issues of money and creativity aside: writers, in all seriousness–why would you want to be part of an industry that is actively trying to hurt and oppress you?

Social institutions last only as long as we have need of them. If the publishing industry as an institution is so bloated and unable to adapt to change that it continues to resist opening its ranks to diversity even as it suffers from decimating cutbacks and profit losses, then why are we still legitimizing that institution by pretending that it still meets our social needs in any way? Because, at least to me, it no longer does.

Yes, we absolutely need mainstream gay characters and PoC characters. (Been down that road in rantville too.) So what’s stopping writers from using Youtube or Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr or WordPress as their platform for publication? What’s stopping writers from testing the waters of all the new, free, and undeniably censor-light technology that exists for us? What’s stopping writers from thinking outside of the box of print publishing as their only in-road to reaching mainstream audiences, when mainstream audiences are evolving further away from the printed word every moment?

I realize this is a pretty radical, maybe even laughable idea that I’m proposing–that if writers can’t make a living getting their voices out, autonomous and untouched, then maybe there are more important things than being able to profit in traditional, direct ways from those books. Maybe putting representative characters out there, any way you can, is more important than upholding a failing institution and being able to make money from it. Maybe I’m helping to put queer characters in the mainstream right now, just by doing what I’m doing and queering existing canons in front of a small audience of several thousand people. Sure, it’s not much–but it’s definitely not nothing. And it’s more something than someone who sticks with traditional publishing and then has their book de-gayed.

In addition to writing stuff for free on the internet, I’m in the middle of writing a YA horror novel whose main characters are all minorities.  In recent months, after studying the state of the publishing industry carefully, I decided to self-publish this book. I’ve started saving up for the marketing, and I’ve started planning out the logistics of the book trailer, the editing, the cover art, everything. The one thing I haven’t decided is whether I’m going to sell it, or put it out there for free. I have a day job, and I have fulfillment as a writer. I don’t need to make a traditional profit from it–and I would suggest that maybe the time has come to start thinking of “profit” in different ways.  I think there is as much power, and profit, in disseminating ideas through free exchange as there is in attempting to wrest control away from the privilege-based institutions that are censoring those ideas–even if the idea is as basic as “not everyone is straight or white, assholes.”  If humanity constantly fights against the danger of a single story, then I think it’s just as important for all of us, writers and readers, to fight the danger of a single avenue to telling our stories. Especially now when we have more non-traditional avenues available to us than ever before.

So there you have it, one fangeek and YA reader’s take on this tired, sad, totally unsurprising mess: pro writers, do something different. Stop letting the publishing industry punch you in the face.

Aja Romano blogs regularly at Bookshop.