Malinda Lo
Blog
Apr 13, 2011
How hard is it to sell an LGBT YA novel?
I have been doing a lot of interviews lately since Huntress was just published, and I almost always get a question along these lines: Did you have any problem getting your gay YA novel published? Have you experienced any homophobic backlash to your books?
I always find these questions a little jarring, because from where I stand (in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011), I basically live in Gay Utopia and homophobia only pokes its head up in my life when I file taxes and am unable to file federally as married. So: Yeah, homophobia exists in my life, but not in my professional career, only in my personal life.1
In my professional writing career, I got my start in LGBT journalism, which means I was paid to write about queer people for years (and particularly queer women). I worked for lesbians; I went to their events; I promoted them; I interviewed them; I eventually got to a point where I could hire them. I went to parties where everybody was queer and the biggest question was who was the hottest. This is Gay Utopia Living at its finest.
Because I started my writing career in Gay Utopia, I went into mainstream book publishing with a kind of double vision. I was accustomed to my sexual orientation being treated as totally normal (and even cool). But I did have some residual, pre-Gay Utopia fears that straight people might not think that way.
When I began writing Ash (before Gay Utopia) and realized I had to turn it into a lesbian Cinderella, I did think it would make it unsellable. But as I worked on Ash, I also began that career in Gay Utopia, which ultimately taught me that: (1) there are tons of queer women out there in this world, and (2) they really want to read books/watch movies/TV that feature queer women. Essentially: Go for it and who cares what the straight people think!
In retrospect, I’m really glad I sold Ash while I was still working in Gay Utopia, because it gave me the nerve to have that “go for it” attitude.
Sometimes, now that I’m working in a predominantly heterosexual industry (commercial book publishing), that attitude is hard to maintain. Especially when everybody asks me whether I have faced or am facing homophobic reactions to my books. Basically my answer is “no,” but the questions do get me thinking about whether I’m mistaken. Am I missing something here? Is the world really so homophobic?
Sometimes I start to search for homophobic stories to tell to reporters and bloggers. This, I realize, is a little weird. But it seems like that’s what people want to hear about.
So, yes, a few times I have experienced some homophobic responses to my novels. Once there was a librarian who told me her students couldn’t come to my event because their parents objected to my biography (this has always been so weird to me, because I guess they objected to the fact that I won an award from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association). Once a newspaper did a story about me featuring an illustration of two Disney princesses dancing together, and a bunch of moms wrote in complaining that the illustration meant they’d have to talk to their little girls about gay sex. (This was unrelated entirely to my book, but still, WTF?) And of course there are some one-star reviews on Amazon that object to Ash because of the lesbian relationship.
But largely my reaction to these situations has been: So what? They’re so marginal to my daily experience of being a writer or being a lesbian. They’re kind of like blips on the side of the highway; they make me look, but then I just keep going.
I would like to advocate this as an attitude that writers of YA novels with LGBT characters should adopt. Because I think it’s better to go into the business expecting the best than expecting the worst. Usually, you find what you expect to find.
I know that homophobia still exists (especially in my personal life, see gay marriage situation), but in publishing, well … Commercial publishing in the United States is so gay-friendly it’s practically Gay Utopia. I mean, children’s book editors are, frankly, notoriously liberal! (Or else, open secret, they’re gay!) And they live and work in New York City, which is second only to San Francisco in Gay Utopicness.2
Yes, sometimes there are exceptions, such as the recent debacle with the Wicked Pretty Things anthology, but I actually think that is an exception that proves the rule. The response to it pretty much shows that most publishing folks do not tolerate homophobia. However, you also have to be realistic.
Here are some things to keep in mind about book publishing and LGBT issues right now in 2011:
1. There are fewer LGBT people than straight people. That means a book with LGBT characters/themes is likely to be seen as potentially less commercial than a book focusing on straight people. Why? Because there are fewer LGBT people to buy it.
2. Straight people, on the whole, are probably less likely to read books that are advertised as “gay books” because they might assume that the book is not for them. Do I blame them for this? No. Honestly, I’m less likely to read books that are advertised as “straight books.”3 I do read them because it’s hard to avoid them (they are the MAJORITY OF BOOKS), but I do seek out queer novels.
3. Smaller potential audience for a book = lower potential sales = lower profit for the publisher. If the publisher is acting like a rational player in a capitalist economy, it will probably look very hard at an LGBT YA novel it’s considering acquiring, because in a way, it has to outperform a heterosexual one in order to make money.
Do I like No. 3? Hell no! But I don’t think it’s active homophobia. I think it’s reality.4
That doesn’t mean I think we should sit back and accept the status quo. There are many ways we can change No. 2 above5, which would lead to changing No. 3. My favorite method of change? Writing awesome LGBT books!
