Say what now?

Today’s interesting thing: Claire Light writes about the apparent gap between women and PoC who are interested in writing and women and PoC who submit their work to major and/or mainstream markets.

I confess to having trouble getting into the meat of her post without clenching my teeth. Light complains about how few women and PoC submit to things within spitting distance of declaring most of the submissions she sees from them rubbish. She complains about talented writers who don’t submit to high profile markets in an industry that continues to behave in ways that are hostile to them.

Even so, she makes some really excellent suggestions for editors who want to be proactive and court a more diverse contributor pool. My sense is that Light’s intentions are good, but her post runs afoul of a lot of the same things that make mainstream publishing unattractive to the people she’s trying to open it up to.

So, you know, it’s a worthwhile read.

(Side note: Nick Mamatas challenges her statement about the quality of submissions by women and PoC here.)

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com