Bookstore Event Promotes LGBT Young Adult Titles

Raziel Reid, the author of the award-winning "When Everything Feels Like the Movies," at first struggled to find a publisher willing to embrace his book.

Its protagonist, whom Reid describes as a "gay, 15-year-old queen who has a razor-sharp tongue," and the book's sexual themes were deemed "too gay" and "too provocative" that would only cater to a "niche market."

"It was very difficult to get published. Literary agents, publishers wouldn't take a chance on it," recalled Reid, 25, in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. "I think there is still a perception among agents and publishers that LGBT literature is a niche market even though a lot of straight readers read a lot of LGBT young adult fiction."

Arsenal Pulp Press eventually agreed to publish the book, which first came out in Canada in October and was released in the U.S. in April. Reid, who grew up Manitoba and now lives in Vancouver, went on to win his country's prestigious Governor General's Literary Award, which came with a $25,000 cash prize and provoked a backlash among some who argued the honor should be revoked due to his book's adult themes.

"The critics keep bringing up the graphic language, sexuality, and alleged vulgarity of my narrator Jude," said Reid, who came out as gay at the age of 18. "They don't understand that is part of our culture."

Reid will be in San Francisco next week to discus his debut novel on a panel with other authors of LGBT young adult fiction hosted by Books Inc.'s Not Your Mother's Book Club, the local bookstore chain's literary salon series.

The talk aims to highlight the We Need Diverse Books campaign, begun last year to promote a wider array of titles for children and young adults.

Joining him on the panel will be Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, the co-authors of Tiny Pretty Things, about a diverse group of students at an elite ballet school. HarperCollins' HarperTeen imprint released the book in May.

"We have been doing a lot of talking about diversity. But you can never talk about it enough," said Charaipotra, 38, a straight married mother whose family is from India's Punjab region. "San Francisco during Pride week is the perfect place to have a strong conversation about diversity. It is the ideal place for it."

The author discussion, being held the evening of Thursday, June 25, coincides with June being GLBT Book Month, now promoted under the auspices of the American Library Association, which is holding its 2015 annual conference in San Francisco next week. A number of panels and events tied to the gathering are focused on the campaign to promote the publication of more diverse books.

"In the past year, at least, there has been a huge movement to bring more diversity to YA. Not just LGBT but also different ethnicities and lifestyles," said Anna Billings, the coordinator for the Not Your Mother's Book Club. "It is about creating novels for teens that teens can see themselves in. Not your traditional blonde hair, blue-eyed white male protagonist."

Bookstores have an important role to play in that regard, said Billings, by promoting diverse titles.

"We have to make a movement as booksellers to put them front and center and make sure customers are aware of them," she said. "It is not just about how to present them as a book about gay teens and why you should read it. It is more about saying this is a really great adventure story and it happens to have a gay teen in it. We are making a conscious effort to carry more of these books and to display them openly."

Increasing Selection

Tanya Landsberger, the manager of Books Inc.'s Castro store, said the local bookseller has been trying to increase its overall selection of young adult books, in addition to expanding the number of LGBT YA titles it carries.

"We have been working with the campaign We Need More Diverse Books as well," said Landsberger. "It is not just LGBT YA books, which has markedly increased in the past few years, the children's section overall is getting bigger."

Not only are the neighborhood's demographics changing, with more children now living in the Castro, pointed out Landsberger, adult patrons are increasingly interested in LGBT titles marketed for younger readers.

"Definitely, we want teens," said Landsberger. "But we surely recognize adults read these too."

The LGBT YA authors panel is believed to be the first of its kind to be hosted by Books Inc. The bookstore has presented talks by several individual authors of LGBT YA titles over the last year.

Also taking part in next week's event is Ilene Gregorio, the author of "None of the Above," published in April by Balzer and Bray, HarperCollins' children's book imprint. The book is inspired by an intersex youth Gregorio met while attending Stanford's medical school.

"I was afraid initially, when I submitted it, I didn't know if editors would think there was an audience for it," said Gregorio, 38, who is straight and of Chinese descent.

Yet she quickly found a publisher. The most problematic aspect with the roll out for her book, now in its second printing, was how to market it, said Gregorio.

"You can love something or think it has merit. But if you can't figure out how to make everyone pick it up, it will not do well," she said.

Gregorio, a urologist who lives outside of Philadelphia, is a founding member of the We Need Diverse Books campaign and its vice president of development.

"One of the things we have learned is a diverse book is just a good book," she said.

Too often "these books are pigeonholed," said Gregorio, into a certain niche category and booksellers believe it is of value only to people in that group. They falsely think people only like to read books that mirror their own selves, she added.

"But that is not true. The best books offer you windows into other people's lives," said Gregorio.

The nation's readers are also growing more diverse due to demographic changes, and they are looking for characters that resemble themselves in the books they read. That was what prompted Charaipotra to team up with Clayton, who is African American, to write their debut novel and launch Cake Literary, a boutique book development company.

"Frequently, we never saw ourselves in books as kids," said Charaipotra. "There was not much diversity. There is still not a lot of diversity."

Their book presents a particular problem for publishers to market since it features not only characters with different ethnic backgrounds but also various sexualities. The book's cover art is purposely designed so as to not feature any of the characters and instead is a generic pink and black graphic cover.

"To have characters with more than one issue is always going to be a harder sell to the powers that be," said Charaipotra.

But if marketed correctly, YA books featuring diverse characters can become hits with readers, argued Gregorio.

"Writers can write diverse books but publishers have to buy them and sales teams have to know how to sell them so they are available," she said. "The lifecycle of a book is very short. If it doesn't sell well the first month it will be off the shelves."

Having stores such as Books Inc. promoting a wide selection of YA titles and the backing of the national library group, which is hosting a number of panels regarding the We Need Diverse Books campaign, is critical to ensuring such books are successful, said Gregorio.

"It is absolutely essential," she said.

They also should be promoting diverse books all year round, said Charaipotra. Booksellers needn't wait until it is Black History Month or Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month or Pride Month to feature diverse titles and display such books with their covers facing out on store shelves.

"If we keep doing it that way diversity will be a niche market," she said. "We don't want that. A book is a book is a book."

The authors panel will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 25 at the Books Inc. 2275 Market Street location in San Francisco's Castro district.