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For a newspaper article, I was asked about being a Black SFF writer, & I'm grateful for the journalist's questions because they were an opportunity to consider and place a few of my thoughts on my journey and on publishing in writing. Here's what I said (a thread):
1. Q1: Historically fantasy has been very much centred in Medieval Europe. Anywhere to the east was typically described as Eastern & exotic, the south jungle covered & mysterious. Growing up in Zambia was it strange to read fantasy that was... coming from a different perspective?
2. A1: Although I grew up in equatorial Africa, Zambian schools, like many in the former colonies, are based on the education systems of the colonizing power. This means...
3. I learned to read, & fell in love w/ reading, from books that centered Europe, whiteness, & stories derived from the continent’s history & cultural traditions. So, it wasn’t strange to read fantasy coming from a different perspective because that’s not what I did. Instead...
4. My education and the point of view through which I was made to see the world was, for all practical intents and purposes, British.
I may have been a Black child in Africa, but...
I may have been a Black child in Africa, but...
5. The narrative of the world, as it was given to me, was a British/European one. This, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the greatest and most often underrated powers of storytelling:
6. Storytelling lends societies and their people the power to define a concept of ‘normal’. Put another way, the stories we tell each other, the ones that are valued and elevated, play a significant role in solidifying and maintaining the social order of the past and of the day.
7. This is because stories, fantastic or otherwise, suggest to readers their place in the world, the scope and limits of their ambitions, and they contribute to our understanding of ethics and morality.
8. The books a people read, with their themes, plots, protagonists, antagonists, & resolutions, not only reflect what those people understand about the human condition, they govern whom those people can most easily see, &, importantly, who they don't need to see.
9. Q2: Why did you self publish Rage of Dragons in the first instance? Was there a reluctance to engage with fantasy with an African setting?
10. A2: I self-published THE RAGE OF DRAGONS for two reasons. First, I did not believe that the traditional publishing establishment would be particularly interested in an epic fantasy focused on Black people. Second...
11. After taking a long look at self-publishing, I’d seen evidence that a critical component in sales success was active promotion through marketing & public relations activities. Given this...
12. My concern was that even if the book could gain interest from traditional publishers, it was most likely that my book would live out a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here’s that prophecy in theoretical action:
Here’s that prophecy in theoretical action:
13. The publisher, being a ‘rational’ business that ‘only sees one color—green,’ will look to historical data meant to offer insight into how my book would perform. They’ll reference “Black books” that were mostly given small advances & small promotional follow up efforts....
14. This data, matching ‘common sense,’ will show that “Black books” are a challenge to publish successfully, and this will confirm already held suspicions about the prospects and potential of this new Black epic fantasy.
15. Based on the above, a small advance is offered, effectively reducing the financial risk to the publisher. Then, a similarly small marketing and promotional budget is applied (no point sending good money after bad). And...
16. When the "Black book" does mediocre to poor sales, the publisher says, “at least we tried,” and they can walk away with both a clear conscience and one more solid piece of evidence that “Black books” just don’t sell. Meanwhile...
17. Since authors depend on their sales records to get new contracts, I’d be labeled a failure, no other publishers would consider me, and that would be the end of my very short career.
It’s noteworthy that...
It’s noteworthy that...
18. This prophecy requires nothing as dramatic as active sabotage or anything as boring as professional incompetence to come true. Instead, from start to finish, every establishment decision/action can be argued to have been made equitably, meritocratically, & rationally.
19. At least, this argument can be made as long as one ignores or rejects the long-reaching implications of history, the effect expectations can have on results, & the broader reality of living in societies that see some people & their shared point of view as...
20. a default bordering on being the 'one true way to perceive the human condition', which then means that everyone else's work gets examined and evaluated by how much of a variation on that core 'truth' it is.
21. So, instead of dealing with this, I wanted to self-publish to control more of the process. I wanted to do it because I believed that I could use the online tools available to me to find and then reach out to the readers most likely to enjoy the type of story I was telling.
22. In short, I initially chose to self-publish because it felt like the closest I could get to a ‘fair’ shot.
23. Q3: Until recently there were few authors of colour in the genre. In fact, as you of course know, all the “big writers” were middle-aged white guys, either English or American. Why do you think this has changed?
24. A3: This is interesting precisely because things have barely changed, but the prevailing narrative, which often riles up reactionaries falsely claiming that more ’deserving’ white writers are being ‘unjustly’ supplanted by authors of color, is that...
