Thread by @monsterhunter45

1 There's a writers of twitter hashtag going around (not using it because I don't have the time today for the Screeching Harpies of Tolerance to come scream at me).
It is the predictable cringe you would expect it to be.

2 if my introduction to you as a writer is Hi, here's my pronouns and I'm gender binary windshield wiper fluid queer trans species... That doesn't make me want to read your shit.
Especially when you all sound EXACTLY THE SAME.

3 if the single most interesting thing that makes you special as an author is your sexuality, that tells the potential readers that you are boring as fuck.
That shit don't sell books. Readers don't fucking care.
Some claim to. They're lying.

4 skimming through all these intro/bio posts, they're fucking cringe, interchangeable, "edgy". LOOK AT ME I AM SPECIAL IN AN APPROVED MANNER.
Aspiring authors, just write your fucking books and make them good. Write stuff people want to read and enjoy.

5 in the old days I'd say that identity shit doesn't help you get published, but with NY publishing now that's probably mandatory.
But that doesn't help you be a good writer or actually sell any books after that.

6 what separates you from the herd? I didn't get rich selling books because I'm a warm beige heterosexual man.
I got rich because I wrote books people really enjoyed enough to tell their friends about. And then I kept on doing it over and over and over again.

7 if you have to lead with your sexual identity, that's like a giant warning flag to your potential readers that your product is shit. If your product was good, you'd lead with that, not that they are obligated to purchase it out of solidarity to show they're a good person.

8 writing is a business. Sales is sales. If you went to the car lot, and the salesmen opened with "Hi, I'm Jim, a queer otherkin two spirt, and Hyundai has a great deal on financing this week" you'd be like what the hell is wrong with you, Jim?

9 I've been selling books for 12 years. During that time I've watched the reading audience become increasingly wary of this shit. They've been burned too many times.
Outside of very niche markets readers don't buy off author identification.

10 this works both ways. You can't just say, I'm a conservative Christian and expect them all to say yay and buy your stuff. Some. Maybe. (just because at this point you're an oddity in publishing!) But if you want to sell more you have to actually write good books.

11 in fact, on the other side if a new author says hey Christians Cons buy my book, I'm one of you, they are met with distrust. Why? Because why are you leading with your identity? Isn't your book good enough to stand on its own?

12 this works great for the wannabe dilettante crowd. They're in it to say they are "writers", without all that messy work and making a living at it part.
For them it can be a virtue signal. For the rest of us its a fucking job. Treat it like it.

13 because publishing is a woke nightmare of terrible shallow vapid assholes, this is a trap for writers who fit in demographic of the week X. They'll give you a contract just to say hey look, I've got an X.
Then they'll treat you like shit, because that's all you are to them.

14 we've seen this dozens of time. Sexual identity, race, religion, whatever. Publishing is a bunch of shallow New Yorkers. They want you so they can brag about how progressive they are at dinner parties. Trust me. I've been to those.
These people are assholes.

15 but then, no matter what/how you write, that's all you will ever be to them. That's how they sell you. An author of X. Not a good author. Nope. People should buy your stuff because they should feel bad if they don't.

16 then I watch as these authors of X go to literary conventions full of Caring White Liberal Allies, where they get put on the Mandatory Diversity Panels. Not plot, or character, or writing nuts and bolts. Nope. You get assigned to the token panel.
Every. Fucking. Time.

17 trad publishing will chew you up and spit you out. Most of them are soulless. You are only useful to them as a marketing tool which may or may not make money.
Even then, most AUTHOR OF X don't make much money, because the audience has been burned too much.