As some of you may know, I attended Book Bonanza earlier this year, and had a terrible experience. We encountered an extremely racist volunteer, and had to report the incident. I was advised that volunteers would be addressed with additional coaching, but instead, I was not invited to return to Book Bonanza. (No need to raise hell on my behalf: it’s not worth it.)
Needless to say, I was burned out on conferences. But then SteamyLit happened, and I feel like the event did more healing than I could’ve ever anticipated.
Steamy Lit Con was held in Anaheim, California and over the course of a few days, I was able to meet with some of my favorite bookish friends, other authors that I admire, and with LOTS of help, launched an initiative called 23 for 23.
Let’s start with the BIPOC HEA SOIREE because that’s how it all began.
One of the biggest issues we as marginalized authors have is the inability to get traction online with our books. Our videos are suppressed, our book covers are suppressed and we don’t get the same engagement time we need with book industry influencers. So, my co-conspirators Adriana Herrera, Nikki Payne and myself decided to work together and host a happy hour where we would have 3x the number of bookish influencers as we had authors to introduce people to books they may not have heard of before. (75 influencers/ 25 authors)
The BIPOC HEA SOIREE was completely funded by the 25 authors in attendance, and it wasn’t as if we cherry picked our favs. Well, maybe it was? To be honest, Adriana, Nikki and I just mass texted our friends and asked them if they were interested. There wasn’t any specific intention behind author selection other than the fact that we wanted to ensure they were at SteamyLit, and they were from marginalized communities.
As for the influencers, this is where we got a little stuck. So we populated a list of influencers based on what we found on social media, then checked it with the Steamy Lit team. We started by inviting 25 influencers from marginalized backgrounds off that list, and then initiated a rolling-invite process where recipients were able to add names of influencers that they knew. Because we were short on time, we figured this was the best way to reach our headcount goal. Spoiler: it was, but we also realized that next year we have to be way more intentional about ensuring more marginalized creators, specifically black women, were prioritized.
The event, if I do say so myself, was a success even though we were racing until the last minute to try and make sure we got everything done. It took a village, but we did it Joe!
Okay, this is were the 23 for 23 project comes into play.
Back in like 2010, marginalized identities were a focal point for publishing. Houses were intentional about ensuring they sought out new voices from historically marginalized communities. There was also strong focus on intersectionality.
Then our political climate changed, and intersectionality, anti-blackness and BIPOC identities as a whole were removed from the conversation. They were also removed from publishing goals. Most recently, a publishing house claimed their list was made up of 60% diverse titles and authors. However, if you dig deeper into the list, most of those titles are still cis-gendered white authors. Not to say other marginalities are not incredibly important, but we still need to be intentional about race!
The Challenge: We’re asking readers to consume 23 books by BIPOC authors featuring BIPOC communities before the end of 2023.
How can you do this? Well, we’re not going to shake your hand and say ‘good luck.’ If you go to http://www.23for23.net, you’ll find reading lists, resources, and graphics/templates for the challenge. Ayushi Ray (@bookwormbullet) has also created a Storygraph Challenge to keep track of the books!
We hope you join us in reading with intention and amplifying books by BIPOC authors with BIPOC communities celebrated on the page. And yes, reading my books count!
Thanks so much for tuning in, Besties. I’ll post more pictures and info on TikTok and Instagram about how splendid the first ever SteamyLit Con was!
Hugs,
Nisha
A.K.A. That author filled with love for her readers, and burned OUT from 3 weeks of book tour traveling
I'm excited about 23for23. Reading with intention!
I didn't know you were one of the organizers of this Nisha! What a great idea. I just posted on my IG story that I've met the challenge this year already (including Tastes Like Shakkar, of course) but am definitely going to be more intentional about while authors I mention in my stories for sure. Thanks for your work on this!