WRITING LIFE

Becoming a debut author is never easy, but being a debut author of colour adds extra layers of difficulty to be navigated. Here, two recently published authors and an editor describe what they’ve experienced, and offer their advice

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 – the good, the bad and the 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 writer at the very beginning of your career, please check out the national writing organisations in the UK who lead a wide range of workshops and offer awards schemes to empower debut writers.[4] As well as enhancing your craft, these spaces also foster a sense of community – you can meet other writers who will often become lifelong friends and your best champions.

When you’ve got a manuscript or a non-fiction proposal that you’ve refined to perfection, the next step can be to get an agent.[5] This isn’t always necessary as publishers are increasingly open to submissions from unagented writers, but having an agent can be useful. They can be your loudest cheerleader, negotiate the perfect deal for your book and will take care of the nitty-gritty details that can be quite overwhelming. Some of the writing organisations mentioned above will offer introductions to agents but you can also look up who is representing the books that would ideally be next to yours on a bookshelf and who is their agent. Do your research to find an agent that will be the best ally for your long-term writing career.