File this under: Smack A Bitch (comma) Am I Gonna Have To

[megwrites]

This makes me beyond furious.

The short version of the story: There's a cover to an anthology of stories in which half the authors in the anthology are male, half are female.

Yet *all* the author names featured on the cover are male.

A lot of people have had reactions varying from "sexist scum" to "eh, that's business".

I think that it probably wouldn't have done one damn thing to hurt sales if at least *one* female name had been featured on the cover. It might have helped. I know that I personally stray away from anything that looks like its inhabited solely by White Guys. Why? What writers of color and women bring to the party is more to my taste.

Any time I see an all White Guy cover/anthology, I can't help but think, "This is going to be a big slice of the same boring story that white guys have been writing for 50 years. With a side of offensive. I'll pass."

Inclusion of women and authors of color makes me *trust* the quality of the anthology more.

Does that mean any anthology with a woman or WoC is automatically good? No. Does this mean anything written by a White Guy will automatically be boring, dry, and offensive? Heavens no. (See also: Neil Gaiman).

But covers are about snap judgments, and my snap judgment will bend in your favor if I see some of *my* people included. Yes, *my* people.

But what gets me more is the reply that came from Jason Williams of Nightshade Press (the press which is publishing the anthology in question).

This is besides the fact that I think it shows some of the most unprofessional behavior I've seen. What was Jason Williams thinking? I dread even contemplating what ran through his head.

Here's a rule, for all you business people out there. Don't stoop to replying in livejournal comments. There can be no good in that. If you feel the need to respond to the mudslinging, do so in professional manner. A press release, a carefully worded letter on a website.

Livejournal is not the place for you to enter this fray. This is a place that prizes the ability to put funny words on pictures of cats. Is this really the venue for you to respond?

And for fuck's sake, if you do feel the burning need to respond via LJ comments - do not do so without a lawyer and a PR consultant right there next to you.

Why?

Because if you don't have those people, you'll say things like this:

"So I'm going to pick the five names that I think will best sell the book, and frankly, gender isn't important in that decision to me, unless I think the author's gender will help me sell copies of the book."

So, gender's not important to you unless gender's important to you. Let's chew on that for a while. Let it leave the deep, hickory smoked flavor of fail in our mouths.

So you've just said that you don't think about gender, unless gender is important. And as a white male, gender is *never* important to you. Because you, as a white guy, never have to think about gender or race. You can very safely ignore it, because no matter what, you will always be represented. You don't have to worry about not getting a slice of the pie.

Because nobody has to create special movements and special interests and agendas just to make sure White Guys get their fair share or at least the opportunity to try. White Guys don't have to scan the shelves carefully and pick out a few treasured authors who are like them, who represent them. They have nearly a whole damn genre to pick from.

So yes, I'm sure you thought that gender wasn't important in your decision. Well, it should have been. The fact that it isn't speaks to the fact that you're probably a lot more sexist than you think, Mr. Williams.

Just like all those nice people on the internet think that being colorblind is a good thing. (It's not. Let hth_the_first explain why being colorblind is very BAD).

And without that lawyer and PR consultant there to smack you upside the head (and you deserve it like WOAH), you'll go on to say something like this:

"I have read posts here that say "so-and-so is a way bigger author than so-and-so that you put on the cover, so you must be sexist" and you're going to have to trust me on this: you're probably wrong. I have access to sales data, you probably don't. I do this for a living, I own the company, and I don't have a foreign conglomerate backing us, so when I'm wrong it costs me a lot of money. If I thought putting five women on the cover would sell more copies, I'd have done it."

Which translates to: "I'm invoking WhiteGuy privilege so I can declare that you're all wrong because it makes me massively uncomfortable. I'll even vaguely refer to sales data, thus cementing my rightness and your wrongness. Because, of course, whenever someone disagrees with WhiteGuy privilege, they're instantly wrong. Because being white and having a penis gives me the magical power to invalidate any argument against me without even considering it to be worth thinking about. Also, this whole fairness thing doesn't matter to me. Unless there's money in it. Because I'm plenty willing to use women for money, I just don't care if they get treated equitably."

Frankly, I think his sales argument is bunk. I think the amount of people he's pissed off, plus the amount of women who probably will be wary of even touching the book because there's not even one woman mentioned, plus the people who probably hadn't heard of the male authors, but knew one of the female authors will equal bad sales.

I certainly will not even touch this anthology, and I certainly will think twice before touching anything by Nightshade Press. It'll take a damn good author to overcome the bile I feel.

Thing about women is, we have money and if you piss us off enough, we will take that money elsewhere. Combined, we can lay a lot more than twenty grand on the table.

Which is why you need your lawyer and your PR consultant sitting there, instructing you on how to at least write a professional, politely worded response that doesn't make people want to punch you in the face.

I think I shall declare next week to be: Women Writer's Week. In which I will rec, pimp, and otherwise regale you with links to fabulous books and stories written by women authors. Maybe you could do the same.

Comments

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

See, I think he's negating that factor a lot, and he shouldn't. It's pretty much a fact that women buy more books than men.

I think courting the very sizeable market of Intelligent Discerning Women Who Read SF/F by putting at least one female author on the cover will make up for any loss you might have if someone doesn't see that one author.

Chances are they'll at least recognize one of the others. And bonus: you haven't insulted an entire gender.