When you send your book out to beta readers, you want to receive an avalanche of encouragement and support for your story and its characters. But what if that queer character or storyline you included has rubbed people up the wrong way and, instead of praise, your book gets negative press before it’s even published?
What if you have already self-published and negative reactions to the queer / LGBT+ representation in your work is showing itself in your online reviews?
An LGBTQIA Sensitivity Reader is a specialised editor who can read through your text with a critical eye in order to identify and inform you about any ways you may have misrepresented or stereotyped the LGBTQIA community, however innocently. If you are not a member of this community, you may well have overlooked the insidious ways in which structural oppression, discrimination and bigotry can get in the way of an LGBT person living their life fully and freely.
Perhaps you portray a teen coming out to his friends but it doesn’t come across as authentic because you don’t have lived experience of doing this. Or perhaps you write a chapter in a feminist self-help book about issues affecting lesbian and bisexual womxn and you misconstrue the realities of our lives or misunderstand the particular pressures we are under.
Of course, I am only one person so I cannot be L, G, B, T, Q, I and A all at the same time. But I have a lifetime of knowledge of the queer community (I came out in 1996) and I can put this knowledge and experience into use as your LGBT Diversity Reader.
As an LGBTQ full-time freelance writer, editor and proofreader, I offer LGBT Sensitivity Editing as part of my portfolio of professional services as it fits perfectly with my skills, knowledge and experience. Having edited everything from short stories to full-length books, I can take on your manuscript with an LGBT focus and help you to avoid doing your characters – and fans – a disservice. I also offer a Disability Sensitivity Reader service.
My fees for LGBT+ Sensitivity Reader services start at £13 per 1000 words. If you also address issues around disability and mental health and would like to add Disability Sensitivity Editing to the package, the price for the two would start at £17 per 1000 words.
If you would like to hire me or have a chat about how I can help you to develop your work in an LGBTQI-sensitive way, please get in touch. I would love to hear from you.
Recent work includes
- An LGBT sensitivity read on a feminist non-fiction book
- An LGBT sensitivity read on a YA novel
- An LGBT sensitivity read on a graphic novel