There is a post here about underrepresented cultures in SFF and a post here where a commentor calls out another commentor who dismissed my friend Maurice Broaddus‘ book King Maker (actually they cite all of Maurice’s work) as an example of a minority author forcing “their” politics on readers.

I have two initial reactions to this. First, I was really excited about the concept of King Maker and thought a black inner city gangland was a bloody brilliant place to put a King Arthur story. More than the very apparent war-like, broken land atmosphere I also had full confidence that Maurice would put in some sort of commentary on one of the aspect of racism I find most abhorrent, the condemning of people as “acting white” or “selling out” for pursuing education. This is a personal soft point because there really are worse and certainly more dangerous bits in racism, but the very idea of denying someone education or hating them for seeking an education because they’re a certain race, gender, income range or at a certain family status (like childless people who throw fits over paying taxes for school because they “aren’t benefiting from it”) is utter bullshit because I believe EVERYONE benefits from a more educated society and the pursuit of knowledge and ability to analyze knowledge and use it should be a celebrated skill.

However I didn’t like King Maker. Oh I really really liked parts of it. The parts directly related to the theme, but I thought the book was too slow to establish and use that world. Way way too slow.

But my disappointment isn’t going to stop me from sitting with Sam Sykes in asking “What the hell?”

Because my second initial reaction to the original comment was “Have you READ SF lately??” What’s winning awards and is getting all the buzz is usually very political period. So much of the SF I read is making some sort of statement, often on humanism, environmentalism, population control, colonialism, war, the nature of religion, the increasing corporate control on genes including gene specific drugs and genetically modified foods…to name just a few.

SF comes from such a political and sociological/anthropological place these days that chiding POC authors for including their politics in their stories is completely ridiculous. I have to ask the original commentor (and you really should read at least Sam Sykes’ blog entry on the matter because it’s better than mine, and contains less cursing, and it focuses on “books I don’t like doesn’t equal crap” which I can’t even get to in this little rant) are you really saying that it’s okay for the white writers to go political but black writers doing so is unacceptable? That’s pretty much a textbook example of racism in my book.

Which, of course, brings me to my book.

In Rot there was only one black character. This was purposeful. She had a very small, and possibly cliched role as a voodoo priestess. I debated over it a lot (I also debated that Patrick was too much, too blatant, and of course that the whole thing was a cliched pit of suck.) and in the end I went with it because yeah, she’s the only black person in the book, but she’s the only level-headed, intelligent character. And it seemed ridiculous to have zombies and not have at least a little nod to voodoo.

Right now I’m working on a book length sequel to Rot. Dean from Rot and the voodoo priestess, Em, are two of four primary characters. Three of those four characters are black. I’m nervous about this decision.

I’m scared that I’m going to come at this story the wrong way, or miss some essential part. Mind you I’m always scared of that when writing stories, but I feel a little extra responsibility to be well researched and to write well with Last Brother because it’s not in my default realm of knowledge. Also, it’s been fun to research too.

From what I know, many branches of voodoo are really open. They have a patron loa of gays and transexuals and even a separate one that covers lesbians. Many houses accept people regardless of race, and the religion is even so flexible at its heart that it can easily be practiced with other religions. Quite simply is can be one of the most tolerance religions out there and is heavily aimed at promoting a healthy, strong community.

But voodoo’s roots are very clearly African (primarily West African, but go back very, very far). The African diaspora to Haiti/West Indies had significant changes on voodoo, leading to entirely new interpretations of their traditions and the loa themselves, even giving rise to a whole new family of loa, who reflected the rage of people forced into slavery not just by whites, but by their own people (Dahomey was a vicious place). When the migration to America came it changed things again, and yet today one studying voodoo could simultaneously study West African, Haitian and New World voodoo at the same time.

Given how vital these things have been to the very shape of the practice there was no way I could white wash my lead. It would be better for me to make a mistake and have to apologize for it than to fail completely by being too damned scared to write the story correctly in the first place.