In this area, I find inspiration in authors such as Sarah Waters and Jacqueline Carey, who have turned out massively successful novels about queer women that are also read by tons of straight people. Obviously not every writer is going to be Sarah Waters or Jacqueline Carey, but it’s important to have goals, right? And I like to aim high.
That’s all we can do, really, as writers. Aim high and try our best to hit the target. The target will always be a good story, straight or gay. If it’s good enough, I believe that readers will read it, no matter their sexual orientation.
P.S. Don’t forget! Huntress signed bookplates available here until May 1.
- And yes, it really pisses me off. [↩]
- I say this because I love San Francisco; I’m sure New Yorkers would object and claim the No. 1 spot on the list of Top 10 Gay Utopias. [↩]
- That would be all those aggressively straight YA romances selling love triangles featuring hot straight boys and/or societies that mysteriously do not include a single gay person. [↩]
- Which, yes, is based on centuries of homophobia, so you could argue against me, but I do believe there is a difference between active bigotry and dealing with institutionalized homophobia. [↩]
- I don’t think we can realistically change No. 1! [↩]
Thank you so, so much for this post. It’s heartening, and as I’ve said before, you continue to inspire me not to despair, even in light of #3. Even though I don’t write YA, I still worry about building a writing career with novels that feature queer women in love with other women.
So thank you–for your books, and for posts like these.
This is a great article. I am straight but I am so leftist in my views that I can’t understand homophobia. I just generally can’t understand what feeling makes people act out in such a way… it’s a humanist issue and I am always on the side of humanity. As a straight person I want to read more queer books especially in YA. I think the more that come out and highlight and not sideline a queer relationship only helps in breaking those misconceptions about gay people and gay marriage and the tax filing and help people see how it should be. I get tons of flack in America for being atheist… I didn’t get that in Europe. I will never understand the mentality that “my way is the right way and nothing you say or do can prove otherwise.” We were all put here to learn from each other!
Preach it.
We need to get rid of this default mode that’s deemed the only acceptable form to be white, straight and beautiful. It’s unrealistic, it’s harmful and it’s just plain dull! Great post, thanks for your thoughts. This topic’s been on my mind a lot since the Wicked Pretty Things mess unfolded and it’s so heartwarming and encouraging to see people stand up and say no to the BS.
Kick-ass post, Malinda.
Bully for you, Malinda! Gambatte!
Part of the reason fewer LGBT books are being published is because fewer writers seem to write it. I can’t tell you how much I am looking for a queer novel that isn’t an “issues” or “coming out” narrative, but that’s not what’s crossing my desk. It’s hard. It’s as though writers fear they will be instantly rejected because their books have homosexual content. This is not true! (Or at least, this is not universally true, given the Wicked Pretty Things debacle.) There are many of us in publishing who are queer and want to see ourselves reflected in the books we publish.
I will admit I only seek out queer novels with lesbian or bisexual female characters because I myself I am bi, and that gay novels are less interesting to me and seem to be doing better commercially, although my bias may come from the fact that m/m erotica seems to be very popular in romance.
But keep on writing what you write, Malinda. Some of us are grateful for it.
What a wonderful entry. I am an adult reader of YA because the books I needed when I was a teen just didn’t exist. I hope to see more of them on the shelves. I’m so happy you do what you do, Malinda. Just because LGBT books don’t appeal to everyone doesn’t mean they aren’t desperately needed!
I did a blog post talking about this same topic a few months ago. Yours, however, captures everything I would want to say better than I could.
I have a gay YA novel coming out this year, and it WASN’T easy. I was asked, several times, before the book sold to change my gay romance into something more sell able. Change one of the boys into a girl. Cut out the romance and add a female co-narrator.
I definitely agree with you. It’s not homophobia. It’s business. And I totally get that.
As always, great blog post. It took me a loooong time to sell my novel with a trans protagonist, but it sold. It’s worth the fight. Flux is taking a big chance, because of the business things you’ve mentioned above. Now it’s my job to convince people that my guy’s struggle is like other teens’ identity struggles (a selling point), just REALLY different and very intense. Hopefully the similarity will help people accept and appreciate the difference. There will be people who disagree with the similar-but-different approach, but it’s one way Flux can get the book out there.
Thank you so much for this post Malinda. I’m a writer trying to break into the world of kid lit and have a MG manuscript with gay moms and a YA with a lesbian protagonist. I have wondered if I’m going to end up writing for myself or if there will be a market for my books. As a lesbian parent living in rural America, homophobia is still very real, oh the stories I could tell. I just ordered Ash and can’t wait to read it.
