Thank you for this! Did you include the word “sapphic” in your search, by chance? Also, I would posit that part of the drop in numbers is due to the shift away from LGBTQ+ “issues” being the focus of books and more towards characters just being LGBTQ+ without it being an issue—in other words, they were mainstreamed. A description might mention a teen who starts to have feelings for their best friend without naming the friend’s gender. And biographies of famous queer folk wouldn’t necessarily mention their queerness in a deal announcement description if it’s well known.
It would be interesting to look at the Stonewall and Lambda nominees/finalists and winners in the kids and YA categories and go find their deal announcements and see if the announcements used any of the keywords you used to search for them.
I love that you have challenged the NYT's reporting. As a journalist I like to think that everything they write is true, but you have demonstrated that it is not. Brava for you for providing context and a much more accurate look at the situation. It's pretty shocking regardless.
Wow, thank you so much for making sense of all this data. I have spoke with authors, both publicly and privately, who are struggling to secure book deals that are from this community as well as other marginalized communities. Seeing the true metrics brings to life many of these anecdotal conversations in publishing. Will there be a big surge again in our future? I hope so!
It’s incredible you have the ability to do this with PM data!
Thanks, Naomi!!!
Thank you for this! Did you include the word “sapphic” in your search, by chance? Also, I would posit that part of the drop in numbers is due to the shift away from LGBTQ+ “issues” being the focus of books and more towards characters just being LGBTQ+ without it being an issue—in other words, they were mainstreamed. A description might mention a teen who starts to have feelings for their best friend without naming the friend’s gender. And biographies of famous queer folk wouldn’t necessarily mention their queerness in a deal announcement description if it’s well known.
It would be interesting to look at the Stonewall and Lambda nominees/finalists and winners in the kids and YA categories and go find their deal announcements and see if the announcements used any of the keywords you used to search for them.
I love that you have challenged the NYT's reporting. As a journalist I like to think that everything they write is true, but you have demonstrated that it is not. Brava for you for providing context and a much more accurate look at the situation. It's pretty shocking regardless.
Wow, thank you so much for making sense of all this data. I have spoke with authors, both publicly and privately, who are struggling to secure book deals that are from this community as well as other marginalized communities. Seeing the true metrics brings to life many of these anecdotal conversations in publishing. Will there be a big surge again in our future? I hope so!
This is incredibly useful research -- it's striking to me that, even with the 2020 "surge," the peak was only at 4%! That's not much.
I'd be interested to see the growth for adult literature too. Even if it's higher than children/YA, I'd guess it's probably close?