It’s rather ironic, but even though it has never been easier to bypass the publishing gatekeepers, they are tightening their enforcement of diversity and SJW ideology in the areas they still control. Jon Del Arroz says that it’s time to burn the ships and go all-in on the new platforms:
I learned that there is an author who had a manuscript rejected because multiple agents said this person “culturally appropriated” and that the author “doesn’t have the authority” to talk about this project.
That’s right. The piece was good, it would have been fine, but the problem is it would have had to come from a non-white author.
The agents actively discriminated against an author because they are white. A white writer was told to censor what that person writes and that it’s not welcome in the industry because of solely whiteness.
A writer who shall remain nameless notes that some writers of his acquaintance are afraid to break free and are instead responding by preemptively self-censoring in response to these restricted standards:
Originally we were going to do a Viking Saga kinda thing as a serial in REDACTED but somewhere they decided not to do European white male stories. This publication is self-sabotaged by the publisher and editors from the outset. Looking for all those non-white readers that we keep being told are out there. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
This is precisely why Castalia House exists. And this is why, if you do not wish to see total convergence in SF/F of the sort now seen in the comics industry, it is vital to continue to support it, and to spread the word about it. The support our readers have provided us has been phenomenal, and has fueled three years of steady growth, but we’re not content to defensively provide a platform for our existing authors, we intend to take the offensive and start reclaiming some of the territory that has been lost to the SJWs.
The gates have been cracked, but the citadels still remain standing and far too much of the city remains under their sway. A lot of work remains to do, and the recent Amazon affiliate changes stand as a warning that the gatekeepers have other ways of exerting their control. That’s why, over the next three months, you will gradually see most of our books moving off of Kindle Select and Kindle Unlimited, and see the links here increasingly redirected towards the Castalia House store.