Message from a straight white publisher

The indomitable Robert Stacy McCain, who deserves a medal for diving into the swamp ditch that is modern feminist thought, wrote about 23 writers with messages for straight white publishers.

One of the writers was this woman, Franny Choi. She's a poet. Good for her. Ms. Choi's bio also describes her as a performer and an educator. Judging by her bio, she's a rising star in the Asian-lesbian poetry community. Franny Choi has cobbled together a bunch of part time jobs into a viable living doing what she loves.

As of this writing she's in the top 100 in her Amazon category and ranked 449,589 over all. Franny Choi's message for straight white publishers was 'Sit down and let us abolish you.'  Her website states that, 'Franny Choi’s poetry explores the collisions of identities, the volatile nature of language, and the haunting relationship between an artist’s body & her body of work.'

Hey honey, if that's what you want to write about, I'm cool with it. I like high pressure cabinet meetings and exploding Soviet tanks but if you want to 'explore collisions of identities' you do that.

McCain points out that the publishing industry is run by chicks.

Which should surprise no one who ever walked around a Borders from 2003 till the store's ultimate demise.

I always had a theory that one of Border's big problems, other than Amazon, digital, etc, was that it didn't really know the market. The fiction section was a vast sea of pastel colored books all about beautiful yet still somehow single 20 something women living in cool apartments in choice cities. Toward the end, Borders doubled down on its chick marketing by setting up several shelves full of vampire and Goth crap.

Of course, it didn't work.

Look, I don't pretend to understand everything about Border's demise. But I think my, let's call it 'too chicky' theory, has merit.

Right now I'm in the top ten in my Amazon category in three English speaking nations.

So I do know something about selling books.