Diversity During Award Season

It's award season! As a culture we'll ooh and aah over celebrities in gorgeous dresses and ghastly tuxedos as they climb the steps of polished stages to accept awards for Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Album and more. In the book world, there are a number of awesome awards out there too, though they get considerably less fan fare. For some, it's there favorite season for television watching.
But the tea (as they kids say) or scandal for you old folks is that this year's Academy Awards are the whitest awards in a very, very long time in terms of nominations.

What does this mean? Is it discrimination or something else?

I'm not sure, but it's highlighting a lack of diversity in the film world, a lack of good roles and a lack of recognition for the contributions of people of color. We can say the same for book awards, though there are a growing number of awards that target specific demographics I worry about the ghettoization of the award world where the Coretta Scott King award has to exist because otherwise there would be no recognition for books featuring kids of color, or worse no incentive for the publishing industry to produce these titles.

I think the publishing world suffers from the same malady as the Academy in that the voting body is not at all reflective of the viewing/reading body. As in the advertising world, the deciding figures are still older, male and white. Editors in the book industry tend to be young, female and white and the business is largely subjective. Those editors pick books that they like and speak to them. If there is to be real change in the industry then there has to be a change in who the gatekeepers are. Publishing houses are going to have to diversify their editors and agencies will have to do the same.

Publishers can:

• Look at HBCU's and public colleges that aren't Division I. Recruit from smaller liberal arts schools and see what those students have to offer.
• Offer "paid" internships over the Summer or for shorter periods of time. Non-paid internships ensures that you will receive students in a certain income bracket, and cuts yourself off from the perspectives of a large part of your reading body.
• Do short-term "open calls". I know it's a lot of work, but  agents will only pitch what they think you'll buy. 
• Fire all of your cover artists. You guys just really need to re-evaluate how you package books for YA. I mean, that's a post in itself.

Genrefying Your Library is Racist...Maybe

A lot has been said about the new direction of libraries. Whispers and shouts from all walks of the media have been decrying the death of our beloved repositories and many of us are scrambling to compete with the attention of young readers. The library has to compete with television, radio, the internet and social media, so the temptation is to make things easy. What could be easier than the bookstore format? Surely, millions of dollars have gone into corporate marketing studies to suss out the best way to get customers to find what they like and then buy it. Why not apply this golden knowledge to the library?

I'll tell you, good friend. Because it isn't a science. Book publishers pay a lot of money for premium placement in book displays and certain sections. They are the ones who identify the genre for the bookstore and place it on the back of the book. Suddenly, Jodi Piccoult's latest title goes from Contemporary Fiction to Chick-Lit. This wouldn't matter if certain sections/genres didn't have stereotypes and connotations associated with them.

Is Beloved by Toni Morrison classic literature or African-American fiction? One would have her shelved with Flannery O'Connor and Faulkner, the other would have her next to Eric Jerome Dickey and Zane.

When genre placement is left up to the librarian or bookstore owner the opportunity for book ghettos emerge. These make it easier for some people to narrow their search to only those books for gay people or black people or whomever people, but it also creates a barrier for those outside of these narrow markers. If I were to browse the fiction section I may pick up a book and stumble upon a great title that just happens to have a gay main character. With genrefied shelves I'd never stumble upon anything, I'd have to seek it out.

The Dewey Decimal System we all learned in elementary school may be boring, but it is the great equalizer-- democracy for information. Giving it up leaves far too many opportunities to marginalize, overshadow and subvert great books.

January is the Best Month of the Year

So, last year was pretty awesome. I pitched a book (didn't sell it), had a baby (totally, unexpected) and joined the committee for the Georgia Peach Book Award. It was a pretty good year, but this year will be even better. I love January, because it is an arbitrary reset button. I can reevaluate my life and get things back on track that have gone hopelessly off the rails, but I'm going to be better this year than last.I usually make a laundry list of resolutions that are hopelessly impossible to keep, but I think I've found a formula that works.

1. Write the resolution down. I like the app Wunderlist because I can keep my list with me and break it down into action steps. Which brings me to...
2. Break goals down into action steps.
3. Schedule it. I've designated days for certain things so I can make sure they happen.
4. Organize. Get a template, a schedule, a plan. Whatever it is you want to do, someone else has done it so don't reinvent the wheel.

So....here are a few of mine.

• Lose 20lbs (hey, it's vain, but I just had a baby)
• Audition for ACX (I've done it before and should do again)
• Launch a small business (I'll clue you guys in once it's ready

So, Lovelies, what's your resolution?