So yeah, I’m nervous that I’m going to be put under fire for something in the book, thought what, I couldn’t tell you. Rot was called to task once for the voice–that of a middle aged white male–being unconvincing. I don’t see how I could do Murphy, the lead of Last Brother, any worse. And in the end without Murphy I couldn’t tell this tale, because it’s his story not some generic majority race, majority gender, majority religion stand in’s.

There’s a been some talk lately in the usual circles about gender equality in genre fiction. It’s not a new argument and it’s not east to find, particularly if you look up SFSignal’s recent Mindmeld features. And in response there’s been some anger, but we’re all beyond tired of RaceFail and GenderFail and every other damn thing so that’s the not the point of this post, just the inspiration. Over the weekend I also saw a magazine/podcast of some sort putting out a public call for more women and minority writers to include in their interviews.

My first thought was, wait, you’ll pursue the men, but you want the women to come to you? Because I’ve done the same thing, asked for recommendations of minority and women-written and lead fiction and the silence was deafening. So I found it on my own, or did I?

I’ve spent the evening going through my shelves over on GoodReads to see how my reading habits stack up. I honestly couldn’t tell you whether I read more male or female writers because I don’t pay much attention, but I also know I read a lot of urban fantasy which is primarily female.

So, some disclaimers before I tell you what I found.

• My numbers are flawed because I had to go by photos I could find to guess on the gender and minority status of authors. In some cases the name was a pseudonym and I couldn’t find anything about the author. In other cases the book was an anthology and I could confirm that there were both male and female contributors but couldn’t tell you what race the contributors were. Also, in a few cases I knew there were minority authors in the collection, but didn’t feel right even hinting at it in public because they aren’t “out”.
• Books written by female authors got tagged as female author, books with male authors were tagged as male author. Books written by both, either with a pair sharing a pseudonym (like Ilona Andrews) or with male and female contributors were tagged with both. Books written by people who identify as female or male were tagged as the gender they identify as, whether they have “changed” or not (ie Zoe Whitten and Poppy Z. Brite)
• I know before going in that there would be more books on the minority shelf if I include authors who write minority leads (Sara M. Harvey, Jennifer Pelland, Ann Aguirre and myself would all fit there, but despite what we write we’re all married white women.)
• There’s also the complication of racial identity itself. Is “white” just the color of your skin or the part of the world your ancestors come from? Does a light skinned mixed person become white if they’re light enough? Are Jews and Italians white or minorities, seeing as I’ve met people of each who identify both ways. What about the Russian author whose book I read as a translation? His skin says white, his home says Asian. I didn’t even think about classifying non-Christians as minorities, because how would I know? And just where the hell do you put someone like Lavie Tidhar?

Those bewares aside, here’s how it broke down.

“Read” books: 361

Male Author: 202

Female Author: 180

Minority Author: 27

So yeah, it’s official. I suck.

My defense: I have a ton of “minority author books” that I’ve bought on my own time (I’m particularly salivating over some Serissa Glass and Octavia Butler that I’ve had since the beginning of the year) but have consistently pushed back (along with a lot of non-minority authors) in the reading queue because of the demands of reviewing. There’s also many on my wishlist (like S.P. Somtow’s entire back list) that I have been having trouble finding (and affording). And again, I think my list would darn near double if I included books with minority major characters written by non-minority writers.

Other observations:

• Not once did I get to put “female author” on a graphic novel.
• Only once did I get to put “female author” on an RPG book.
• I’m probably wrong about both of those and just don’t have the inclination to look up all the contributors for all the RPG books and graphic novels to fix it.
• If it hadn’t been for those sections and the nonfiction research books women writers would have “won”.
• I have, however read a lot of fantasy by women. A LOT.
• I don’t have a way to break the individual genres down by the gender of the writer, without spending another night or two doing it, but here’s my genre break down for reference: Children’s/Middle grade-44, Fantasy-53, Fiction Magazine-10, Graphic Novels-33, Horror/suspense-110, Manga- 4, Mystery-15, Nonfiction-8, Poetry-2 (I know this is wrong because I’ve read 4 of Ellen Hopkins’ poetry books and can name three other poetry books that should be on that shelf), Romance-13, RPGs-10, Science fiction-25, Urban Fantasy-80, YA-23 *Some books are on more than one shelf, particularly anthologies and magazines that contain multiple genres and YA books which could as YA and SF or F or UF or H).

