[Writer Post] It’s AND Not OR

Today’s writing post… and there’s more stuff hitting fans. How much fun is that?

A couple of days ago an article on XOJane.com started circulating on my Facebook feed. The title of the article: “I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year” with a picture of a circled out Neil Gaiman book held by a woman of color.
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The premise of the article was supposed to be to challenge readers to read outside their comfort zone. To read books that aren’t in their normal shelf or scope. That’s not how it read. It read as “boycott all the books by White Dudes”. I can’t support that. Not even a little.

Do I want people to read more books by all kinds of people? Absolutely because, hey, I’m a woman writer that should mean more people reading my book. BUT… but I would rather they read my book because they’ve gotten to me, or like the genre, or just want to try something new – not because of my gender or other “minority” attribute. If that’s a deciding factor, okay, I hope you like the story and come back for more.
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If you’re reading my book INSTEAD OF reading someone else’s because of their skin color, gender, or other identifier? That’s NOT OKAY. I will not now nor will I ever support anything that causes a fellow author to lose sales (which then could mean the end of a career), because then we’ll never have books by someone who has produced art in the past… BECAUSE OF THEIR SKIN COLOR OR GENDER.

Expand your horizons. Read men, women, black, white, LGBT, religious…heck read Flying Purple Spaghetti Monsters, I don’t care, but don’t STOP reading those things that got you reading in the first place. Find things that stretch you, entertain you, and then tell your friends. Tell the world with your hard earned dollars.
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Make this kind of challenge an AND not a OR. Really, there’s room for all of us on the bookshelves. If you want to read books that aren’t “the same old, same old” or are of different perspectives, types of authors, etc… go check out Yard Dog Press. They don’t call us a “taste of strange” for nothing.
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Don’t know what to read? Try anthologies. Short pieces that introduce you to a wide range of writers styles. They’re AWESOME!

Tags: Books, equality, gender, reading, SF, stories, Writing