I know I'm late to the party but I thought I would weigh in on the annual Goodreads debate. But before I share my opinions, let me recap a little bit for those of you who are not familiar with this conversation.

Goodreads is an app/website for readers. It allows you to (a) list what books you plan to read/are reading, (b) track your reading throughout the year and (c) leave reviews for other readers. For some, it's primary value is in being a centralized place to note what books they have read throughout the year and what their experience was with each book. But in addition to its benefits for us as individual readers, it is also incredibly valuable to readers who are looking for their next read. By following readers whose tastes align with your own, you get access to trusted opinions on books you may have never heard about otherwise. For a lot of people, quickly glancing on Goodreads is an easy way to find a new book to read, or to check and see how other readers felt about a book you are considering. In fact, I know readers who won't pick up a book without first reading through Goodreads reviews.

All of that sounds great, but unfortunately, the platform has some issues.

First and foremost, it is owned and operated by Amazon. Which, for those of you unfamiliar, is a problem because Amazon makes a fortune off of underpricing books so that it can drive indie booksellers out of business and monopolize the bookselling industry. So as a whole, many readers feel that supporting Amazon as a bookseller is directly undermining the future of indie bookstores. And by extension, supporting Goodreads also feels a bit yucky to them.

I have plenty to say about whether or not supporting Amazon is morally questionable, but that's not what I want to focus on right now. What I want to focus on is whether or not conscientious readers should be engaging with Goodreads.

Which brings me to the second reason a lot of readers are migrating away from the platform. Despite being the largest and most centralized platform for book reviewers, Goodreads has a very bad habit of under appreciating and under recognizing Black and brown authors.

Every year, Goodreads hosts its choice awards. Which is a list of bookish awards that are given to authors after multiple rounds of voting from registered users of the platform. And regardless of how many Black and brown books reach huge popularity, the awards remain almost completely white. Which rightly upsets both authors and readers of color.

Ok, you're caught up. Now let's talk about my feelings on this issue:

First and foremost, I agree completely that authors of color are not being treated fairly on this platform. And I think that is true for a number of reasons. I think it is true because:

• Major publishers throw more money into supporting authors who do not challenge the status quo, thereby gaining them more visibility and causing them to appeal to more readers.

• The majority of white readers are not equipped with the necessary compassion and empathy to find stories by authors of color relatable and valuable. And, as a result, they will usually overly criticize stories centering people of color while valuing stories that represent themselves more than they deserve.

• Major publishers spend a lot of money to cement publishing standards that help them gatekeep, which creates a culture where readers are far less likely to take indie spaces seriously. And considering the vast majority of Black and brown authors will always be indie (due to systemic racism in the publishing industry), that limits the playing field in a lot of genres and makes authors of color far less likely to excel in public votes, regardless of how popular their work is.

For these reasons and more, I agree completely with every single reader who sees Goodreads as a part of the problem. However, I think there are a few things we need to consider very deeply before throwing the platform away. For instance:

While Black and brown authors are less likely to receive Goodreads choice nominations because of systemic racism, that same system denies them access to every other area of the industry. They are less likely to receive publishing deals. And when they do receive publishing deals, they are less likely to receive competitive advances and marketing budgets. In fact, Black and brown authors who do receive traditional publishing deals often report being left to rot with no investment from their publishers whatsoever. Not all, but many. And in addition to having less access with publishers, they are also much less likely to have their books shelved at bookstores and libraries, and are far less likely to be picked up by bookboxes and other bookish companies.

The same racist culture that denies Black and brown authors recognition is also working to undermine every step of their careers. And while Goodreads is a platform that highlights that underrepresentation, it also provides a significant tool in combating it. Let me explain:

One of the features that Goodreads provides is the ability for readers to list a book and add it to their TBR (to be read) list. Many comparable tracking apps offer this feature, but Goodreads is uniquely useful because it both (a) is the largest and most established reader platform and (b) publicly lists every book's individual stats.

Meaning when you click on a book, you can see exactly how many people have added it to their tbr, how many people are currently reading that book, and what people who have already read it thought about it.

Why is that useful?