What does this mean? Maybe nothing because I’m only one reader looking at my reading habits. Honestly thinking about it, I don’t see how I can ever keep even reads between male and female, minority and non. There just isn’t enough evenness in what’s being published in the first place.

• Lush is selling a “Freedom Bar” bath bar (like a fizzy/oil/bubble thing) for around $6 and all proceeds go to FreedomtoMarry.com. So you can help fight for equality and make yourself or someone else smell good.
• Urban Fantasy/Horror/Fantasy/African American fiction (depending on how books are shelved in your store) author L.A. Banks is very ill. There’s an auction going on to help with her medical bills.
• The awesome *and award winning* Apex books has a distribution deal and needs help financing part of their format switch. Like all awesome people Jason understands you all should have incentive, besides more great books out there and you get paid back from your donations right away.
• Writer Beware has a list of Self promotion techniques that DO NOT work (and many are expensive to boot). Can I add a hell yeah to most of them?
• I’m giving away copies of Private Lessons. Details here.

Every so often an author blogs about the things you, the reader, con do to help their career. Sometimes it’s enthusiastic and sweet. Sometimes it’s pretty demanding, or downright whiny. The problem is even when it’s on the “I mean it in a nice way” you end up making someone out there reading feel like they aren’t a good enough fan. Because that’s how it always comes off. As if you’re looking your reader directly in the face and saying “You’re not really helping me, but people who do these things are.”

Mind you, I get that especially now authors are under a lot of pressure to hit lists. We fear for the contracts we do have, we worry our series won’t see an end, or even a beginning because publishers are in deep shit and cutting costs means cutting contracts, dropping authors and other nastiness.

So here’s a list of commonly recommended “helps” and why they suck (or not).

1. By the author’s book IN PRINT, from an INDY store in the first week of release.

Why do they want you to do this? Because this is how they get on the USA Today and NYT Bestsellers lists. But I’ve never seen an author say “Hey, I’m trying to make the NYT bestsellers list, if you want to help…” It’s always “If you REALLY want to support me…”

The problem is an increasing number of people prefer digital books, sometimes for reasons that aren’t subjective, like the features which let you change the size of the text, which helps many people with eye issues, even legal blindness, read the books they want much easier. And some people are jobless in this wonderful world, so they can’t afford to buy books, period. Or they have to wait for their unemployment check (or hopefully just pay day) to pick up the book.

And as a a former Big Box Bookseller who hand sold a lot of books (some by the author who most recently posted her list) who is also a consumer who has been treated poorly at indy bookstores allow me to point out that while big box stores might be run by soulless (hah, get it?) asshole capitalists they are staffed quite often with passionate book lovers (sometimes even librarians and teachers) who struggle to keep a job period in this market, much less keep a job in the book/publishing field.

There is no way you could say this to me because what you’re saying is “If you really want to support me as an author you’ll drive 13 miles to the local indie store that treated you like crap (more than once) and doesn’t carry my book *on purpose by choice* order it through them (where no, they won’t be convinced to start stocking your books) go home, wait 3-8 days then drive back out there and pick it up instead of ordering it from the comfort (and low gas-expenditure) of your own home. Because even though you’ve turned multiple people on to my books in your tenure as a bookseller your effort counts for nothing because you worked for a nasty big box store.”

Of course, not every reader has my issues. They do all have some, you know. Namely that they are the end point of the book transaction period. We write the book. The Publisher packages and distributes the book. The bookseller stocks, dusts, recommends, whatever the book. The reader buys the book and has no more loyalty to the author than I do to Rubbermaid when I buy freezer bags from Walmart instead of Kroger.

If use buying the book isn’t enough for you we’ll stop buying it. If you treat certain booksellers like they aren’t equal to others just because, they’ll stop recommending your book and recommend an author who was very nice to them.

I know you don’t MEAN to say that one purchase is unequal to another, but that is what reader ears hear.