I agree that the books are needed, and books that aren’t about the issues are even more needed in my opinion. There weren’t any when I was a teenager(or at least that I could find) and the “gee it’s so tough to come out and everyone hates me” books get old really quick!
Very interesting! I find your experience fascinating because (a) it’s very,very different from when I sold my first GLBT teen book 11 years ago, and (b) it’s DRAMATICALLY different from when I wrote my first GLBT book 20 years ago. This is a great reminder that things have changed, and are changing.
Wow.
Do you recommend any agents who would be actively seeking something like this? I’ve seen plenty who say they take it, but none that act really interested in it.
That is really wonderful to know! I think things have been changing precisely because of books like yours, obviously. So thank you for blazing some trails.
Amy Tipton–she’s mine. Signature Literary Agency. I’m not sure if she’d tell you she’s actively seeking LGBT stuff, but she’s happy to have it. Also Colleen Lindsay, at Fine Print.
Yes, homophobia is very real in many parts of this country, and I am sorry you have to deal with it in your daily life!
Also, I hope you like Ash!
I can totally see how the similar-but-different thing would make sense. Yes, YA is all about identity and trans identity is another iteration of that. I hope your book is a huge success!
I’m glad you stuck to your guns, Scott, and I’m excited for your book to come out!
Colleen is no longer an agent, FYI.
You have to be careful to not assume that a rejection from an agent means they’re not really interested in LGBT content. They may simply not think the book is good enough — for whatever reason. It’s not easy to write a commercially viable novel, gay or not.
Thanks, JJ! And I’m like you: I’m less likely to read books about gay men, simply because I don’t see a space for myself in those stories. I think it’s interesting that straight women seem love male/male romance so much! Guess they like the men.
Oh, dammit–I guess I knew that, but forgot. Thanks for clarifying.
I think the first thing is the agent has to be interested in the story, queer content aside. I’ve seen a lot of things that have Asian or queer protagonists (i.e. Things I want), but the writing just didn’t hold up, so I had to reject. It’s always hard, but sometimes, the rejection isn’t political.
I’m not that surprised straight women love male/male romances; when I was part of Harry Potter fandom, tons of people wrote m/m slash fanfiction–more than heterosexual pairings, actually. (Why, I don’t know. Rowling has just as many female characters as male!) I was one of the very few who wrote femmeslash fanfics.
Thanks for the info. I guess I should clarify that when I said “none that act really interested in it.” I meant that in a general way where I look at their info and gay fiction is just one of a dozen things they say they represent. It would be good to send out queries to agents who were specifically looking to represent that. I would never be vain enough to assume that someone wasn’t interested in a certain type of book just because they weren’t interested in mine!
Like Malinda said, me, too!
Fantastic post, Malinda! I’m reading Huntress right now and am really enjoying it.
Ooh, what’s your book?
Trans man just graduating high school, music geek, just beginning transition, wants to be a radio DJ, totally in love with his BFF (she likes him too), stages flash mobs during his radio show. Also includes haters, of course, but love wins in the end. Thanks for asking! And thanks, Malinda–I hope my book is a huge success, too. : )
Oh, crap–it’s called BEAUTIFUL MUSIC FOR UGLY CHILDREN, and it’s out Fall 2012 from Flux. That’s what I get for trying to teach and blog at the same time.
My agent, Kristin Nelson, always seems pleased by it.
Also Barry Goldblatt, Diana Fox… there are a lot of terrific agents who are delighted to see the world painted right.
How timely! I was just thinking today that I might have trouble selling my work because of its gay MC. I don’t think about this very often, but I do occasionally. This post was heartening, I agree, and I thank you for writing it!
(I haven’t came out, so I’ll be Anon)
I’m bisexual, live in Texas, and am married. So I’m kinda in the opposite of Gay Utopia. I’ve seen such an increase in gay friendly television, but honestly I think we (the publishing world) is a bit behind.
I’m glad you haven’t encountered it much and yours has been overall positive.
Wonderful post, I can see why people would ask the question but I would imagine that it is something you often get asked. I feel as though questions about the GLBT content of your books are sometimes overexplored and less time spent on just the fantastic characters and lovely lovely writing
I agree though, it’s more reality than homophobia (says the non-publishing expert) but I do think many editors/publishers are fairly liberal, there just isn’t much of a market (yet) for more GLBT books.
If Atlanta isn’t right under NYC in Gay Utopicness, its at least in the top five.
