How publishers market (or don’t market) LGBT books is something me and Anna have complained about a fair bit to each other before. So we thought, why not turn those complaints into a bit of a discussion. As people who aim to promote pretty much every single LGBT book we can find, this is something important to us. We want these books to do well, so the way they often get marketed is… annoying to us in the least.

Before we start, we want to make it absolutely clear that we have nothing to do with publishing in any way. This is just our (often frustrated) perspective as readers and as bloggers.

So, let’s go!

This is the first of our two discussion posts for the month. This topic is one that’s close to the ethos of this blog. We started it wanting to promote LGBT lit, but over and above that, ownvoices LGBT lit. Because God knows we get little of that as is (growing, sure, but little in the grand scheme of things). So we wanted to talk a little about the value that it has to us specifically. Ownvoices means something different to everyone, and that’s one of the beautiful things about it.

Obviously, we all know the value of ownvoices literature in general. Having people tell their own stories gives them an authenticity that you don’t get otherwise. And some stories – especially when it comes to marginalized characters – are just not yours to tell. But for each reader ownvoices books will bring back different memories, touch upon different emotions. Each reader will have different reasons to seek out ownvoices books. That’s what we want to focus on today. You all know we champion ownvoices LGBT books, so let us explain exactly why.