2. Face out/relocate my book so it gets more attention.

So even if stores aren’t paid for face outs they still have house rules for them (like there must be three copies or more). And moving a book out of its section means one thing: Booksellers and readers a like can’t find the book and will get it someplace else. Or get something else. And if booksellers find out you’re encouraging this, which means actively encouraging your fans to make their jobs harder, they will not be pleased.

3. Stick bookmarks/flyers/etc in books at the bookstore.

Just asked first. We handed out author bookmarks at the registers with no issue. But lacing the paranormal romance section with one author’s swag gets all that tossed in the trash bin and can get your fan banned from the store.

4. If you must buy an ebook buy a print copy too and give it away or something.

Really? So if I buy an ebook copy I owe you a print purchase too because while other people get to be super spechial fans just for buying because I like a format you don’t I have to buy it twice to be equal? Please see my point #1 and if me spending the five dollars I manage to steal for myself a month on your book isn’t good enough then I’ll kindly take my money to a Starbucks or Taco Bell, or an author who’s gleeful that I even bought their book in the first place.

5. You need/have/should write a review or recommend the book to others.

This one bugs me a lot. Of course us authors *hope* you’ll want to talk about our book. Word of mouth still accounts for most new sales and we love feedback because we’re insecure snots who (even when some of us are best sellers) think no one could really like our stories.

But really the reader-writer relationship ends at buying the book. I have a ton of books that I’ve bought, intending to read, and might never. Stupid obligations (like my kids and husband and reviewing gig and my own writing, and my dog being sick) get in the way and sometimes this really is the best I can do for authors.

Telling me I owe you feedback (excluding crits and books I’ve sworn to review) is asking me to take time out of my life when I often don’t even have time for myself (like tonight, I’m working on three hours sleep) and fluff your ego (because too often the people wanting this feedback only want good feedback. My experience has been these are the authors that aren’t happy if you give them a three star review and instead want you to fall in true lurve with their prose).

I take my reviewing seriously, and my connecting with authors seriously, but when pushed into a choice between reviewing and my family or reviewing and a day job reviewing will always lose. And it should, because it is extra.

Now, of course someone has gotten to this point and has been pissed off (likely more than once) by my little rant. I know that this isn’t what authors mean when they list their “how you can help my career” but stop and consider: Is there any other career where it’s appropriate to outright say “If you like my work here’s what you can do to help my career”?

Sure there are rewards for referrals, sometimes, but where are the mechanics and doctors and teachers who reply to “Hey thanks for coming in today, here’s a list of how you can help my career” they aren’t there, because it’s universally considered bad taste. Coming back for a second, third, fourth time is the sign that a consumer wants to help your career/business. If they do refer others to you it’s a huge compliment. It is not something I feel I have the right to demand from people or make them feel guilty about not giving me because I do not know what their situation is. I do not know if it’s already cost them just to get my latest book. I do not know who they’ve already recommend me to. I have no way of knowing what they have already done to help me and I’m not going to risk making them feel like they owe me more.

Sure you can’t predict when someone is going to be inspired to do more, and when they’ll feel irritable and a little nasty because their best isn’t good enough. Lists like this don’t come off well, even when well intended and you end up with loads of pissed off readers questioning whether your next book is worth the effort of pleasing you or not.

Usually it won’t be.

If you really want to help an author:

1. Read their work. Borrowed, library-issues, digital, print, indy, big box as long as it isn’t pirated or stolen from the store.

2. If you like it come back for more.

Yes feedback is great. Yes recommending it is great. Yes trying to game the system to get your favorite author on the lists can help. But read shall be the whole of the law, unless you’re going for bonus points.

Here’s the super serious bit: The day the reader is suddenly responsible for maintaining the author’s career is the day something breaks in the relationship. Because too often businesses and people look at each other as nothing more than pocketbooks from which money must be wrung. Then, very quickly, the sad state of an author losing a contract becomes, not just a thing which must be overcome, but something that is the reader’s fault.

I very publicly struggled with the idea of support in a capitalist world in my blogging about my Borders’ closure. And that is a terrible feeling you can easily pass on to your fans, whether you mean to or not.

I blogged over at the Apex blog today about supporting authors through boycotts and being careful of IP work.