Is the Way We Market Books Harmful to Disability Literature?

I encourage you to go back to read my past article on tropes, but when it comes to the convergence of tropes and marketing, I have some qualms. When we only market books by tropes, people tend to look for those tropes specifically and ignore everything else. It’s getting to the point that no matter how good an author’s book is, it’s only going to be as “good” as their use of buzzwords/tropes listed in their marketing for said book.  Art, entertainment, and literature shouldn’t be bought for their hashtagged categories and pretty covers but rather for their content, although that’s how most people decide what they’re reading next. We can’t change marketing, but we can make it work to our advantage. Using the Fries test (basically the Bechdel test for disability) is a great place to start, and using our guide of phrases to look for in the tropes article continues those thoughts. The Fries test asks the following questions: “Does a [book] have more than one disabled character? Do the disabled characters have their own narrative purpose other than the education and profit of a nondisabled character? And is the character’s disability not eradicated either by curing or killing?” Also some more food for thought is here. 

The trend cycles we go through also play a huge part, and I believe the majority of the books on the first list got that many likes and reviews because they became TikTok famous. Booktok is a whole new beast in the publishing industry that has helped in the marketing of more diverse stories and authors, but has also hindered in some ways because most of the time, the same few books are being recommended to fulfill these “representation tick boxes”. Unless you go out of your way to find more diverse BookTok accounts that read a wider variety of books, you’ll get the same recommendations. It’s worth finding the diamonds in the rough for authenticity’s sake as well as prioritizing diverse experiences. And while Booktok and other sites where people post reviews have been amazing at platforming stories from more underrepresented minorities of both the characters and the authors (we love to see representation!), it still has room to improve.

On one hand, being vocal regarding the presence of a disabled main character helps put the books in the right readers hands– for those who either want to see themselves represented or those who want to see another point of view. On the other hand, sometimes being open about these things makes the book less likely to be accepted by the masses. “Oh, that character’s in a wheelchair, they’re just doing that for [insert excuse about doing it for attention, popularity, tokenism, forced diversity, etc].” Not only is that a problematic take, but when they only write about these things as stereotypes to get these books to the correct audience, it gets to a point where it doesn’t feel authentic– it just feels like you’re ticking a box. 

These ways of marketing have been used time and time again due to a few reasons: One, it’s the way it’s always been done/”everyone is doing it this way” (there is something to be said for the status quo, although I’m not sure it’s a good something). Two, popularity of ideas/concepts/etc (people like to jump on the viral bandwagon). And three, money. Does an author have enough money to write, publish, and correctly advertise to their target demographic? Do the publishers have enough money to send numerous books out to reviewers so they can say their genuine opinion (a sometimes not too genuine opinion, if it’s a paid review)? Finding genuine reviewers is a great place to start. Another great thing to do is not always picking up the books with thousands of reviews, because sometimes the books with less reviews are just hidden treasures waiting to be discovered. Look for indie-published books, or even self-published books! Traditionally published books may seem better because they may seem to be more polished, but the story may be way better on the inside. Don’t judge a book by its cover, because no matter the cover art, what matters is the authenticity and the representation inside the book that counts