Posted on June 2, 2022

We received this letter from an author who wishes to remain anonymous:

“Dear Fig Tree Books,

I am writing to express my lament about certain aspects of the state of publishing in the hope that you may find it informative and relevant. I ask to remain anonymous for obvious reasons when you read this note. I am a white, straight, male, and Jewish, born in 1960, near the end of the Baby Boom. I wrote well-received short stories and essays in both niche and mainstream publications. My writing has been described as “elegant” and “sophisticated” and almost always comes with words that describe it as “quite literary.” A few years ago, I decided to write a literary novel that could be categorized as historical fiction. On the strength of my short stories and essays, as well as a summary of the novel and the first chapter, I was able to get a good agent to represent me. That was my ‘high’ moment. Since that event a few years ago, I have been in a ‘decline’ mode as my manuscript has been rejected over and over again.

My agent asked for off-the record feedback and was initially stumped, as the words that came from someone at a publishing house (always on the phone, never via email, as that would leave a paper trail) were universally in praise of the work. The rejections were given in a fairly generic way, customarily in the vein of great tributes for the writing, the content, the story and character development, but there was always an ending that went something like, “…however, we’re going in a different direction.”

When my agent pressed, she was able to uncover hints that related to the fact that they were not looking for writers who were white, straight, male, and Jewish. It seemed to be that there was (and is) a hidden agenda to focus on groups of writers that could be characterized as underrepresented, and exceptions to this rule seem to be rare. 

It turns out that many of those who are tasked at publishers with reading new materials look to the identity(ies) of the author as the major if not sole determinant of whether a manuscript gets sent up the chain for further review. Of course this is not 100% universally true, but it does seem to be what many writers of quality fiction with whom I interact have also faced in getting rejected time and time again.

I am neither against underrepresented authors getting their due, nor making a case for less than grade A work from those who look like me getting to be published. But the focus on the identity of the author at the expense of the market seems to be foolish. After all, there are more than 70 million Boomers, and with many of us being retired, have the time to read and the cash to spend on books. From what I can tell (being in two book groups and interacting with lots of book aficionados on Facebook), we Boomers are eager to read all genres of fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs, regardless of the origin of the author. Perhaps if some of the triage readers at the publishing companies were Boomers, those of us ‘of a certain age’ would have our books admired enough to get to the next level. My friends and I have commented that we are not sure that if a Philip Roth, a Norman Mailer, or a Joseph Heller (to name just a few post-World War II writers who were white, straight, male, and Jewish) were submitting their first words today that they wouldn’t get the “…however, we’re going in a different direction” comments directed towards them as well. 

My agent and I are not giving up. Perhaps we will get lucky with one of the major presses. Maybe the tide will eventually turn. After all, there is room for a white, straight, male, and Jewish well written book that addresses important issues regardless of the identity of the author.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Sincerely yours,”

Name withheld on request