As you know, I am deeply invested in this. I know that Rebecca Makkai really sweated writing The Great Believers about gay men during the AIDS Epidemic, but thank goodness she did. It is a beautiful, moving story. She obviously could not have had any first hand experience, but the care with which she wrote the story was indicative of the immense research she undertook. You have done the same! I know you will take this and turn it into something incredible.
Brokeback Mountain -- a celebrated long short story that became an acclaimed film -- was written by a cishet female about a romance between two men. Writers cannot be and should not be limited by their own experiences/identities (nor should actors, though that is a different discussion) as to topic or to treatment. I'm sorry this happened to you. You are a courageous author who deserves a courageous agent, editor and pubisher.
I don’t think there’s a problem with writing from outside of a culture. As long as one is willing to open up their writing and process to people within that culture through sensitivity readers and beta readers from that culture etc
Ridiculous! So Arthur Golden should never have written Memoirs of a Geisha? An American man writing from a Japanese woman's point of view = a bestseller. But your agent would say "How dare he"? Katrin, don't be put off. Please pour all that creativity into a wonderful story that we can all enjoy!
I think Stephen King didn't write about what he's personally experienced, nor most sci fi authors. Maybe you can continue searching for an agent who's a better fit for you? Good luck, I know you'll find one.
How many books - classics - in the history of literature would never have been written if this "rule" were observed? Any novel about a woman written by a man (or vice versa) to start with.... Hold your ground. Obviously you'll take care to be authentic and respect your protagonists, but you'd do that no matter what, right?
Wow. Madame Bovary couldn’t be published today? Is that a limitation of the publishing industry or of our current culture?
Has it changed that much in just a decade? The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, for instance, about a bunch of men in the Australian gold rush, won the 2013 Booker Prize. Lily King published Euphora in 2014 about anthropologists in New Guinea. A non-binary person played Princess Diana a few years ago in The Crown.
I’ll be so interested to see what you decide to do - ditch the agent, or ditch the novel as you’ve conceived it. Or convince the agent to go to bat for you. And I’m pulling for you, whatever you end up doing. Everything is material for another novel, if nothing else.
The conversation really blew up about five years ago, with the American Dirt fiasco, but apparently it's getting worse not better in this regard. It makes me sad. So many great books won't get written. (And ironically, American Dirt sold VERY well and made its publisher lots of $$$.)
As you know, I am deeply invested in this. I know that Rebecca Makkai really sweated writing The Great Believers about gay men during the AIDS Epidemic, but thank goodness she did. It is a beautiful, moving story. She obviously could not have had any first hand experience, but the care with which she wrote the story was indicative of the immense research she undertook. You have done the same! I know you will take this and turn it into something incredible.
That limitation is crazy - and stifles creativity. Do you have to have experience as a space fighter to write Star Wars?
Brokeback Mountain -- a celebrated long short story that became an acclaimed film -- was written by a cishet female about a romance between two men. Writers cannot be and should not be limited by their own experiences/identities (nor should actors, though that is a different discussion) as to topic or to treatment. I'm sorry this happened to you. You are a courageous author who deserves a courageous agent, editor and pubisher.
My agent was trying to be helpful - she is respectful of my choices but wanted to make me aware of the reality of the current publishing climate.
I don’t think there’s a problem with writing from outside of a culture. As long as one is willing to open up their writing and process to people within that culture through sensitivity readers and beta readers from that culture etc
I agree. However editors are wary 🫤
Ridiculous! So Arthur Golden should never have written Memoirs of a Geisha? An American man writing from a Japanese woman's point of view = a bestseller. But your agent would say "How dare he"? Katrin, don't be put off. Please pour all that creativity into a wonderful story that we can all enjoy!
Oh there are so many amazing books written by people who would not get a publishing deal today :(
I think Stephen King didn't write about what he's personally experienced, nor most sci fi authors. Maybe you can continue searching for an agent who's a better fit for you? Good luck, I know you'll find one.
Actually, my agent is just being real - it's her job to tell it like it is. And it's not pretty out there.
How many books - classics - in the history of literature would never have been written if this "rule" were observed? Any novel about a woman written by a man (or vice versa) to start with.... Hold your ground. Obviously you'll take care to be authentic and respect your protagonists, but you'd do that no matter what, right?
Absolutely. It's not my integrity or ability my agent was worried about. It's the publishing climate that is censorial right now.
Wow. Madame Bovary couldn’t be published today? Is that a limitation of the publishing industry or of our current culture?
Has it changed that much in just a decade? The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, for instance, about a bunch of men in the Australian gold rush, won the 2013 Booker Prize. Lily King published Euphora in 2014 about anthropologists in New Guinea. A non-binary person played Princess Diana a few years ago in The Crown.
I’ll be so interested to see what you decide to do - ditch the agent, or ditch the novel as you’ve conceived it. Or convince the agent to go to bat for you. And I’m pulling for you, whatever you end up doing. Everything is material for another novel, if nothing else.
The conversation really blew up about five years ago, with the American Dirt fiasco, but apparently it's getting worse not better in this regard. It makes me sad. So many great books won't get written. (And ironically, American Dirt sold VERY well and made its publisher lots of $$$.)