Publishing + disability
A few weeks ago everyone was talking about that “publishing has a gambling problem” article.
While I definitely don’t think it’s a bad article, to me it just feels exactly what it’s like to be moving through capitalism when disabled. It wasn’t news to me, because although I don’t trad publish, the feelings and experiences mirror my life anyway.
You’ll get fired for non performance* reasons and while that’s actually the company discriminating, you wear the “having to explain” in the future.
The part in the article where the midlist is discussed - that feels EXACTLY like being an experienced and skilled employee who is also disabled. People just don’t know what to do with you so you get this weird type of discarded.
*Non performance reasons… ironically you’re often fired for performative reasons though, which is not the same as performance reasons
This is where connecting experiences helps us humans. On the surface, in most peoples brains, they wouldn’t connect the trials and tribulations of being a midlist author with disability. But disability is everywhere and relates to everything.
Image description: old library bookshelves