My favorite response to this question was one I saw in an interview with Brian Katcher a while ago about his Stonewall Award-winning transgender-protagonist book ALMOST PERFECT. He talked about how interviewers kept asking him if his book had been banned, and said that in fact, he was mildly offended that no one seemed bothered by it, and added something like, “I mean, what does a guy have to do to get a book banned in this place, anyway?”
Thanks for this fascinating post, Malinda. It seems like there’s so much variety in the response to different authors’ inclusion of LGBT characters. I’m sure it has to do in large part with the target audience and the marketing of the individual book. For whatever reason, ASH and HUNTRESS are appealing to a crowd that’s open to reading about characters of various identities at the very center of the story, whereas something like, say, Cassandra Clare’s books will hit that crowd but also hit the crowd that sends in angry hate mail about her having dared to include LGBT secondary characters. And then you have parents trying to take books like ANNIE ON MY MIND and THE BERMUDEZ TRIANGLE off library shelves while somehow WILL GRAYSON WILL GRAYSON hits bestseller lists and is face-out in the teen section of my local library. Who knows what’s behind it all? It’s fascinating to watch though.
Anyway, I should probably stop faffing about thinking all this through and get back to working on my own LGBT YA WIP, so I can stop telling myself that the reason my agent hasn’t yet been able to sell my last trans-protagonist story isn’t because of SOME MASSIVE CONSPIRACY OMG (though it is so tempting to see it that way!), and so I can hopefully someday join the ranks of those anxiously waiting to see whether my books get reactions of homphobic shelf-banning or open-arms “I’m OK, You’re OK” gaytopianess.
Thanks again for the thought-provoking post!
You make a good point about the reception of various books. I keep wondering if WILL GRAYSON WILL GRAYSON is better received because Tiny Cooper is somewhat stereotypical, thus less threatening, the whole “aren’t those flame-y guys cute and fun to shop with?” thing.
Thanks, Shveta!
I’m sorry you’re not in Gay Utopia! I think I have definitely had the opposite experience — I’ve found Hollywood to be much more conservative than publishing.
Aw, thank you, Ari! I do get a lot of gay questions, but that’s OK.
I have a suspicion that Cassandra Clare gets the anti-gay mail because her books are read by so many more people than mine are. At some point you reach a critical mass, and then everybody starts reading your books. Once your audience is so huge, you’re bound to get some homophobic people. If that many people read my books, I’m sure I’d get a lot more hate mail.
As for book challenges, Ash has been challenged, but it survived the one challenge I know of. The difference between the challenge my book received and Maureen Johnson’s challenge is that the MJ one was a few years ago and it got a ton more press.
And, I’m very glad that Will Grayson has become a bestseller. I think it’s proof that times have changed, even within the last couple of years!
Also, people LOVE John Green. I think that’s a big part of it!
I have heard this!
It’s true. Here’s the link to an indie Gay and Lesbian bookstore in Atlanta http://www.outwritebooks.com/
This is a really great post! I am straight, but I loved HUNTRESS and I can’t wait to start ASH. LGBT is a genre that I have never really ventured into before. But recently I have started to read more and more LGBT books, and I don’t know why I didn’t before. I especially liked HUNTRESS because you didn’t really make a big deal about the lesbian relationship. What I mean is, it was a huge part of the story, but the story wasn’t necessarily ABOUT it. I feel that some authors write stories just to boast that they are different and included gay/lesbian characters – those I don’t like to much. I like the books (like HUNTRESS) that depict the relationships as normal, drawing no more attention to it than a normal boy/girl relationship. When an author writes a book like that, I can see LGBT books being slowly integrated into mainstream YA – no special label needed.
Sorry if I just went off on a little rant there….
I’ve been pretty much doing some thinking and I’ve decided that I want to write an LGBT YA novel. It’s crossed my mind many times and I think it would be a good idea for me to do something like this. Thank you so much for article, Miss Lo.May you prosper with success always.
Fab post, Malinda! And it’s true, too.
I’m just glad (and a bit surprised) that you still manage to keep that optimistic side within you. Remember, when there are lovers, there are always haters too. It’s like ice cream (sorry for the rubbish metaphor). Some people like vanilla, others like strawberry while some people don’t like it at all!
And where there are *haters*, there are always lovers. So even if some parents are so stupid that they can’t actually be bothered to read your work, there are lovers of your work like us!
I do understand where the parents are coming from, of course, but if their children WANT to be homosexual? LET THEM. That’s the message I’d give to those people.
(You probably don’t know this, but I’m an eleven-year-old. So you can see where I’m coming from.)
Anyway. The point is, just love your work. I love your optimistic side. KEEP IT!!!
♥
Thanks, Megz!