Because bookstores, publishers and other bookish business owners are able to very easily track how much interest individual books have among readers even before there are sales numbers to look at.

Look, this industry is counting on Black and brown authors failing. Publishers are not investing in them to the same degree they do their white contemporaries. Bookstores are nervous that readers won't buy the books if they stock them. Book boxes only want the biggest and most popular titles. And as long as we leave these misconceptions unchecked, Black and brown authors will continue to be left behind in spaces like this. Goodreads provides us a unique opportunity to do exactly that. To challenge this industry's predetermined belief that books by Black and brown authors will fail. At every step of your engagement with a book, you have the opportunity to announce publicly to publishers and booksellers that the Black and brown books you love are not a risk.

One of the ways that many Black and brown authors have been able to push the needle for their stories is by convincing their reader base to use platforms like Goodreads to publicly support their work.

As you know, we recently published our first book: Cry, Voidbringer. And at launch, it was available in dozens of bookstores. And one of the reasons for that is because our team could point to public platforms like Goodreads to show booksellers that thousands of people were already excited to read it. So despite its faults, platforms like Goodreads are a tool that we can use to fight back as a community.

Here are just a few of the things that can happen for an author when their community shows up on Goodreads:

• Booksellers who didn't plan to stock copies of their book may decide to because of a large TBR number

• Bookstores that were going to stock one or two copies may see huge engagement and decide to stock larger numbers or to highlight the book on a central display

• Authors/agents can point to Goodreads engagement when negotiating

• More readers hear about the book and buy copies early, thereby further empowering authors in future negotiations

• Book boxes see the massive engagement and decide to approach them about special editions or book box inclusions

I fully understand why people are angry with Goodreads. I am also angry with Goodreads. But as a publisher, I am telling you that this is a tool that helps us to fight for Black and brown authors. And I am personally not comfortable with letting go of tools that help marginalized people win. I would love to see some of Goodread's competitors grow and become more central platforms for booksellers and publishers. And I hope that happens. But until it does, I think we need to be mindful of how often our outrage is directed in a way that disproportionately impacts marginalized people while benefiting the privileged.

That is what I think will happen if our response here is to stop adding Black and brown books to our Goodreads TBRs. Less Black and brown books will break through and the lists that are currently too white will get even whiter. So in our attempt to punish racists, we will help them to push Black and brown people out.

I'm struggling to see that as a win.

So what do we do?

I can't give you any definitive answers here. But I can give you some ideas. Starting with:

CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR BLACK AND BROWN AUTHORS.

As I said before, I understand why people are migrating away from the app. And I SUPPORT you making other platforms your book tracking go-to apps. If you wanna movie to storygraph, GREAT. But if you want your engagement to help move the needle for Black and brown authors, make sure you also throw them on a Goodreads TBR and drop a quick rating when you've read the book. It DOES make a difference.

In the meantime, CONTINUE to push for these other platforms. Continue using storygraph and other tracking apps. Continue promoting them and encouraging your friends to use them. Continue pushing those apps to make their lists public so booksellers can also consider making the leap. And continue helping those platforms grow so that one day, they CAN feasibly replace Goodreads. But, if you want my opinion, you should be doing the work to get them there BEFORE you abandon this very important tool for the authors you are fighting for.

I know some of y'all wont like my opinion here. But please consider what I'm saying... if you are outraged because Black and brown authors are being left behind, your actions need to directly push them forward, not condemn them to even less exposure.

I love y'all and appreciate you being here! Let's continue to fight for Black and brown authors together!

And while you're here...

I have two favors to ask of you, if you haven't done them already. Because I believe every word I said here. Goodreads is a tool we need to be utilizing to help Black and brown authors win. Including the authors we are representing here. So if you have not already, PLEASE:

• Add our upcoming Haitian fantasy (Devil of the Deep) to your Goodreads TBR: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238653825-devil-of-the-deep

• Leave a review of Cry, Voidbringer if you've read it already: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223222877-cry-voidbringer?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=8ei3bzXsu6&rank=1

And make sure you order copies of both if you haven't already!

• Devil of the Deep

• Cry, Voidbringer