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Join us at noon to discuss ‘The future publishing pipeline and meeting the needs of writers of colour’
with #DerekOwusu
@profsunnysingh
@aimeefelone
@emma_a_paterson
@nikeshshukla
We will have two BSL interpreters and will be live-tweeting! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rethinking-diversity-week-future-pipeline-and-needs-of-writers-of-colour-tickets-110580589520
with #DerekOwusu
@profsunnysingh
@aimeefelone
@emma_a_paterson
@nikeshshukla
We will have two BSL interpreters and will be live-tweeting! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rethinking-diversity-week-future-pipeline-and-needs-of-writers-of-colour-tickets-110580589520
'I no longer can believe the industry is acting in good faith. To me now, it's a question of moral failure on the part of the industry. We've said this not for the past year, 5 years, or 10 years, but for centuries.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Where are people of colour in executive suites? Why aren't we seeing them at the top of the ladder? Not just recruitment at the bottom. Pay them, promote them, empower them - get them to the top.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversity
'The anxiety of speaking out and speaking up is constant... I've lost friends over the Jhalak prize. When I spoke about moral failure, it wasn't just the publishing industry. Why aren't white writers standing with us?' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'If you're sitting around the dining room table and you saw your friends not being served food, would you not speak up? I want to now ask white writers why they aren't speaking up. Because we're on that table supposedly. Where is the food?' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversity
'This is in academia as well. We need to decolonise pedagogy. I don't want to teach on a course, or learn from a course, where there is one post-colonial week or racial equality week.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversity
'If you aren't decolonising your own teaching and reading practice, you're letting down your students and your colleagues. More than that, it's a moral failure and a failure of intellect.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'I think people want a sexy solution to diversity. Mentoring isn't a quick solution, it takes time and work. So many authors helped me to where I am. I stand on their shoulders and so many who came before them. I can't ever pay them back, but I can pay it forward.' @nikeshshukla
'I mentor a lot of writers, either through proper schemes or informally - helping them find their voice. Mentoring has to start from early on and through the publishing process because the publishing industry is quite opaque.' @nikeshshukla #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'White writers - if you’re putting your discomfort in having this conversation before the humanity of us, then you need to check that. This needs your work too. We need you to amplify Black snd Brown voices, and put a hand out.' @nikeshshukla #RethinkingDiversity
'Talk to your literary agent or publisher if they only represent one Black author and only in the last month. Don’t feel you’re going to have any of this taken away from you - the potential for bridges to be burned for PoC authors for speaking out is much greater.' @nikeshshukla
'White writers, imagine, all I ever wanted to do was write - I never wanted to do all this work. It's time for you to pick up the slack now, thank you.' @nikeshshukla #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Ask uncomfortable questions, be uncomfortable. We all have to feel uncomfortable.' @nikeshshukla #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'It's not just about what stories we tell, but how they get out there. I implore writers to read this report to understand how the industry works, how the editing, sales, marketing teams work.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Authors of colour need to understand the process in order to better negotiate and challenge it. The lack of transparency in publishing is what allows the status quo. It's an exclusive form of knowledge.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
' @STWevents, who we partner with, and similar org's, have programs for emerging writers. They are already doing the work with the community on a limited budget. Imagine what they could do if publishers partnered with them. Use and support these resources.' @svanlente
'What concerns me is the very stark failure of the major agencies in this country. I don't think we can ignore or escape that reality.' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'On the other hand, I'm also concerned by some of the responses I've seen from agents in the wake of the global #BLM protests have been distressing, triggering, and dismaying. I saw a number issuing sudden calls for Black and brown writers.' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversity
'What is that saying about you? What were you doing before? If you weren’t doing anything before, why should these authors have confidence in you to handle their stories?' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversity
'This should be a time to listen, to self-interrogate and examine why you have failed, rather than to profit from Black death.' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'The onus is on the agent to go & look for authors & talent that is not being represented. Once your list is more representative, you can build through recommendations or through authors who can now feel they are welcome on your list.' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversity
'When I set out to build a list I wanted it to reflect my reading. I’ll read some writers that reflect my own experiences, and I’ll read others that don’t. It’s not a particularly revolutionary idea. It’s nonsense to think this is hard.' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversity
