Why Authors Coming Out Is an Incredible Thing, For So Many Reasons

I am so proud to be a part of the YA community, and book Twitter in general. We're passionate about the books we read, and the authors who write them. And we are, for the most part, a hugely supportive and accepting. Being so I'm sure has helped the wonderful authors who have recently come to announce to the world who they really are.

Very recently, and over the past year or so, we have seen authors come out on Twitter and elsewhere online:

• YA author Juno Dawson, formerly James Dawson, came out as transgender back in October 2015. 
• For Queer Romance Month, to talk about his own gender identity, NA (and soon to be YA author!) author Elliot Wake, formerly Leah Raeder, wrote Why I Wrote Cam Girl, then on 1st January, came out as transgender.
• YA author Chelsea M. Cameron also chose the beginning of the year to come out.
• And Ashley Herring Blake, whose debut YA novel Suffer Love is published this year, came out as bisexual last year.

You might think, why is this any of our business? Well, for trans authors, we need to know their change of name in order for fans to buy their future books which will be written under their real name. But otherwise, surely it isn't really something we need to know, like with an author's sexuality, right?

Not necessarily. Of course, it is always down to the author to choose whether or not they disclose their identity/ies. But for those who do, they're doing something wonderful; not only are they saying to the world, "This is me, this is who I am," they're also showing their readers who might identify the same way that they are not alone.

We live in a world that isn't as tolerant and accepting as it can be. You hear stories, you read books, about how awful can be to those who are "different", of the danger these people face by being open about who they are. It must be a scary experience for LGBTQ+ teens to tell their family and friends who they are. But then they see the authors they love publicly announcing who they are, standing proud and embracing their true selves. How inspiring must that be? These authors aren't friends of mine, they aren't people I know, but I am so proud and grateful to these people to putting something so personal out there, and so inspired by their courage, though I myself am a straight cis-gender woman.

But there are also the fact that these authors write #ownvoices novels, or may write them in the future, and that is so hugely important. With marginalised groups being so underrepresented in fiction in general, #ownvoices representation is so dearly needed, so people can find accurate representation of themselves in the books they read. That's the most important aspect of #ownvoices, but also those of us who don't identify as the authors do can learn and understand more what it is to be, for example for this post, someone who identifies as lesbian, bisexual, transgender from someone who actually knows.

So it's so wonderful when our authors are forthcoming with their identities, because they can make such a huge difference to someone's life. And for those people, I'm hugely thankful to these incredible authors for being so honest and awesome. Thank you.

Discussion: Why Hyping Books Because of Content Can Be a Good Thing

The lovely and wonderful Cait of Paper Fury started off the year with a great discussion, asking Is Book Hype Trully All That Bad? It's a really great post full of Cait's usual humour, but it also makes some really great points, especially about how everyone is different and we should read what we want, but not to necessarily ignore the hype. However, there was one point Cait made that I would like to look at in more detail. In her post, Cait makes a list of pros and cons for hyped books, and one the cons is:

"It’s NOT being hyped because it’s a “good book”…it’s being hyped because it fills a hole in the book world. I think this is monstrously unfair. And I’ve definitely seen it happen! Oh this book features a blind, asexual, ethnic protagonist? HYPE IT. IT MUST BE GOOD. Um, excuse me but: not necessarily. It bugs me when a book gets hyped because of content, not good storytelling!"
(All emphasis in the quote is Cait's, not mine.)

Now, as Cait pointed out, not all books are going to be liked by everyone. So just because a book is hyped doesn't mean you'll like it. But I do think this kind of hype is important.

Marginalised groups are severely under-represented in fiction, we all know this. The YA world is doing better, but there's still a long way to go, as certain marginalised groups are almost unheard of in YA. But when they are heard of, those of us who want to promote diverse books get quite excited!

Case in point: a few months ago, I was browsing on NetGalley, and the website suggested Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate to me. The cover was really eye-catching, so I clicked and had a read. Not only did it sound like a really intriguing story, but when I saw the words "the closeted pansexual who only cares about his drug-dealing profits", I became all meerkat-like. This book is the first I've heard of that is available to read (to bloggers if not everyone) that has a pansexual main character. I immediately requested the book, then went on Twitter to announce to my followers, and certain people in particular who I know seek out LGBTQ YA, about Seven Ways We Lie.

Jim of YA Yeah Yeah was also interested in reading a book with a pansexual character. He read it, he loved it, he recommended it. I'm not sure if he mentioned it before or after he read it, but he told YA author and diverse books advocat Dahlia Adler about it. Dahlia also loved it. In a recent Twitter chat for LGBTQ YA (I'm afraid I can't remember which), both Jim and Dahlia recommended the book - Jim crediting me for suggesting it to him (which is why I know about all of this) - and lots of people replied to the tweets, excited to read it themselves.

Jim and Dahlia both loved the book, so they were hyping it, but I've seen others talk about this book before being able to read it. This character (I'm still yet to read this book, so I don't know this characters name, as he's one of seven narrators) might just be the first pansexual character to appear in YA. This is a big deal. Of course those interested in diverse books are going to be excited about Seven Ways We Lie, talk about it, and be desperate to read it.

And it's important that we do talk about these books which feature under-represented characters. We need them; we all need to see ourselves in the pages of the books we read, no matter what our identities - we should all be present in fiction. But not all of us are. We all know how important books can be, how they can change lives. When a book is discovered that could be that book for someone, we spread the word in the hopes that the book will find its way into the hands of those who need it. So we hype them.

And maybe we don't end up liking these books we hype - again, some people might, some might not - but, in my opinion, whether I personally enjoy a story or not isn't as important as people seeing themselves represented in books. For example, What We Left Behind by Robin Talley is the first book I've read that features a genderqueer character, Toni. I was depserate to read it as soon as I heard about it, because of Toni. It was on my radar because it had been tweeted about, because of Toni - and it was being tweeted about long before it was available to read by anyone. I had such a hard time reading this book, so much so that I wanted to put it down. But with my blog I have a voice, so I finished it, and I reviewed it. Even though it wasn't for me, it's one of a very few novels representing genderqueer people, and I might help someone who needs it find it.

Saying all this, I'd like to point something out. As I said, What We Left Behind is the first book I've read to feature a genderqueer character, nor is being genderqueer something I know much about. Since writing my review, I have read a review on Goodreads from a genderqueer reader who was really disappointed with the book's representation of genderqueer people, so it looks like it's not a great representation. Fortunately, we do have NA #ownvoices novel Cam Girl by Leah Raeder which I'm sure does much better in terms of representation - another book that was tweeted about before it was released due to it's genderqueer maincharacter. But before reading that review on Goodreads, I was unaware that What We Left Behind might not actually be a book someone needs, and so talking about it felt like an important thing to do.

So I do think hyping books because of content - when the content is very under-represented marginalised characters - even before you've read them (as - as with What We Left Behind and Cam Girl - sometimes you hear about these books long before they're available to read), is not only not a bad thing, but an important thing.

We should know about these books, and there's a lot of us who will always be waiting to read them.

Now what do you think? Do you think books shouldn't be hyped based on content, but on how good they are? Or do you agree with me, that content can be a good enough reason to hype a book?