I would say a bit late to the party, but a) I haven't had time to post and b) I could probably go on about this topic for a good 25k words. And I needed to figure out a way to cut it down (by a lot).
So, a few weeks back an author/editor had a bit of a melt down while nominating another author for an award. Nothing wrong with the author he nominated or nominating in general. It is what he said. It went along the lines of it being unfashionable to nominate white CIS-HET men for awards. Now, I don't know this editor, but his friends were pretty disgusted by what was said. In addition to that, a bunch of people virtual signalling the alt-right jumped on and encouraged the original poster as if diversity in horror hasn't always existed.
The diversity has always been there. There isn't any question of that as far as I'm concerned (I don't have the time to jump onto google and post some proof). People have been telling horror stories for as long as there has been people. And this extends across all cultures. Horror has always been there even before Mary Shelley wrote down Frankenstein. It existed in oral form and folk stories, etc. etc.
What has changed is the Internet. And most importantly, Amazon. Love it or hate it, Amazon changed the way people can access books. Although the big Western publishing houses were pushing the usual straight white men, smaller publishers from all over the world allowed readers anywhere with an Internet connection and credit card to buy their books. And of course, Ebay and other early online retailers. So readers now had access to a vast array of books covering every single niche imaginable from every single demographic of author that managed to overcome obstacles in their personal lives and have a book published. This was great.
And then publishing changed some more. It has always been possible to self-publish books and pamphlets and zines. And there's always been small niche-market presses. But self-publishing was costly. Printing costs alone cut off access for everyone who couldn't afford it. Then, if you have someone being discriminated against in their personal life, that made it harder or outright impossible to self publish a book or for micro-presses to set up. Amazon made self-publishing easier and a Hell of a lot cheaper.
So, first Amazon gave us access to books we couldn't access previously. Then they shook up self-publishing.
Amazon and small presses could not remove the discrimination that people face in their daily lives, but they did allow would-be authors that managed to over-come those problems (and some may have even had family or social support, was talking about this earlier, JK Rowling, TERF-wizard extraordinaire did have social support regardless of what she told the media) to have their books published.
And as I mentioned above, the Internet changed things too. It wasn't just Amazon. The larger publishers and agents started to allow email submissions. So people without the money to have a manuscript printed or without access to a post office or outside of the United States were suddenly having their books published by the larger publishing houses. (I've mentioned the USA being insular before, but with publishing being based there, it is worse when you put in the International tokens or whatever they were to get your manuscript back because apparently the world does not exist outside of the USA or if it does, it is primitive. I'm not saying all publishers were guilty of behaving like this, but this attitude existed in publishing as much as it existed within the general population. As I've stated before both in public and private - I have faced discrimination in both the USA and UK for simply being "foreign".)
So all these people, some who have faced a lot of discrimination in their personal lives now had access to publishing barriers removed. It is as simple as that. The barriers came down. You still have to write a decent book and even if your book is good, the publisher or agent may not being looking for that type of book. And all the other stuff that comes along with having a book published.
It makes sense now that the barriers are down that people who aren't white CIS-HET men are being nominated for awards. And these awards are well earned and well deserved.
So, a few weeks back an author/editor had a bit of a melt down while nominating another author for an award. Nothing wrong with the author he nominated or nominating in general. It is what he said. It went along the lines of it being unfashionable to nominate white CIS-HET men for awards. Now, I don't know this editor, but his friends were pretty disgusted by what was said. In addition to that, a bunch of people virtual signalling the alt-right jumped on and encouraged the original poster as if diversity in horror hasn't always existed.
The diversity has always been there. There isn't any question of that as far as I'm concerned (I don't have the time to jump onto google and post some proof). People have been telling horror stories for as long as there has been people. And this extends across all cultures. Horror has always been there even before Mary Shelley wrote down Frankenstein. It existed in oral form and folk stories, etc. etc.
What has changed is the Internet. And most importantly, Amazon. Love it or hate it, Amazon changed the way people can access books. Although the big Western publishing houses were pushing the usual straight white men, smaller publishers from all over the world allowed readers anywhere with an Internet connection and credit card to buy their books. And of course, Ebay and other early online retailers. So readers now had access to a vast array of books covering every single niche imaginable from every single demographic of author that managed to overcome obstacles in their personal lives and have a book published. This was great.
And then publishing changed some more. It has always been possible to self-publish books and pamphlets and zines. And there's always been small niche-market presses. But self-publishing was costly. Printing costs alone cut off access for everyone who couldn't afford it. Then, if you have someone being discriminated against in their personal life, that made it harder or outright impossible to self publish a book or for micro-presses to set up. Amazon made self-publishing easier and a Hell of a lot cheaper.
So, first Amazon gave us access to books we couldn't access previously. Then they shook up self-publishing.
Amazon and small presses could not remove the discrimination that people face in their daily lives, but they did allow would-be authors that managed to over-come those problems (and some may have even had family or social support, was talking about this earlier, JK Rowling, TERF-wizard extraordinaire did have social support regardless of what she told the media) to have their books published.
And as I mentioned above, the Internet changed things too. It wasn't just Amazon. The larger publishers and agents started to allow email submissions. So people without the money to have a manuscript printed or without access to a post office or outside of the United States were suddenly having their books published by the larger publishing houses. (I've mentioned the USA being insular before, but with publishing being based there, it is worse when you put in the International tokens or whatever they were to get your manuscript back because apparently the world does not exist outside of the USA or if it does, it is primitive. I'm not saying all publishers were guilty of behaving like this, but this attitude existed in publishing as much as it existed within the general population. As I've stated before both in public and private - I have faced discrimination in both the USA and UK for simply being "foreign".)
So all these people, some who have faced a lot of discrimination in their personal lives now had access to publishing barriers removed. It is as simple as that. The barriers came down. You still have to write a decent book and even if your book is good, the publisher or agent may not being looking for that type of book. And all the other stuff that comes along with having a book published.
It makes sense now that the barriers are down that people who aren't white CIS-HET men are being nominated for awards. And these awards are well earned and well deserved.