The pandemic has rocked the publishing world, with new releases suffering in particular. Books by several debut writers, such as my own, ha...
The pandemic has rocked the publishing world, with new releases suffering in particular. Books by several debut writers, such as my own, have had to contend with the lockdown. In India, one generally relies upon bookstores and newspaper reviews to be discovered as a writer. Covid-19 has effectively ground these wheels to a halt.
Meanwhile, global events have brought bigotry and racism to the fore. Both systemic and overt, the rot spreads across every industry in the world, and publishing is no exception. A Twitter-storm of controversy arose with #PublishingPaidMe. The thread was started by LL McKinney, the author of the Nightmare-Verse books, and an advocate of equality and inclusion in publishing, to highlight the disparity in advances paid out to white writers versus writers who are BIPOC (black, indigenous or people of colour).
I was deeply disturbed by this, as it dredged up my unpleasant brush with international publishing a year ago. At that time, I had stumbled upon an event in New York, run by a group of gatekeepers to the world of American publishing. The premise was simple: they would help me pitch my work to a network of prominent editors in the US. I’d have the opportunity to meet these editors...
