Cassie you are the best and I chuckled many times reading this. You’re so smart and I love your words. Ty for sharing!! Going to be thinking of my three words all day today
Thank you so much for sharing this information and doing it in such an engaging manner. You've given me much to think about, and I LOVE the publicity exercises.
Thank you for this! When I read your initial meditation on mainstream publishing's fear of breaking out of a certain white female market, I think of the term "marginalized communities." The term implies that the "marginalized" are this tiny, homogenous group of people, on the margins of the mainstream, with not enough money to spend on hardcover books. Yet demographically the "marginalized" are actually an enormous group of people, clamoring for a vibrant, creative, nourishing collection of texts.
When I read the Times, NYMag, The New Yorker, I feel shunted into this category of "white woman reader" that does not in fact represent me, my identities, my politics. But I consume these "intellectual" publications because I am interested in art, politics, culture, power, privilege, climate, economics . . . and every day I think to myself: "I want to be reading intellectually sophisticated, and politically inspiring, and new world creating ideas, written by people who are *not* already granted power and prestige through Whiteness and status.
I know that I can find that writing, and I am always in search of it. But having to "search" for the ideas that I crave, and at the same time be flooded with an ocean of writing that reflects a very narrow frame of reference, can seduce me into believing that the consensus of mainstream publishing is to continue to recirculate one particular world view as "representative" of the whole, save in the sphere of identity politics, where the "marginalized" are so often asked to center their personal experience in relation to their ideas, in order to be published.
So if this is how I feel, as a "white woman reader," it makes me think there must be others like me out there. Which introduces another question: what if publishing is actually misunderstanding the needs of white women readers? What if white women readers don't just want books that reflect our own needs/wants/desires back to ourselves? What if we are working to de-center the power of Whiteness in our own lives and don't want to have to continually read books that reinforce the fiction that we are the demographic that reads?
Rebecca, this is a thoughtful take, thank you for writing this into the comments! I feel this and feel very much the same way. So, I absolutely understand where you're coming from, and the recourse I've found is to always amplify whatever comes up from the "search," as much as I can. Yell, hey! I am reading this! More of this please! And to put my money behind that as well! Money is what really talks to publishers (which I realize is another problem but we have to start at a place where we can get the message across in the current state of things).
I also think publishing catering to the needs of white woman yet again (whether we have good intentions of decentering ourselves or not) isn't what I'm looking for in this moment in time-catering to other (and in publishing's case, new) audiences will inevitably bring those that already read along for the ride, but it goes beyond publishing right?--stores (a la Target) are catered to a white middle class mindset from their layouts to what they carry to how they market. It's insidious. And thus why we are continuing to have this conversation all the time. It's both an inside and outside job. And I say this as a white woman working in publishing, who reads rabidly, so I am a part of this problem inevitably.
Thank you so much for writing back! And yes, I am with you in terms of amplifying the current voices and demanding that publishing meet the needs of other audiences. There's so much scarcity logic here, in terms of anticipating that new stuff won't sell, won't make "enough" money, will ruffle feathers, or make "traditional" audiences "uncomfortable" . . . . I am eager to move past the "conserving what is" space and into this emerging unknown. Thank you for the work you're doing to push this all forward!
Cassie you are the best and I chuckled many times reading this. You’re so smart and I love your words. Ty for sharing!! Going to be thinking of my three words all day today
Noah!!! I'm always so happy you exist and that we're friends. <3 Can't wait to hear your three words and read YOUR writing!
Thank you so much for sharing this information and doing it in such an engaging manner. You've given me much to think about, and I LOVE the publicity exercises.
Absolutely, Ramona! Thank you for reading. I'm all about some weird little exercises!
Thank you for this! When I read your initial meditation on mainstream publishing's fear of breaking out of a certain white female market, I think of the term "marginalized communities." The term implies that the "marginalized" are this tiny, homogenous group of people, on the margins of the mainstream, with not enough money to spend on hardcover books. Yet demographically the "marginalized" are actually an enormous group of people, clamoring for a vibrant, creative, nourishing collection of texts.
When I read the Times, NYMag, The New Yorker, I feel shunted into this category of "white woman reader" that does not in fact represent me, my identities, my politics. But I consume these "intellectual" publications because I am interested in art, politics, culture, power, privilege, climate, economics . . . and every day I think to myself: "I want to be reading intellectually sophisticated, and politically inspiring, and new world creating ideas, written by people who are *not* already granted power and prestige through Whiteness and status.
I know that I can find that writing, and I am always in search of it. But having to "search" for the ideas that I crave, and at the same time be flooded with an ocean of writing that reflects a very narrow frame of reference, can seduce me into believing that the consensus of mainstream publishing is to continue to recirculate one particular world view as "representative" of the whole, save in the sphere of identity politics, where the "marginalized" are so often asked to center their personal experience in relation to their ideas, in order to be published.
So if this is how I feel, as a "white woman reader," it makes me think there must be others like me out there. Which introduces another question: what if publishing is actually misunderstanding the needs of white women readers? What if white women readers don't just want books that reflect our own needs/wants/desires back to ourselves? What if we are working to de-center the power of Whiteness in our own lives and don't want to have to continually read books that reinforce the fiction that we are the demographic that reads?
Rebecca, this is a thoughtful take, thank you for writing this into the comments! I feel this and feel very much the same way. So, I absolutely understand where you're coming from, and the recourse I've found is to always amplify whatever comes up from the "search," as much as I can. Yell, hey! I am reading this! More of this please! And to put my money behind that as well! Money is what really talks to publishers (which I realize is another problem but we have to start at a place where we can get the message across in the current state of things).
I also think publishing catering to the needs of white woman yet again (whether we have good intentions of decentering ourselves or not) isn't what I'm looking for in this moment in time-catering to other (and in publishing's case, new) audiences will inevitably bring those that already read along for the ride, but it goes beyond publishing right?--stores (a la Target) are catered to a white middle class mindset from their layouts to what they carry to how they market. It's insidious. And thus why we are continuing to have this conversation all the time. It's both an inside and outside job. And I say this as a white woman working in publishing, who reads rabidly, so I am a part of this problem inevitably.
Thank you so much for writing back! And yes, I am with you in terms of amplifying the current voices and demanding that publishing meet the needs of other audiences. There's so much scarcity logic here, in terms of anticipating that new stuff won't sell, won't make "enough" money, will ruffle feathers, or make "traditional" audiences "uncomfortable" . . . . I am eager to move past the "conserving what is" space and into this emerging unknown. Thank you for the work you're doing to push this all forward!
ME TOO!!!!--So much! The betting is really a downfall, I would love a whole summit on how to fix that model. BAH! Keep doing the good work. :)