All language subtitles for Masterclass N. K. Jemisin Teaches Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing - 16.Writing While Marginalized

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NARRATOR: There are people out
there who need your example.

If your book is out there,
your voice is out there,

your face is out there, you're
contributing literally just

by existing.

You are not just writing
for yourself anymore.

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Let's be blunt here.

The publishing industry
is no different

from any other major
institution in American society,

or English speaking
language society,

because it's very similar
in other countries.

It has a huge problem with
systemic and endemic racism,

sexism, a bunch of other isms,
and the bulk of the power

players are cishet white guys.

The editors, for the most
part, are cishet white women,

but the people actually
making decisions

at the CEO level or the
publisher and up level

tend to be men.

So depending on how far you
choose to make your text

veer from what their preferences
are, because it has to be

said that there are a lot
of marginalized people

throughout the
history of literature

in this country who've concealed
their problematic identities

and gone on to publish fiction
where they just don't mention

what people look
like or they just

don't mention those
aspects of people's lives.

And so it's certainly
possible to publish

books that are of
meaning and value

to the people who are decision
makers, whether you yourself

come from a marginalized
background or not.

People who come from
marginalized backgrounds

all know how to speak the
language of the center.

We all have read
all of the books

with the white guys in them.

We know what kinds of stories
are popular with that audience.

Everybody knows that.

That's what makes
them the center.

The thing that is
relevant or the thing

that you do have to kind
of keep in mind as you're

writing if you choose to conceal
your identity and sort of just

go in with-- go with
the flow, basically,

is that you're
effectively participating

in your own marginalization.

You're participating
in that bigotry.

You're complicit with it.

And that's not
necessarily a state

that everybody wants to be in.

So let's say that
you're a writer, though,

who wants to fight the power.

You want to push back
against that bigotry.

You want to find a way to break
in when the primary decision

makers who determine whether
your career happens or not

are people who not only don't
understand your identity,

but may not even really
believe that an audience exists

for your identity.

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One of the feedback pieces
that I got when I first

tried to publish my true
first professional novel,

"The Killing Moon," was, an
editor wrote back and said,

I love this, but I'm not
sure I know how to market it.

And that sentence has
never left my head.

It's verbatim in my head
because it immediately told me

that this editor did not believe
that Black people read books,

did not believe that
white people would

buy a book about Black people
or that featured Black people.

Because "The Killing Moon"
isn't about being Black.

It's about ninja priests sucking
dreams out of people's heads,

but there were Black, and so
this was apparently a problem.

And so you've got
to deal with that.

You've got to be prepared to
encounter some dog whistley

bigotry and sometimes
very blatant bigotry.

I know other writers
from marginalized groups

whose characters have
been rendered on cover art

in these really kind of
completely inaccurate ways.

Black characters written
as white, characters

of one gender rendered is a
completely different gender,

people who are described
in the text as fat

and depicted as conventionally
skinny and pretty.

And so you've got to be prepared
to encounter some of that

and you've got to be
prepared to fight,

and you have to
choose your battles.

You have to choose
which one of those

battles you're willing to
fight and die on a hill for.

Some authors have had to accept
completely inaccurate racist

or otherwise bigoted cover
art because the alternative

was their voice did
not get out there.

Their stories did
not get written.

One of my favorite books by
one of my favorite authors,

"Dawn" by Octavia Butler.

When I first encountered
this book back

in the '80s when she first
started getting published,

the book cover had an image
of a white woman pulling

another white woman out of
some kind of weird alien plant.

When you actually read the
book, though, the protagonist

of that story, the person who
pulled the white woman out

of the alien plant was
herself a tall Black woman

with an Igbo name.

And so this is what she had to
deal with in order to break in.

If she hadn't existed
in the industry,

if her voice had not been
out there, if her example

and trailblazing
had not happened,

I might not be able to
have a career even now

because one of the
reasons I chose

to start trying to
get published was

because I knew Butler
had had a thriving career

in this business.

But in order to have
that thriving career,

she had to swallow
whitewashing on her book cover.

You've got to decide how
many of these battles

are worth fighting and how
hard you're willing to fight,

but you do have to fight.

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I think it's absolutely
crucial that if you

are on the brink of
becoming a published author

and you get the opportunity
to become a published author,

you need to understand
that you are not just

writing for yourself anymore.

There are people out there
who need your example, who

need you to go forth and
fight that battle so they

won't have to fight as hard.

And it's worth it to fight that
battle so that they won't have

to fight as hard because
if anybody sort of paved

that way for you and made
things a little easier for you,

you kind of have an obligation
to pay that forward.

And understand that even if you
feel like you've lost a battle,

if your book is out there,
your voice is out there,

your face is out there,
you're still helping.

You're contributing
literally just by existing.

And if you can manage
to do more than exist,

if you cannot just
survive, but thrive,

then you may end up changing
the industry ultimately.

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If you, like me, are a
marginalized writer or a writer

from a visibly known
marginalized background,

you're going to
encounter some bigotry.

It's unavoidable.

That is the nature of the world
that we live in in these days.

As a Black woman
in this business,

I have had to deal
with some shit.

Most of it has come in the
form of online harassment

because my career kind of
started after the internet.

When I first published
"The Hundred Thousands

Kingdoms," my first
published novel, shortly

after it came out and I think
got some nice favorable reviews

in a few places, I got an email
from someone who basically

cussed me nine ways to Sunday.

Told me that it was terrible
that my book had gotten

published as affirmative
action and effectively

was a death threat.

Said that if they ever saw me,
they would teach me a lesson.

