I was late to joining threads. Not because I had anything against the platform. I am just the kind of person who is always late to the next big thing. I was late to joining TikTok. I was late to instagram. And I never even got the memo about Vine. That's just the kind of person I am. But what I found interesting about threads specifically is the way it was talked about on other platforms.

Before I joined Instagram, everyone told me how amazing it was. They talked about the people getting famous off of their cute selfies and the way they enjoyed sharing snippets of their everyday lives. And before I jumped on the TikTok bandwagon, I was hearing about the incredible dancing and the rapid growth of lockdown vloggers. But with threads, all I was hearing was how authors were out of control on the platform.

Every other day someone was on TikTok complaining about the authors that were taking to threads to be a menace, and how we needed to do something about it. In fact, several friends of mine had abandoned the platform altogether because of it. Which was ultimately why I joined. Because I am also that person, unfortunately. lol

But it was weird, because when I got onto threads, yeah--I found bad takes. But not any moreso than on any other platform. In fact, the only glaring difference I really noticed was that indie authors had a very loud voice here, as opposed to on tiktok, where they often get drowned out by influencers and trad authors who were... you guessed it... offering those same bad takes.

I had to sit with that for a while. Because it made my spidey senses tingle for sure.

Growing up, every Black person learns quickly who we are allowed to be around white people. Our language, our culture, our inflections, our...well...everything is treated like something that is better left at home. Despite their desire to appropriate nearly every aspect of our culture, white folk don't want us to be too much like ourselves when we're around them. Especially if we want to have any kind of access. If we want the job, the spot, the opportunity, they expect us to be as similar to themselves as possible.

And while many of us push back on that and fight for change, it is still a reality that lives in the back of our minds. Whether they like Black people or not, white people don't want us to be ourselves. And because of that reality, any time we step outside of those societal expectations, we end up in situations where white people feel free to unload all of their frustrations on us. Whether those frustrations have anything to do with us or not.

If a Black person is too "ghetto" at work, they become the outlet for everything that made their manager's job difficult that day. If we get angry and snip at a co-worker, every uncooperative employee's mistakes will be taken out on us. We will be the one to face disciplinary action, ragardless of how many times our coworkers have engaged in the same inapropriate or unproductive behavior.

Do you see where I'm going yet?

The longer I sat with the threads, the more I began to wonder if maybe BookTok's problem often has less to do with misbehaving authors, and more to do with the kind of authors that are misbehaving.

And that is not to say that the bad takes weren't bad takes. They were. But I want you to really think about how bookish spaces like BookTok and now BookThreads treats indie authors who have said something stupid versus how they treat traditionally published authors who have said something stupid. It isn't similar.

And there are a few reasons for that for sure.

First and foremost, influencers don't have access to traditionally published authors to the degree they have access to indie authors. When traditionally published authors say something stupid, they can vanish from social media. In fact, often, they weren't on it to begin with. So one of the reasons influencers treat authors worse is because they have actual access to them. But let's ask ourselves why that is. Is it because indie authors are invading their space? Or is it because the publishing overlords (with the full cooperation of the creators who push books on these platforms) have left entire communities to fend for themselves in this industry?

Just in case you don't know the answer... it's the second one. Which means that while authors like TJ Klune can openly admit to writing cozy stories off of I

ndigenous trauma and largely still be applauded (which is gross, please stop reading his books), it will always be authors without the distance and support he has been gifted that will face BookTok's wrath.

Now, I know some of you are probably angry at what I'm saying. But I'm gonna need you to table that and sit with this conversation instead. I'm not coming for you. I don't think you're a bad person. And I am not suggesting that indie authors should feel comfortable engaging in bigoted rhetoric unchallenged.

What I am gently suggesting is that maybe, as a community, we could take a step back and consider if maybe we have been asking indie authors to bare the full weight of our anger at the entire industry. And, ya know... whether maybe we should stop asking for that.

A few months ago, an indie author said that she didn't think people should leave negative reviews for indie authors over spelling or grammar errors. And the internet lost its mind.

I am not saying her opinion was a good one. It wasn't. But I have to question why dozens of people who would never read an indie book care how she thinks they should be reviewed.

And before you get mad, please re-read what I actually said. I didn't say they should change how they review...i asked why people WHO WOULD NEVER READ THOSE BOOKS care how she wanted them to be reviewed?

Are you hearing me? I don't agree with her opinion.. but I am questioning why you are criticizing it when you haven't even worked past the bigotry that keeps you from ever being one of the people she is talking to.

When it comes to marginalized people, we all know that the way we engage matters. When Black men act up on the internet, dozens of white women are going to immediately make videos telling other white women to let Black women handle it. If a queer person does something wrong, we are going to collectively side eye any mob that shows up. So why is it that no one questions it when dozens of creators jump on an author that they very intentionally never would have engaged with otherwise? There's NOTHING fishy about that for you?

Look, I know this is not a popular conversation, but I really hope we can have it anyway. Because I'm gonna be honest with you. I have spent enough time in bookish spaces to know that (1) the vast majority of, and the worst, bookish transgressions come from traditional publishers and traditionally published authors, not from indie authors, (2) the majority of the people who spend their time policing indie authors are actively contributing to their continued exclusion from this industry and (3) it will still be indie authors to be heavily criticized and boycotted during every single bout of bookish discourse.

And those observations, when combined, make me very uncomfortable.

Now, I want to be clear...cause once again, y'all like to fight lol... I am not suggesting that indie authors should never be criticized. I'm not saying we should let their bad takes go unchallenged. I am not even saying that it's wrong to say people shouldn't read their book when they do something horrible.

What I am saying is... we have been conditioned to see indie authors as inherently problematic. And I am wondering if maybe that has less to do with indie author's behavior, and more to do with systemic barriers in the publishing industry that we have grown unfortunately comfortable with.

Now, I like to be clear with my call to actions. So let me say this. When it comes to bigotry--because that is what we are talking about here--our goal isn't just to address our actions. Our goal has to be to address our worldview. So, in this conversation, that is exactly what we have to do.

I am not telling you to never question indie authors. But I am asking you to sit back and ask yourself what you have been led to believe about indie authors, and whether those beliefs are actually just bigotry. Because truthfully, as long as we continue to treat the indie space like it is the naughty little brother to the bigger, and better trad space, we will continue to fail in bringing any meaningful change to this industry.

SOME COMMON BELIEFS WE SHOULD INTERROGATE

• Indie authors are less professional
• Indie authors want to use influencers
• Working with indies will be uncomfortable and dangerous
• Indies don't understand the industry
• Indies are less supported because of how they market themselves
• Indie books are not as well written
• Authors always have more power than reviewers

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Sit with these. Think through them. And then we'll talk more.

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