You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
When I was growing up there were virtually no books for gay adults, let alone young people. I loved reading. As a teen, my mum gave me the Adrian Mole books, which I adored and still do, but to have books which included the kind of person I was growing up to be would have been life-changing.
To be LGBTQ+ is to be different from the majority and while the world is changing, it is, for many young people, still a frightening and isolating realisation. My bestselling book, Straight Jacket, describes the problems that manifest in some LGBTQ+ adults when we are not supported as young people. Statistically, as a group, we have higher levels of depression, anxiety, body image issues, suicide ideation and addiction. Of course, these problems aren’t the sole reserve of LGBTQ+ people and there are millions of us leading happy lives but, just to give you a stark example, I’ve lost five friends in the past 18 months to suicide, or the consumption of drugs or alcohol, something that’s as shocking for me to write as it is for you to read.
It’s genuinely great to see more diversity being reflected in LGBTQ+ books. Of course, there’s still some way to go. In my humble opinion, there is still a great need for relatable, mass-market stories
These problems begin in childhood. They begin with feeling alone. Books can change this. It’s as simple as that. Of course, all books for young people absolutely have to be age appropriate, but they have to exist. As do books for adults, something which, as LGBTQ+ people, we cannot take for granted.
That’s why I’m delighted to have been asked to guest-edit this special issue of The Bookseller for the second year—and to have the opportunity to commission such a beautiful illustration on the cover by the brilliant young Artist Named Nobody (Instagram@artistnamednobody). It’s genuinely great to see more diversity being reflected in LGBTQ+ books. Of course, there’s still some way to go. In my humble opinion, there is still a great need for relatable, mass-market stories. LGBTQ+ lives have often been told through the prism of pain, which is understandable, and it’s right those stories are told; or through literary fiction, again important and valuable; but there is also a need for fun.
We are here. Talk to us. Ask readers what they want. Commission writers. When you publish the books, promote them, advertise them. TV shows such as “Euphoria”, “Sex Education” and “It’s a Sin” (rejected by multiple channels) show that the wider public are no longer scared of LGBTQ+ stories. They will read books about us too. We are at the beginning of what could be a publishing revolution where people see themselves in all kinds of stories, regardless of their class, skin colour or who they are or love.
At its best, this industry is a magical one. I guarantee there will be a young person somewhere whose future you will make easier, or an older person who may be feeling isolated for a multitude of reasons, for whom you can be a lifebuoy. Let’s make it happen.
Matthew Todd is an author and a former editor of Attitude magazine. He has guest edited the LGBTQ+ issue of The Bookseller.