So, as a side note, some of the shocking #PublishingPaidMe numbers are obviously bad marketing predictions, (mis)informed by a limited sense of what Black writers’ market is. But a lot of the super-high advances for non-celebrities aren’t about actual sales projections... 1/10
but about competition, or the fear of competition— a writer gets a big offer so that the book doesn’t go to another publisher. I think a lot about consensus and diversity— (2/10)
on almost every prize/residency/admissions/hiring committee I’ve been on, no matter the demographics of the committee, it’s much less common for people to agree on candidates of color. Everyone’s individual list of finalists may be plenty diverse... (3/10)
but if you try to turn those lists into one shortlist of everyone’s favorites, suddenly your diversity is minimal, because every writer of color who’s one person’s favorite is someone else’s least favorite. The spread is bigger. Maybe there’s a word for this phenomenon. (4/10)
I don’t have a solid sense even of why it happens— multiple reasons, I suspect. But the only thing that solves it is saying hey, if we care about not eliminating most of the POC, we’re going to have talk more and create a final group with some people we disagree about. (5/10)
I wonder about that failure of consensus in publishing— when editors have to convince the house, or in terms of which books have competitive auctions. Someone sees it, but not enough people to create the kind of competition that raises the price. (6/10)
Honestly I feel like all of my advances were fair for the lane I’m in— not astronomical, but life changing for having been a barely published 24 year old when I signed the first contract, and escalating at a reasonable rate. But when BYSYOFS was on submission, (7/10)
Several editors were seriously interested— 2 were WOC whose houses wouldn’t back offers at the level they wanted to make. A few white editors sent friendly rejections along the lines of “I think this book will be a success but I’m not the editor for it”, which, fair! (8/10)
I took the largest offer on the table, and it was solid, but I didn’t have any leverage to negotiate. I ended up in a very good place and have no regrets. But I wonder how often that happens to bigger books— interest, but no major competition for writers who should be sure bets.
A lot would have to change to stop that from being a factor in publishing. But if you’re in a different field where you regularly evaluate people/their work, pay attention to what happens to your demographics when you try to turn individual preferences into consensus? 10/10
