Thread by @katydidinoz

I'm back from my holiday where I was trying to keep off socials and was only sort of successful because a BIG FRICKING THING happened in the romance community in the US & (realistically) the world. I've seen a few people asking how it would affect romance here and I have thoughts

First, it's so important to acknowledge that Australia is a country that is still at odds with the reality of its colonial past and how that affects its present. This is true in all spheres, cultural, political, educational, geographical. Racism is inherent in modern Australia

In publishing, this comes out in a few ways. First, our idea of 'story' is inherently British & privileges its colonial ideals. The concept of genre, narratives, even books are colonial and have been imposed on and privileged over storytelling traditions that have flourished here

Second, the publishing model has been lifted from the British model where it used to be a pastime for gentlemen and not necessarily a sustainable business. This continues to be true in the work expected of those in publishing, that we do it for love rather than a living wage

However, it can no longer rely on a constant influx of cash from a wealthy benefactor, so publishing is also subject to capitalist concerns where it must make more and more money and cost less and less for the company.

This system is INCREDIBLY exclusionary, especially for those people who do not come from a privileged background. My first publishing job paid $33000 a year, and I had to have a master's degree to land it. There were weeks when I ate olives and peanut butter.

My family didn't have money to help me, but I did have their support and a place to live while I pursued higher education and the citizenship document that allowed me to take out student loans. When I moved to Melbourne, I was able to stay with my Nana for a while.

The point is, I had a support system in place, the space and time and privilege to pursue higher education, no financial dependents except myself and a nice, white sounding name for my resume. And it was still really hard. And I still really struggled.

It's also how I found out that olives are technically berries so...

My point is, in order to land a job in publishing, you have to work incredibly hard, face artificial barriers to entry, be willing to sacrifice financial stability, and also be super lucky, where lucky = privileged.

I got my first publishing job because they were looking for someone who could edit into American English, so my cultural background worked for me. However, this is basically opposite town because cultural backgrounds normally work against would-be editors.

Questions of fluency, grammatical knowledge, spelling abilities. Ignorance of which countries have native English speakers and an unwillingness to learn. Attributing natural errors that happen to ALL editors to inferior language skills.

Any kind of accent that is not British and not American and there is an immediate assumption that the speaker won't have strong language skills. As if we don't all use dictionaries, thesauruses, and each other all the time.

And of course, there are the unpaid internships. Luckily my internship was through my degree so I was able to work for a semester and still qualify as a student. But this isn't always the case and it ties deeply into the financial instability of the industry.

So this is all to say that even if an editor has the ability to take an entry level publishing job, it's unlikely she will be hired. So that is problem one.

The second issue here in Australia is that we don't have a popular fiction market. Especially since Borders closed, but even before then and even with Amazon, there isn't a popular fiction market here.

There is a long history to that, but basically, book stores didn't carry popular fiction and they basically trained all the pop fic readers to go elsewhere for their books. Now, even if they do carry popular fiction, it tends to be those titles someone new to the area might seek:

The Game of Thrones books, 50 Shades of Grey, Stephen King, etc. All the readers immersed in popular fiction don't shop in Australia because they know they won't necessarily be able to get the books and if they can, the books will be expensive and take a long time.

And because popular fiction readers are readers, they want their books as cost-effectively and quickly as possible. There is a reason mass market paperback books flourished for so long - and telling that they don't exist here.

What Australia DOES have, that emerged in the last decade, is a rural fiction market. They're labelled rural romance, but realistically, they are closer to women's fiction and they are marketed as women's fiction, eschewing all the romance markers that identify the genre.

Here is where inherent racism comes in again because the vision of what rurality is, what agriculture is, what constitutes 'being of the land' in these books is also thoroughly colonial, and thoroughly white - no other cultural backgrounds included, aboriginal or otherwise.

(I know there are exceptions but being able to name the exceptions in a genre that has published literally thousands is only making you look bad, so just don't)

Now I was one of those publishers and I read some 2000 submissions every year. I don't remember ever seeing a ruro submission that didn't meet the developing generic traditions, but I may be wrong and I'm certainly part of the greater problem.

An aside: even progressive and risk-taking imprints had to make money and I published rurals knowing they would sell enough to fund riskier titles. It becomes a balance, a pay off to publish those things I loved vs those things that showed black on the balancing sheet.

This is never to say that the books I published weren't worthy and I think Escape published some of the most beautiful and nuanced stories of the genre. But it cannot be denied that these were also mercenary decisions to help keep the lights on

So, here we are: publishing jobs are exclusive, with few opportunities for change from inside, and the popular fiction market is exclusive, with only stories featuring a specific land-based narrative getting any play on bookshelves.

There is one third issue: what areas publishers want to see voices of colour or other marginalised voices writing into, and it's not popular fiction. Most of the time, it's not fiction at all. It's memoir.

This is not at all exclusive to Australia, but it is here: that is that there is a specific story that authors of colour or LGBTQIA+ or writers with disabilities are able to tell and that is their own. Memoir, autofiction, essays, occasionally historical fiction

But even that area fills up fast. I think it was @slamup who told the story of recommending one of the writers from Growing Up African only to be told that Australia already has an African diaspora writer.

So writers from a traditionally marginalised might see space for themselves in another area and pursue writing there.

So let's actually get to romance in Australia, sorry this thread seems to be becoming a whole spool!
1) No marginalised voices in editorial
2) No popular fiction market in Oz
3) Writers of colour (especially) but also other marginalised writers being encouraged to write memoir

This means that realistically writers of colour especially need to look outside of Australia for publication. This gives two options: 1) another English market, presumably US or 2) self-publishing. Both have inherent issues

Pursuing 1) means being doubly marginalised: first, as a writer of colour, but second as a writer writing outside of the US.
The US has a flourishing popular fiction market, but the US bookstores are conservative and don't like settings or characters outside the US

With a few exceptions like regency England and Scotland. But contemporary settings outside of the US and outside the branding of, say, Harlequin have a hard time finding shelf space. Publishers know this and it will influence decisions.

You may be able to get around it by writing US-set stories, but that is a restriction all on its own.

Option 2) comes with a great deal of outlay upfront, which is a barrier as well as the responsibility for all aspects of the publishing, something that may not be an area of interest, strength, or even feasible with time and money.

So writers of colour in particular look around the reality of being an Australian writing popular fiction and there is nothing but barriers. It's incredibly disheartening and demoralising and really no wonder that we haven't seen a WOC readership expand into writing

Some things are changing. The fellowship between @HarlequinAUS and @writerssainc for a popular fiction writer of colour is a great initiative. @HachetteAus have been fantastic in proving a readership for 'risky' books. And I think @RWAus has an opportunity here too

Recognise that being equal and being equitable are not the same thing. That not being racist isn't the same thing as being inclusive. Listen to what marginalised writers tell you and *believe* them. Recognising your privilege is not denying your hard work or talent.

But most importantly, we are about to enter 2020 with all its inherent vision puns. It might be the perfect opportunity for some clear-eyed exploration of what has been done and what can be done better, leaving behind 'it's always been done this way' towards 'we can do it better'

I also think it's crucial to remember that making changes doesn't negate the passion or work of the past. In many ways it celebrates it, recognising that we did what we could with what we knew and moving forward with what we know now. Growth is necessary in ourselves and our orgs

And those of us who have positions of privilege need to take active roles in championing the change, to allow those who have been marginalised the opportunity to enter without having to beat down the door.