Let Readers Judge

Two YA books have been cancelled recently because of an online storm that accused them and their authors of bias. Amelie Wen Zhao’s Blood Heir was pulled from shelves because some readers of the pre-release materials felt she depicted slavery insensitively–and because she is an Asian American immigrant writing about slavery. Kosoko Jackson asked that his novel, A Place for Wolves, be pulled from publication after some online accusations of insensitivity to Muslims–and because he is a gay American black man writing a novel set during the Kosovan civil war.

I know of at least one other book which was cancelled before publication because the race of the writer did not coincide with the race of the main character. There are probably others.

I have not read any of these books. I cannot say with conviction whether the writers are guilty of bias, insensitivity, or just plain bad writing.

Here’s the thing–most of the people attacking these writers online have not read the books either. Because they have not been released. And now they never will be.

Not every book that makes it past an editorial acquisition committee and reviewers’ eagle eyes is a good book. Some are poorly written, some traffic in stereotypes, some reveal biased judgment or a lack of empathy. You know what should happen to those book? They should fail.

They should go unsold and go out of print because they have not connected with readers. But they should not be yanked off the shelves because a pre-publication online mob has judged them impure or has decided that X writer cannot write about Y characters or Z setting.

Books are not finished until they connect with their readers. A reader takes in a book, characters and plot and setting and tone and vision and emotional impact. The book as a whole collides with and absorbs the reader’s mindset and feelings and memories and preferences and then, only once that has happened, do you have a book. A complete book. A book that can actually be judged as good, bad, interesting but flawed, or a waste of paper or pixels.

Pulling books off the shelves before they get released short-circuits this process. It means books will forever be judged on an anonymous tweet or a scrap of quotation. It means books are being condemned while they are still half finished.

This is not the way to go about publishing, reviewing, or writing books. We can’t publish by tweet. (We can’t govern that way either.)