25. The few extra faces of color on book jackets must mean that the entire industry has been upended by well-meaning but delusional publishers who have abandoned quality for diversity.
However, this is patently untrue, and...
However, this is patently untrue, and...
26. The best/briefest summation I can give for why this narrative persists in the face of every fact is to adjust a well-worn phrase from “when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression,” to...
27. “when you’re accustomed to privilege, even tiny expansions to include others in that same privilege feels like oppression.”
After all...
After all...
28. In 2018, Forbes ran an article citing Melanie Ramdarshan Bold’s study on Authors of Color in the British Young Adult Market, and the study found that “just one percent of British children's book[sic] feature main characters who are black or another minority ethnicity and...
29. Among British young adult books, just 8% of titles published within the 2006-2016 decade were by authors of color,” and that, “their top year was 2008, when authors of color composed 17% of the authors published, and they've been on the decline since.”
30. Additionally, “the other study, funded by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), looked at the 9,115 U.K. children's books published in 2017 and...
31. Found that just 391, or 4%, featured a black and minority ethnic (BAME) character and just 1% starred BAME main characters” [ https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2018/07/31/people-of-color-underrepresented-as-authors-and-protagonists-in-u-k-books-study-says/?sh=2ba15f0d1282].
32. Continuing to explore books written for young people, and coming from a study commissioned by Booktrust, we see that “less than 2% of published authors and illustrators in the UK are British people of colour,” [ https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/news/news-2019/less-than-two-per-cent-of-published-authors-and-illustrators-in-the-uk-are-british-people-of-colour-says-new-booktrust-research/].
33. Lastly, & speaking to SFF in the UK, traditional publisher Gollancz reported that, “Nielsen Bookscan figures for the genre [show] that of the 4,589 books published in this category in 2018, only five authors featured were British writers of colour.” [ https://www.gollancz.co.uk/news/2019/09/27/the-gollancz-and-rivers-of-london-bame-award]
34. With the above taken into account, the following bears restating: The narrative that publishing has given itself over to authors of color (or even opened its doors wide to them) is provably false, and...
35. In spite of the small changes we see today with regards to the number of traditionally published authors of color, the abysmal opportunities for them in publishing are an embarrassing moral indictment of the industry.
36. Q4: How does it free you up as a writer in setting a story in a non-European environment?
37. A4: It doesn’t because, *statistically* speaking, my chances at making and maintaining a career as a traditionally published author would be exponentially better if I were white and wrote stories set in a European environment.
To be clear...
To be clear...
38. For every writer who looks like me and writes stories centering characters who look like me, there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) who do not. I’ll suggest that...
39. It’s an often made mistake to notice one face out of thousands and think that the problems which used to prevent faces like mine from appearing at all have been either substantially solved or significantly softened.
40. Q5: How do you feel about the reaction to the book?....it’s got real buzz!
41. A5: I am overjoyed at the reaction, and though I’ve spent time laying out my worries and concerns with you, I’m well aware that Orbit Books took a chance and, counter to ‘tradition’...
42. Orbit Books gave THE RAGE OF DRAGONS an amount of attention, support, and time to grow and reach readers that is rare in general terms and almost unheard of for most “Black books.”
I think that, in speaking on everything I have...
I think that, in speaking on everything I have...
43. My goal is to shake loose from the easy story about how we’re all getting so much better at being equitable and diverse precisely because that story is not true. We all have a long way to go, and it will take a conscious and concerted effort to reach our destination.
44. However and in my opinion, we will all benefit by moving toward a more equitable reality because any society or world that holds its members back for superficial reasons also holds itself back from achieving the whole of its potential. In this modern era...
45. we’ve already gone generations and generations denying large swathes of our populations the same opportunity to share their stories, and that makes me hurt for all the incredible art we’ve missed out on or lost forever.
46. In the end, it’s a deep held hope of mine that we’ll choose to actively dismantle the systems that cause us to treat Black people, other minorities, and the marginalized so differently. I hold on to that hope because I want more for everyone, and...
47. I believe stories have the power to help us achieve that. I believe that in the full and complete body of stories we all tell, some as yet unwritten, we’re bound to learn lessons and tease out the secrets that will one day lead us to a better and kinder world.
Thank you.
Thank you.
