I read this article today in the Daily Mail (yeah I know not the most hard-hitting news source). It basically said what everyone is thinking, that when companies go Woke they go BROKE because the average person doesn't want to be preached at or converted when they're just trying to relax and read a bit of fiction, go to a shop, or drink some cheap ass beer.
But even though I went to the article because of the headline, there was a part of it further down I found really disheartening and yet not surprising. Now, I am not a white male but I am a boring old white female so my type is not far behind... the article quotes Joyce Carol Oates as saying "AÂ friend who is a literary agent told me that he cannot even get editors to read first novels by young white male writers, no matter how good; they are just not interested."
The publishing business has often been a real mystery when it comes to selling its products and advertising. It doesn't follow traditional models and it clearly does not go where the money is. Most businesses are trying to make their product stand out and yet publishers constantly publish rip-off stories and covers (look at all the A Song of Fire and Ice knockoffs that have emerged in the last decade. UGH! Enough!)
Just because a writer is white and male doesn't mean he can't write a great piece of fiction. As a major business, wouldn't you want to simply sell the best product and not one that catered to a fringe or cultural trend? This business of editors overlooking a manuscript simply because the author is male, straight, and white is just nonsense on so many levels. What the hell are these publishers doing? We're not talking about niche presses we're talking about Harper Collins (I kid you not I went to their webpage for a link and the home page started screaming at me to honor Native Americans. Do you really think Harper Collins cares about the injustices and suffering of the Native people? Puh-lease. Hey, Harper Collins if you want to honor Native Americans why not donate some funds to their struggling young people rather than try to profit off them?) and Penguin losing money because they let inexperienced Woke editors spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on books that no one outside of a small minority wants to read.
Examples given include Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell. It was apparently acquired for $250,000 and yet has only sold a mere 3,165 copies since its release in 2021. And even worse is a queer feminist Western (how is that even a thing?) Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens which was bought up for $500,000 but only sold around 3,500 copies! WTF publishers?!
Even James Patterson complains no one wants to read his stuff simply because he's a white guy. He even went so far as to say it was a form of racism before being forced to kowtow to the Woke mob and apologize.
Publishers put the blame on a new generation of readers even though the biggest group of readers are Millennials (26-40) followed closely by Baby Boomers (56-75). So explain that one Harper Collins? It's not the readers who have changed but these damn companies trying to push these radical agendas on average readers who simply want a good fucking book and not a comment on being trans in America (HINT: No One Cares. Just do you. We having actual problems like global warming and the rising cost of living to worry about)
This is exactly one of the major reasons Swann + Bedlam started publishing this year. It was a normal sunny day and a trip to the local bookstore and a glance at Goodreads made us want to rip out our hair! Where the hell are all the NEW good books?!?! It's just trash that is telling us we need to feel horrible about everything!
So if you're a white guy who wrote a good book, don't let THE MAN (big publishers and the Woke Mob) get you down. Don't think you have to put on a dress to get read. Believe it or not, there are still LOTS of people out there hungry for a great book and they don't care what color your skin is.