"Underrepresented Writers" ~ A Rant

The last time I queried literary agents was in 2021. It seems like much longer ago. I'd struggled to finish my third novel, thanks to the Covid epidemic, at which time we were all sent home to work, and I had to replace my personal PC with a work-issued one. (Don't ask me why, but working from home was a new and novel thing back then.) Had I saved my manuscript to the cloud, I could have continued to work on it, but believe it or not, even five years ago, most people (including me) were still doing things the old fashioned way. So, it wasn't until I was able to shed that piece of company junk that I could continue writing. (I was so bored in my non-work hours that I wrote a lot of blog posts about...working from home.)

Somehow I've veered off into long-ago reminiscences, which is not the purpose of this post.

I'd already queried my first two novels---heavily queried them---ridiculously queried them, racking up over 100 submissions for each, obviously with no success. I'd become expert at dissecting various agents' wishlists, reading between the lines to suss out the kind of stories each agent was specifically looking for. That grew easier as time went on, since most of them wanted the exact same things. And much like with marketing, I tried different strategies; for example, focusing on "older" agents who might want good writing, as opposed to a woke checklist. That didn't really turn out to be the case, though. The agent world is homogeneous. I hasten to add that I'm not claiming my writing was "good", but it certainly wasn't bad by the time I shopped that third novel.

The quibble I have is with the term "underrepresented". Since every agent's wishlist goes like this: BIPOC, LGBTQ, own voices, marginalized creators; how are these authors somehow the publishing world's victims?

Wanna know who's underrepresented?

• White male writers
• Female writers over age 50 (unless they're BIPOC or LGBTQ---maybe)
• Writers without a political agenda 
• Immersive storytellers

The other day, I started watching a YouTube video that showed up in my queue. It was made by an Asian female author, and her premise was that every novel being pushed by The Big Five is woke. Gosh, I wonder why. It can't be that 1,000 US literary agents all want the same thing. (A quick scan of the website Manuscript Wish List tells me that the only agents not looking for the usual demographic are the agents of color. Ironic.)

"Diversity" is a buzzword that's been thrown around for years, but its definition has been bastardized, The actual definition:

a: the quality or condition of having or being composed of differing elements (such as forms, types, or ideas)

 

b: a group or collection of differing elements

 

 

According to Google, this is the reality of trade published books:

 

• Low Average Sales: The average traditionally published book sells roughly 3,000 copies in its lifetime, according to some industry sources, though others note an average under 1,000 in recent years.
• The 90% Rule: It is widely cited that 90% of trade titles sell fewer than 2,000 copies.
• High Failure Rates: Only about 12.3% of books sell more than 5,000 copies in their first year.
• Venture Capital Model: Publishers act like venture capitalists, relying on a very small percentage of books to generate enough profit to cover the losses of most others.
• Success Factors: Success is often dictated by marketing, timing, and luck, rather than just quality, with many authors needing external income sources to make a living. 

While landing a traditional publishing deal offers credibility and professional editing, it does not guarantee high sales or a full-time income for most authors.

 

I've mentioned before that the times when I've been forced to walk inside Barnes & Noble (my husband likes rock magazines), there are front tables packed with novels that no one is perusing. The area is vewwy, vewwy quiet. Because the major publishers view these titles as loss leaders...

 

"To maintain their relationships with distributors and bookstores like Barnes & Noble, publishers must provide a steady stream of content. If they only published 10 "guaranteed" hits a year, they would lose their shelf space and market relevance to competitors."

 

...why not take a chance on a variety of authors, a variety of themes? The books aren't selling anyway, so what's the difference? 

 

Well, the difference is the gatekeepers, i.e., the agents. A publisher can't buy a novel it doesn't know about.  

 

More stats regarding agents:

 

"Gender Gap: The profession is heavily female-dominated, with women representing over 82% of all literary agents in the U.S. as of 2023." 

 

This is a problem. 

 

"Younger literary agents are currently driving a shift toward stories that prioritize

identity, inclusivity, and "genre-bending" narratives. While every agent has a unique "wish list," those in the 25–40 age bracket often gravitate toward:

• Intersectionality & Marginalized Voices: A heavy focus on LGBTQ+ stories, neurodivergence, and BIPOC protagonists where the identity is central but the plot isn't necessarily defined only by "trauma."
• Contemporary Social Issues: Themes involving climate anxiety (cli-fi), the impact of social media/AI on loneliness, and "eat the rich" critiques of late-stage capitalism.
• Genre Mashups: Moving away from rigid categories. They love "literary-leaning" horror, romantasy (romance + fantasy), and speculative fiction that feels grounded in the real world.
• Mental Health & Radical Vulnerability: Stories that explore therapy, unconventional family structures (found family), and the deconstruction of traditional "happily ever afters."

No way! 

 

This (this!) is why self-publishing has taken off the way it has. And the fact is, most authors now choose self-publishing without a second thought. It doesn't matter how good the book is, how well it's written; it doesn't matter if an author queries a hundred agents or a thousand; by the time he (or she) realizes that no agent's going to pick it up, the author's wasted six months to a year, when the book could have already been out in the book-buying universe making money. (Obviously, my books are not a representative sampling.)

 

It doesn't matter how well-funded The Big Five are, just like it doesn't matter how well-funded movie studios are. Well, it matters in one sense, because neither currently has any incentive to release good product. But is that sustainable? And just like with Hollywood award shows, agents will keep patting each other on the back, affirming their dedication to "the cause". Proud that they aren't letting any interlopers in. 

 

We self-publishers will just keep doing our thing. Even we old, white ones.