'It's so easy, it becomes a question as to whether there’s an investment in doing the opposite, because it's not hard and it's not challenging.’ @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'The whole reason we set up #InclusiveIndies was to support houses like us hit the hardest by the pandemic. We seemed to be shouting into an abyss that we’re here, we’re doing the work, and we need the support.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'We initially received little response and were at maybe 300 backers and £10,000, but after George Floyd’s death, we were inundated with support and the bigger publishers were suddenly coming to us.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'When there’s a problem in the US with race, there is suddenly an awareness that it may be an issue here. I struggle with the situation in the UK and lack of support consistently given.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'There are problems with the entire ecosystem of publishing. I've heard it said that putting Black and brown children on the cover will impact sales. It’s hard when you’re the only one in the room. I’ve seen the looks, I’ve heard the comments.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'With @_KnightsOf, our intention is to publish children’s stories that don’t lean on a trauma narrative, and are just representative.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'I don’t think its groundbreaking and shouldn’t be lauded as amazing. We’re just doing what needs to be done and unfortunately isn’t being done by the bigger houses.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'We have sold a murder mystery novel and stories about kids running in massive quantities. There shouldn’t be this assumption that children’s writers have to write their trauma in order to sell or be worth publishing.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Corporates have lost talented people to the independent, leading spaces. Black and brown friends I have in those spaces, very few in high enough levels to commission, now find that these conversations are an additional job they have to take up.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'They're expected to teach the industry, but aren't given the freedom to find writers, and publish what they want.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'Now that the crowdfund has ensured we won't disappear, our priority going forwards will be what it always has been: to continue to support our community, do the work, and find the authors.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'We aim to find new writers, nurture them, and sell their work to show big publishers that there is a commercial case as well as a moral need.' @aimeefelone #RethinkingDiversity
'Don’t only look for writers in bigger cities, go outside London. Dont be complacent and wait for authors to come to you - go out and find them or we’re all missing out.' @svanlente #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'We need publishers to fundamentally rethink their assumptions when publishing writers of colour: that they can only write about these topics, that these communities don’t read, that race is niche, that writers of colour don’t want to do these professions etc.' @Anamik
'These assumptions are precisely what keeps the industry in its place. Encourage publishers to rethink that. Next time you say I’m not sure there a market for this writer, or not sure how to sell this - rethink these assumptions.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'We use social media to find our community, talk to them directly, and have them hold us accountable. We ask them what they need from us, what we are doing wrong, & what we are doing right. This invites new readers and parents, and draws authors to us as well.' @aimeefelone
'For me, Twitter is the right platform and where my readers and community are. @nikeshshukla and I cofounded @jhalakprize after we met on Twitter, and Twitter is where I sell my books.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversity
'At the same time, I'm fascinated to see white writers who basically only follow and interact with other write writers.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'I put this out as a challenge to write writers today: How many of us are you following? The work is a silent task. Follow us, listen to us, educate yourself.' @ProfSunnySingh #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'I don’t have an active plan for SM. All I really want to do is write but I’ve accidentally, through Good Immigrant, fallen into writing NF. And suddenly the middle class intelligentsia look at me as a spokesperson.' @nikeshshukla #RethinkingDiversity
'I’m not using SM to make any grand pontificating statements about the state of the nation, I'm literally just trying to make this world accessible for other writers of colour. I’d much rather be talking about Spiderman comics, but I don’t get to do that.' @nikeshshukla
'What we do speak on, white writers repackage and get all the attention and support. Maybe I do have a chip on my shoulder, but maybe I deserve to.' @nikeshshukla #RethinkingDiversity
'It's not enough for white agents to suddenly open the gates, it is urgent that we put Black and brown agents in leading roles. I really want to see that power balance disrupted and completely changed.' @emma_a_paterson #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'For anyone else doing research in the area of BAME employment in publishing, please do get in touch and I'd be happy to share experiences or views.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Found that there is a constraining environment in cultural industries. PoC can end up internalising some of the assumptions referred to earlier. In the end, being able to make it in these industries demands that you conform to the whiteness of these spaces.' @Anamik1977
'Bringing people into the industry needs to be done while giving them the space and the resources to flourish. Need to be afforded the same creative freedom as their white counterparts.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Publishing is an inherently unpredictable and risky business. It means people need to take risk. Unfortunately, when PoC take risks and there is inevitable failure it's used as evidence as to why PoC aren’t successful etc.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'It was our fear that we were putting out information that authors of colour already knew, and publishers may not take up. We are pleased that many people said they have felt heard or seen by the report. Hope that this will spark something more sustainable before.' @svanlente
'Thanks to everyone who has been involved - it's amazing to be a part of this conversation. Unfortunately this is only the start. We need to move away from the benign language of ‘diversity’.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'Publishing needs to think how to be more actively anti-racist. #BLM has produced a profound reckoning in the industry and we can’t let this be just a moment, we need t sustain it.' @Anamik1977 #RethinkingDiversityWeek
'It's up to the industry to ensure that the complacency of the past is dealt with more proactively in an anti-racist and intersectional matter. Focused on race in the report because of scope, but also intersections of gender, sexuality, class, etc. are important.' @Anamik1977
Thank you to panelists, @Anamik1977, @svanlente, @ProfSunnySingh, @emma_a_paterson, @nikeshshukla, @aimeefelone, and #DerekOwusu who couldn't make it in person. Thank you also to partners @STWevents, @thebookseller, and @GoldsmithsUoL. #RethinkingDiversityWeek
To our audience:
What are you going to do differently in your spaces to keep this discussion alive?
#RethinkingDiversityWeek
What are you going to do differently in your spaces to keep this discussion alive?
#RethinkingDiversityWeek
