Like everything in life, when something becomes more mainstream, people start using it as a marketing ploy. The same thing has happened to the #ownvoices movement in the publishing industry:
We Need Diverse Books announced that it will no longer refer to books using the term #OwnVoices. Instead, they will use “specific descriptions that authors use for themselves and their characters whenever possible (for example “Korean American author” or “autistic protagonist”). They write in the release that the hashtag was originally created “for readers to recommend books by authors who openly shared the diverse identity of their main characters,” but has since become a “catch all marketing term” and caused problems with its vagueness.
To be honest, I actually think this is a good thing, because I did find it hard to know what #ownvoices always meant – unless you knew a lot about the author, you didn’t know what their “own voices” hashtag referred to. I think this will make it easier to understand a book and the author.
What do you think? Did you pay attention to #ownvoices before?
November 9, 2021 at 2:52 am
Didn’t even know it was a thing. Interesting…
November 9, 2021 at 2:36 pm
It’s a big thing – most publishers are calling for diverse books.
November 9, 2021 at 2:16 pm
Truthfully, I didn’t pay any attention. If a book interests me I will try to read it. Sometimes I fail at that task. Sometimes it is my fault, sometimes the book was the problem.
If I connect with something I usually pay more attention, so I know that I have read a few of them, it just wasn’t a deciding factor for me.
November 9, 2021 at 2:37 pm
I don’t pay attention either – I couldn’t care less what the characters are, so long as I care about them. But it is a bit disheartening when you aren’t anything yourself to see so many agents and editors requesting books that fit the #, because it does feel like that’s all they want.
November 9, 2021 at 2:55 pm
Yeah, it was rather general. It’ll make it easier to find the stories that fit the niche you want to find, rather than having to wade through all of them.
November 10, 2021 at 8:38 pm
Exactly!