Malecparty, Red Scrolls, and women writing for money.
havisha1212 said: Hi, I just want to say that iâve been seeing a lot of discourse online. A lot of shtv show stans are really mad that the show is cancelled and are trying to boycott RSOM because apparently they know that your intentions with the book are to get money, even though you were offered more money to write Clace. I just want to say that you have thousands, if not in the millions of people who understand that you write what you want to write. WE LOVE YOU and we appreciate you.
I really wasnât sure what to say about this. Red Scrolls of Magic doesnât have anything to do with the television show, and I donât have anything to do with the television show having been cancelled.
I appreciate the love, truly. Of course Iâm also distressed to hear about a boycott of The Eldest Curses, since it will be a book with a main interracial gay couple and a secondary interracial lesbian love story. A vendetta specifically targeting a book like that wonât be seen by the outside world of publishing as an act of support for a television show. It would be seen as exactly what they expect â a lackluster interest in books about LGBT+ characters.
I guess there are a few things to talk about here: one is the realistic situation of LGBT+ kidsâ publishing and one is about womenâs writing. In terms of the first, itâs very strange to suggest I wrote these books for money when I did, as you say, take a pay cut to write them. I was paid a third of what I was paid for the Dark Artifices to write them though they are the same number of books. I was paid less than what I was paid for my adult Sword Catcher series which features a world and characters no one has any familiarity with at all â a completely unknown brand. Many of my international publishers still wonât publish TEC. One bought it and has as of now cancelled the deal, though they have bought different books from me since. There are a thousand things I could have written or done that would have made me more money. Thatâs the stark reality of the âcash cowâ the boycotters are discussing.Â
Someone in Hollywood once described Alecâs being gay to me as âa strike against the characterâs likeability.â So far in publishing I have experienced publishing TEC as âa strike against its marketability.â As you all know, it was pushed back: that was because my publisher wanted Queen of Air and Darkness to come out first and set a record of strong sales â they are afraid nobody will buy Red Scrolls, because of its LGBT+ content.
Iâm in a lucky position; Iâm a bestselling author and if these books donât sell at all, my career can take the hit. Thatâs partly why Iâm writing them now, when I finally can: I think itâs important to make sure books like this are placed front and center in bookstores as expected bestsellers, but if these books blow up on me, Iâll survive it. Other writers who are writing books with LGBT+ content wouldnât be so lucky, and the message of boycotting a âbigâ book with a gay main couple isnât âWe donât like this authorâ (because my other books are doing just fine) â itâs âWe donât like this subject matter.â (It is also a strange punishment for Wes Chu, my cowriter, often forgotten in these debates â a man of color writing about another man of color.)
I am of course not saying anyone who doesnât want to read these books should buy them. We should consume the entertainment we think should entertain us; thatâs what itâs for. But the idea of punishing female writers for their moral failings is an old and unfortunate one. Itâs always been acceptable for men to write for money, or for attention; âshe wanted attentionâ is one of the worst things you can say about a woman, but an inoffensive thing to say about a man. Similarly Iâve often been told online that I donât deserve to be paid for what I write, or that my creative work should be taken away from me and given to men. It has always been expected since the Victorian era that writing about complex people and complex stories is a manâs job, and women should write simple moralistic tales in which the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. When a good character in a manâs book does something wrong, he is congratulated for his complexity; I get told at great length how morally terrible I am personally, since female writers are not generally assumed to have the emotional distance from their characters that with men, is a given.
The roots of taking away womenâs ability to profit from their work goes back centuries into the idea that itâs evil for women to own intellectual property at all. One of my favorite writers, Colette, died in poverty because her husband owned the copyright to her bestselling books. There is a deep discomfort with the idea of a woman being paid what sheâs worth at all. Writers are entertainers and they donât work for free any more than singers or actors or TV showrunners. I am the sole breadwinner of my family and I support my parents and others with the income I derive from working on the intellectual property I create. A man would be congratulated on his success. I am called a money-grubbing bitch.
One of the reasons we self-published Ghosts of the Shadow Market was because I wanted to write a novella about a genderqueer lesbian and I wanted it to get the same attention as the other stories in small invisible ways sometimes readers donât even notice â the same time spent on the cover, the same hiring of a great audio reader, the same time being edited, the same advertising. When EET came out we all sat around wringing our hands and hoping it would at least sell half as much as the others: it sold just as well, and we were thrilled. We can hang onto those numbers. We can prove important points in future to the publishing world about the viability of non-binary LGBT+ characters. Sales do matter. The Red Scrolls of Magic is a book, and sales expectations are higher for books than short stories, so I know I will be in the same state of fear and hope when it comes out.
But the fact Every Exquisite Thing did well means something else, too: I believed there was an audience for it, and every person who bought it proved me right. The outpouring of love during the contest for an early Red Scrolls of Magic copy was amazing, and I scrolled through the #malec and #malecparty tags (thank you so much you guys! Winners will be notified!) with tears in my eyes, overwhelmed by readersâ stories of coming out and having their eyes opened to new ideas, and most of all by their love. Before I ever had attention or money, I had the joy of creation. One of the most amazing feelings when writing is to make up people, and to have real people invest in your inventions. I created Magnus and Alec, building them into characters I could love block by block, and yesterday I got to see other people love them too. I have been awed by and grateful for the support of every reader who has embraced the diverse world I have tried to create, and the increasing diversity I try for as I keep on writing and am allowed to have more freedom in what I write than when I first began and was turned down by publishers because I wouldnât remove Alec from my books. I am hoping to help change attitudes and create, along with many writers and readers who believe that diverse media makes a difference, a world in which a book with a main LGBTQ pairing will be judged purely on its literary merits. Weâre not there yet! I wish we were. But the increasing call for and support for diverse literature makes me hope we are getting there. I trust in my readers. I have to believe that anybody calling for a boycott of The Red Scrolls of Magic is in a small hateful minority who has lost sight of how their actions would be perceived by the world, and the effect their actions would have on the world. I have to believe that there are far more people who are open to loving and supporting diverse stories.
Money and attention are great. But in the end, I write because I do believe words have the power to change people, and change the world. Ultimately, I have to do what I think is the right thing, and trust that other people will too. My readers havenât let me down yet. Â
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