10 ways to promote poc writers

​Don’t wait until you have thousands of followers, a large platform, publishers that automatically say yes before you do these things. DO THEM NOW. If we wait till we are famous, we are adding to the injustices of the publishing world. Let’s start now in changing our culture. If we don’t learn to strive for everyone’s flourishing prior to our own “success” it will be so much harder when we get to wherever we are trying to go. So if you only have 20 followers, you’ve come at the right moment. And as you continue on this journey invite others to do the same.

I’m not perfect in any of these things. I’ve messed up, I’ve forgotten. I’ve not been intentional. But these are the things I’m striving to do, and send me an email if you think I can do better with specific steps for me to follow. If you have more ideas on how to do so, and you don’t mind me publishing your name, please share in the comments or email me. I will add them!
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1. Be intentional with who you reference in your research. In a world that lifts up white voices automatically (i.e. Google searches too!), it takes effort to seek out POC who are saying what you want to quote. Find them, elevate their voices, in your articles, in your books, in any of your work. This is much easier when you are already reading POC regularly. 
2. Be picky about what you say yes to. Before saying yes to a podcast interview or to  speak at a conference, even an online one, find out who else is speaking or has spoken with this organization. If they aren’t elevating POC voices, say no. Give them a list of POC who would be great for them to be connected to, and tell them to come back to you after some of those (or others) voices have been published first.
3. Annoy conference creators with your lists of people you think would be great speakers at their event. Sometimes justice looks like persistent annoyance. I do this with a conference I spoke at last year. I insisted they have someone else talk about immigration, and when I signed up to talk was told someone else would. But was told later they didn’t have the funds to do so in the end. I had given them a list of people they could reach out to. I didn’t get a dime for my talk, but I think there were negotiations for the org I work for and the publisher I write for, making me an economical choice. This year, I bugged them again with a list of people I think they should consider having as speakers, but told them they should pay these people.
4. Share quotes, events, articles, etc. from POC as often as you can. Share your event slot with them! And if you don’t know any, get to know them, get to know their niches. Follow their work, message them when something hits you good. Encourage, encourage, encourage. Lord knows this road is filled with tons of discouragement, we need each other.
5. Be picky about who you endorse. Ask the author who else is endorsing, if there are only white people endorsing, say no and tell the author to pay attention to this.When looking for your own endorsements, be strategic, inclusive, and intentional. Already-existing relationships with writers of color will lend to endorsements without them being tokenistic.
6. Offer to edit, promote, test read or any other service that can incur cost. Offer to do this for free if you know someone looking. 
7. Tell your publisher to make sure endorsements by POC are not only on the inside cover. Tell your publisher/marketing team to include graphics of endorsements by POC in social media. Pay attention to this. If they are only creating endorsements by white endorsers, make them aware of this.
8. Choose publishers who publish POC regularly. 
9. Connect, connect, connect. Connect POC with your network of folks in the publishing world. Maybe you don’t have a network yet. That’s OK. When you start to form one, immediately start making connections.
10. Believe in the God of abundance. This God rejects the notion that competition is what makes us successful. Yes, be a good writer, hone your skill, but reject the notion that there’s only so much to go around. As you lift others up, you too are lifted up and yes, it’s different, it’s not the same overnight success as some might get, but that’s the kicker: if we really believed in the God of abundance we wouldn’t want overnight success. We would seek out flourishing for all. It’s better to move up a tiny bit while others move up too than to move up a lot with no one around you. (But we need to remind each other of this!)  And hey, if overnight success happens after you’ve already been doing this, it will mean you get to stay authentic to yourself by continuing to do so.

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