ALIYA GULAMANI
The best advice I can give to writers who want to see their book out in the world is to learn about how the publishing industry functions – thegood, thebadandthe downright ugly.
For debut writers of colour, the downright ugly has persisted for such a long time. For too long a time. Marginalised writers have historically been decentred from bookshelves across the world, with their stories, voices and experiences pushed to the margins. Each new report that has emerged to highlight this through the most appalling statistics (I am still depressed by the CLPE 2020 study which revealed that ‘children books were eight times as likely to feature animal main characters as BAME people’)[1] has inspired the tiniest shift in the right direction each time. But progress is still too slow. Writers of colour are still not valued as equally as their white peers which is apparent in many ways, from disparities in advance pay cheques[2] to being given the creative freedom to write the stories they want to write.[3]
There is much to feel disheartened by, but lean in closer and you’ll discover initiatives, pathways and role models paving the way forward for a more equitable industry. If you’re a
