I Have a Wacky Idea

After watching certain elements in the publishing world once again lose their shit over the fact that - reeeeee! - a white woman dared to write a book about people of color, I've decided to share with you a notion that's been percolating in my mind for at least the past few months. It's an idea I will never pull the trigger on, as I am completely unqualified to do so -- but in posting it, I hope I will make my intended point clear.

I want to start an independent publisher -- a publisher that will not only allow so-called "cultural appropriation" but will actually make it mandatory. To explain: in order to get signed on at my theoretical house, you must first demonstrate that you can write - and sell - a book featuring characters that all hail from a group that is not your own. If you're white, you will be required to write about, say, the black American experience. If you're black, you will be required to write about, say, the Irish. If you're a women, all your characters have to be men. If you're straight, you must write about the gay community. If you're gay, you must write a heterosexual romance. Etc., etc. -- I think you get the idea. Mind you, once you've cleared this entry hurdle, you will be free to do whatever you want with absolutely zero interference from me; all the same, I won't give you the time of day unless you fulfill the above-described prerequisite.

Here's my rationale for this hypothetical policy: when you're comfortable, you're lazy. I want all my authors running scared because a scared author is a thinking author. Further, I want authors with talent and broad repertoires. As today's book shelf amply demonstrates, writing about your own experience as X-Y-Z doesn't take much skill at all. But stretching yourself and writing about something thoroughly alien? That proves you have the empathetic capacity necessary to write truly interesting stories instead of agit-prop.

Quite frankly, I'm sick of the social justice left's attempts to turn entire creative industries into guaranteed job programs for its mediocre activist members. I strongly suspect that my alternative plan will achieve the stated goal of the diversity zealots - i.e., to get more works out there featuring queer/POC/disabled/etc. characters - while also filling the market with books that are actually good.

I know this is crazy -- but what do you think?