The Evil Word

Ugh! Sorry to hear about your bad times. I'm also looking for work, and starting to feel like I would be a more appealing job candidate if I looked like a straight girly girl.

As for your work, I know querying is hell, but lots and lots of YA is coming out these days with LGBT characters and themes, from both debut and established authors. So have faith in your story if it's as good as you can make it!

Gale Haut said:

Know of any agents interested in a debut author with a gay teen novel?

I sort of feel like every time I've receive one of these rejections, the agent is essentially saying that my entire life has been a waste of time. I'm not coping with it well at all.

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Don't take it personally. Publishing is a business and agents aren't there to make you feel good about yourself.

Hang in there.

I know I've come across some. Check out Guidetoliteraryagents.com I'm pretty sure that's the site I saw it on. Or 1,000 literary agents. Some of them specify that they're looking for LGBT work.

Don't worry, when you least expect it, you'll get that request email that turns you into a grinning, dancing idiot Just don't be like me and read it at work, haha

The thing with LGBT and discrimination is that you never *truly* know if it's because you're LGBT. They might have had another reason, but to us it can feel like it's because of that.

Straight, cisgendered people can be discriminated against, too. I've known of girls being rejected at interview because they were too pretty and the female interviewers felt threatened. There's a million and one reasons.

Try to keep your chin up and think positive. Less and less people discriminate nowadays, and it's only going to keep dropping.

As for the rejections, there are tons of LGBT-themed novels coming out. Rejections are normal, regardless of what you write. Many agents aren't taking on clients and reject queries automatically.

*hugs* I know it's frustrating, and it's so hard to tell what's discrimination and what isn't. But for what it's worth, form rejections are pretty common, even for very good writing.

I've actually had AUTORESPONDER form rejections in the past few days.

Seriously, an autoresponder.

But there are the select few open to queries which will reject all but what they consider to be personal gold. Others are actively building their lists.

Where do you live?

Where you live can determine the amount of actual discrimination. For me, I think I would have enjoyed sticking around the area where I grew up. I love the place. But it's a shithole for gay people. You'll not be employed by anyone, and while they'll never say it's because of teh gay and invent other reasons like "incompatible with the current workforce" or "we found a candidate more suited to the job", it's because of teh gay.

So I moved. I've been living in huge cities since I came out, because the discimination is lower and the options are many, many times more numerous. If you want one particular job, you might have a hundred different companies to choose from, and a majority of them will accept LGBT.

I think some of it also depends on the industry you're trying to break into; career-wise. It seems like the more creative the profession, the more accepting the people are.

As per job interviews and being turned down because you're gay... From my own personal experience, not one potential employer has asked if I'm LGBT.

I don't see how they have the right to ask such a personal question when it has nothing to do with job performance or relevant skills.

The only time I'd mention I'm a trans-lesbian is if I were trying to sell a LGBT-themed novel. Otherwise I don't see what it has to do with anything...

Now, don't get me wrong. I know Gale said he's come out, presumably at his current job too, and hasn't got the promotions he was suited for. So that very well could be discrimination.

But in job interviews, I don't see what sexuality has to do with anything...

*confuzzled*

I might not get prejudice, living stealth as I do in a fairly populated area, but I get plenty of fear.

Oh, and I forgot before...

*hugs Gale*

No one is allowed to ask if you are LGBT in a job interview or employment setting. However (and this is so obvious I can't believe I need to say it), many LGBT people can't really conceal their status as Awesome Queer Person. And then the hiring person can of course choose not to hire them.

I had a really creepy interview with a guy the other day--all the women working under him were very pretty and feminine and straight (and me, not so much). When he interviewed me he was extremely aggressive, like he was desperate to be dominant in our conversation, as though he didn't already have 100% of the power in the situation. I'm used to the interview process being overly polite, but this was more like being in grade school and being tormented by someone's big brother. I was utterly baffled as to why he would call me for an interview and then be a vile prick. And all I could figure was that I didn't look like what he wanted me to look like.

I don't really have anything to add, except you're clearly letting your understandable frustration with the work situation (which sucks) colour your impression of your manuscript's progess. You could have the best of luck at work and still get nothing but form rejections for your novel - because getting an agent is tough for everyone.

Times are hard, and agents are battening down the hatches. One of the agents I submitted to said they weren't taking on any new clients, but I take this to mean that they aren't actively looking for new clients but if something with "bestseller" stamped all over comes in, they're not going to turn it away either. When times are hard, it's doubly foolish to close the door to opportunity.

If you're only getting form rejections, it's likely that it's your query that's at fault, not your writing per se. Have you tried Query Letter Hell yet? (I don't write YA, so I don't tend to see your non-QUILTBAG posts.)

Sorry I can't help on the job discrimination front - I've never felt discriminated against for my biological gender (life sciences are full of women), and since I'm happily married, everyone just assumes I'm straight. All I can offer is virtual hugs

I wish you all the best.

Unimportant said:

As for publishing -- rarely will including GLBTQ protagonists make it easier to get published (unless you're submitting to the few GLBTQ presses) and quite often it does make it harder. Large presses are looking for manuscripts that will sell to lots of readers, and it's hard for them to justify alienating a proportion of their readers by including GLBTQ content. The proportion that will be alienated, of course, depends on genre and press. But unless the press is specifically targeting the GLBTQ readership, that proportion is unlikely to be zero. In contrast, having no GLBTQ characters in a book is unlikely to have any impact on sales.

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SFF is pretty accepting, as is the UK market generally, thank goodness. My publishers were far more concerned that there wasn't much magic in the original draft of my fantasy novel, than that I have gay and bisexual PoVs as well as straight. In fact they haven't even mentioned the latter...

I imagine the US market is much harder to crack, given the prevalence of extreme views on the subject - and a weak economy just exacerbates the problem

You can filter agents on AgentQuery.com for those who represent gay & lesbian fic. Then look for those who represent YA as well. That would probably be your best bet for your query letters. (Though I second the notion that you get your query looked at and revised through Query Hell)

Malinda Lo

Gale, have you tried querying Malinda Lo's agent? I can't think of her name off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure Lo thanks her at the end of Ash and Huntress (now THERE'S a LGBT novel success story!).

Another good, LGBT friendly agent: Colleen Lindsay.

Good luck!

www.literallylesbian.blogspot.com

LindsayM said:

Gale, have you tried querying Malinda Lo's agent? I can't think of her name off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure Lo thanks her at the end of Ash and Huntress (now THERE'S a LGBT novel success story!).

Another good, LGBT friendly agent: Colleen Lindsay.

Good luck!

www.literallylesbian.blogspot.com

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Colleen is no longer working as an agent.