So that was my
first introduction

to fan mail and things just
kind of continued from there.

My fan mail is a lot better
these days and the people

that I deal with, for the
most part, 99% of them

are absolutely fine.

That 1% of [GROANS] people
I've had some trouble with

and I've had to kind of
configure my life in such a way

as to protect myself and
be prepared for that.

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What you can do to prepare
for it is make sure

that you and the people close to
you are as safe as they can be

and then that you
are in the safest

possible position from which
to choose your response.

It's perfectly valid
to have no response.

It's perfectly valid
to decide that you

don't want to have that
particular fight right now.

There will be other fights.

What you can do to
prepare yourself

includes sort of covering
your online footprint,

making sure that you are as
removed as possible from easy

methods of figuring out
where you live, for example.

Specific techniques
that I've used

have included things like
sweeping the internet

periodically for my
name and address.

If you self search,
you will find engines

like Spokeo or
Whitepages where they've

scraped people's addresses from
public documents like leases

or homebuyer documents,
things like that.

If you, at any point, have
filed something with the city,

then your personal
information is public record

and there are search
engines out there

whose job it is to
scrape that data

and sell it to whoever the
heck wants to pay them for it,

and that's a great way for
you to eventually be doxed.

You may want to sweep
through those search engines

and remove your name.

You can do so.

Another thing that
I've had to do

is I finally purchased
a home after years

of dreaming about being
able to be a homeowner

and I incorporated a shell
company in order to do so.

It's a pretty
well-known technique

used by big name folks who
want to try and kind of cover

their tracks.

But then that way, city
records of the home sale

will only list the name
of whatever company

it is that you've got and
not your own individual name.

You also want to
make sure that you're

using two-factor authentication
on any of your social media

outlets, really on anything
that you're doing online.

If you have the opportunity to
put two-factor security on it,

you should do so.

You want to try and do basic
internet self-protection things

like making sure you're
not using the same password

everywhere, but you
also want to make sure

that you're doing a little
bit more esoteric stuff.

If you put pictures of
yourself or your family online,

look at the background before
you put that out there.

Look at where you
are and consider

whether anything
in your background

is revealing your location
or the location of your home.

Sometimes people
will take selfies

and they happen
to have the street

signs in the background
that indicate

what block they live
on and what city,

and you want to make
sure that you're

kind of being a little
careful about that.

Among other things,
I also stopped

announcing in advance,
or very far in advance,

where I was going to
be at any given time.

When I go on book tours
and things like that,

I often will not
mention that I'm

going to be in a
particular location

until just a day
or two beforehand,

and that's just a self
protective measure.

If you are going to go
forth into the world

and put your name
out there attached

to your ideas, your
dreams, your beliefs,

and if your ideas,
dreams, or beliefs

are in any way challenging
to other people,

then you need to make sure
you're protecting yourself.

Even something as simple as
what name you choose to use.

You may want to use a pen name
and not put your real name out

there at all.

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One of the resources
that I use for how

to cover my own tracks online
and how to protect myself

against this kind of potential
harassment is Crash Override.

Crash Override is a great
organization that developed out

of Gamergate, one
of the better known

horrible online harassment
campaigns targeting women,

and people of color,
and Queer people

who are in the gaming industry.

And they have a
resource page that's

got some really good
techniques and suggestions

for how you can
cover your tracks

and protect yourself online.

It may seem terrifying that
you have to protect yourself

in this manner just to
exercise your creative self,

but the world is what it is.

And if you think of it
this way, putting down

the sort of initial steps
of protecting yourself

is part of your development
as a writer as well.

You are an anticipating fame.

You are anticipating becoming
super well-known and super

popular and you
are doing what you

need to do to move in
that direction safely.

So don't be
discouraged by the fact

that you've got to do this.

Just think of it as
part of the preparation

that you have to do to enter
pretty much any profession,

but especially one where you're
going to be really visible.

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I'm not going to say that
you shouldn't be demoralized.

Those are valid feelings and
the world should be more fair.

It's grotesque that it isn't.

And you're going to
have to deal with that

in pretty much every
aspect of your existence.

In your day job career,
in the writing career,

in walking down the street.

If you are visibly
marginalized, you're

going to have to deal with that.

If you are a disabled
person looking for--

just trying to get
through your day,

you're going to have to deal
with the lack of accommodation

everywhere and so on.

The reason to keep fighting is
so that things can get better.

And it's a constant drain.

It's a constant war.

It's a war that you know will
not end in your lifetime.

And you're going to get tired
of fighting at various points.

You're going to
need to find ways

to recharge from that
fight at various points.

If you need to stop trying
to get published for a while,

take a break, breathe, and kind
of remind yourself of what's

important to you, then do that.

But come back.

Because at the end of
the day, your struggle

and your sacrifice make
someone else's life

that much easier in the future.

And I'm blunt about the
fact that I would not

be here if Octavia Butler had
not dealt with all the crap

that she had.

I don't write anything like her.

I'm not really trying to be
her or anything like that.

But just the fact that she, as
a tall, heavyset, deep voice,

dark skinned Black
woman, was able to walk

into this incredibly white
establishment that is science

fiction's sort of upper
echelon, and she blew it out

of the water.

She did an amazing
job with her work.

Her writing leaves
a mark and changes

anyone who reads it of
whatever background.

She changed the
industry by being here.

I do not aspire to
have that same impact.

Whether I do or not
will depend on my work.

I leave that to
history to decide.

But I am aware of the fact
that, just by striving,

other people will be
inspired to do it too,

and together, we rise.

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