Read on Twitter
Story time: In June 2020, I took part in PitMad and was overwhelmed by the agent requests I received. In the end, I had 3 agent offers. 2 calls went fine, but 1 of them did not. For 2hrs, this agent ridiculed my writing, shot down my other story ideas, gave me "homework" by 1/?
assigning me books written by white authors in my genre to learn how to write the correct way. They told me they already knew my author brand and they wouldn't let me stray from it. They told me if I have a story idea they don't like, either I write what they want or they'll 2/?
stop representing me. They told me that even though my ms needed revisions, it was clean enough to put it on sub immediately because they "knew editors were feeling white guilt and they'd buy my story in a heartbeat." They also let me know that if I ever got a big offer 3/?
they'd reject it because I'd never earn out my advance. It was the most fucked up experiences in my life. June was already an emotional time for Black folk in America. Dealing with this agent was yet another wound. Afterwards, I wrote this tweet: 4/? https://twitter.com/StorySorcery/status/1276289162635812869
I joined Twitter in Nov 2018 and prior to June 2020, I knew the community existed but I wasn't a part of the community. It wasn't until when I queried in June did I ask if there were any query support groups: 5/? https://twitter.com/StorySorcery/status/1271183475501084675
With that single tweet, I became apart of so many different groups within the writing community. I made a lot of connections and friendships. I even got the courage to make my own groups. I learned out from these pocket communities, but when I shared 6/?
my fucked up experience with other Black writers, I learned that this agent had a bad history of preying on marginalized authors because it was guaranteed money. This agent treated every single one of these Black writers terribly in June when we were querying. 7/?
But what I also learned by other groups was that this agent had a reputation and was on a lot of writers' no-no list because of whisper networks. Whisper networks, I along with other Black writers, weren't apart of back in June when we needed that info most. 8/?
This agent has since a lot of credibility and soon enough I will call them out by name. Until then, everyone knows my DMs are open and I always state who the agent is no matter who you are. My experience was the perquisite to what would ultimately play out in August 2020. 9/?
A concerned friend told me about an agent's secret TERF account. At first, we thought it was best to just warn others through a whisper network, but after seeing tweet upon tweet upon tweet of awful disgusting things, I knew this couldn't stay inside a whisper network 10/?
and in that private chat we all worried for any writers query this agent BEGGING for marginalized stories. At first, I made a vague tweet but someone asked for the name. I was afraid at first, but then how much harm I'd be contributing to if I didn't name this agent aloud. 11/?
That week was the darkest week of my life. 100s of TERFs flooded my mentions. My account ended up on a TERF youtube channel with 30K+ in followers. News outlets contacted me. Online newspapers covered the story. TERF blogs wrote hit pieces on me. 12/?
My friends were being attacked, DM'd cruel messages, shared a spot with me on TERF blogs. I feared for their emotional health and their safety. I feared for all the kind strangers who defended what was right. Now, a lot of wonderful friendships came from this terrible thing. 13/?
CW: rape
TERFs tried to doxx me. TERFs told me I, a sexual abuse victim, raped a woman out of a job and that I was appropriating rape victims and was narcissistic. This agent was painted as a sweet angel and I was painted as a devil who took everything away from them. 14/?
TERFs tried to doxx me. TERFs told me I, a sexual abuse victim, raped a woman out of a job and that I was appropriating rape victims and was narcissistic. This agent was painted as a sweet angel and I was painted as a devil who took everything away from them. 14/?
But after all of that two amazing things happened: 1) the agent was fired and 2) the agent's former employer pledged to donate to trans organizations and critique submission materials of trans & nonbinary authors. Yes, I was in emotional pain and terrified for my life, but 15/?
no writer ever had to deal with this agent again. So many trans and nonbinary writers flooded my DMs with overwhelming support. At one point, I had more kind DMs than the death threats. I learned something. Whisper networks ARE beneficial, but who do they benefit more? 16/?
It benefits those within a whisper network and in promixity to one. You have to know the right person or you have be in the right place at the right time to get the info you need to protect yourself. If you share info outside of a whisper network, 17/?
you're brave and I'm proud of you. But each time you do it, ask yourself who are you helping or trying to help? Those that follow you? The baby writers who have no one? Everyone? Spreading the truth is no small feat and it always comes with hurtful/harmful consequences. 18/?
Just know that when you do, you're helping those you don't even know. The ones that don't follow you. The ones that aren't even on Twitter or social media. If you think about it, whisper networks don't knock down gatekeepers. They provide a net for agents to operate in. 19/?
It provides a boundary line you tell others fortune enough to you know to stay away from. I'm not trying to judge or point blame. The food for thought is how can we expect publishing to grow into a safe place if we fear weeding out the bad seeds? 20/?
We cannot keep expecting gatekeepers to do the gardening. Nor can we keep doubting our ability and our power to change the landscape. Between this year and last year, we've weeded out more bad seeds than ever before and made this industry a little better for 21/?
the next crop of writers. Maybe, I'm idealistic. Maybe, I'm naive. All I know is I don't want others to go through what I and others went through back in June. I'm taking a hiatus from Twitter. Stay hydrated, wear your masks, and take care of yourself. 22/22
