What do sensitivity readers really do?
If you’re writing a novel that may include some sensitive language for certain groups and you’re not a part of that group - well, first of all examine if you should be writing this novel, and examine why you chose this plot/these characters/this minority group - sensitivity readers are invaluable. For example, I’m writing a YA novel about a trans teen. I thought I had it down - I’m the parent of a trans kiddo, I’ve read all about trans kids, I know the lingo, I’m hip. (Don’t quote me on that last part.) Then I had a sensitivity reader review it. They were closer to the age of my characters, non-binary, and knew a lot more about the actual experience of being in the trenches as a non-cis person than I did. Let me just say, they were worth the money and the waiting time. Here’s what sensitivity readers do:
1. They help make your book authentic. I’m not an Indian woman, so I’m probably not going to write a book where the protagonist is an Indian woman anytime soon. (But, if you want a great one read “Good Talk” by Mira Jacobs. A classic example of her childhood experience is page 39.) My sensitivity reader helped me understand how teens today react to an outing - whether intended or not - of a trans person. And it’s not how I first wrote it. So, if you want your book to land with your audience and you aren’t fully familiar with that culture/group/etc. - even if you think you are - get a sensitivity reader.
2. They can keep you from getting bad reviews. Good reviews are everything. Seriously. People don’t buy books with one star or two star reviews. We all have so much to do with our time - why waste it on a book that everyone hates? Sensitivity readers can help improve your book, so that things flow better, scenes are cleaner with regard to details - what to put in, keep in, take out - and that will lead to a better book and better reviews.
3. They can keep you from getting eviscerated online. In this cancel culture, you don’t want to get cancelled. My husband is furious that people are so judgmental so quickly, but I don’t think I’d buy a book that has been deemed transphobic “just to make sure that it is.” I might watch a Netflix special with a bad rep, just to see what I think, but that’s $20 a month, and I can turn [name comedian] off anytime if I agree with the majority. Informed decision. It’s not that easy with a book. A book can cost just as much as a month of Netflix, and if everyone on Twitter and Bookstagram and TikTok is saying “This book is against [insert minority group], so don’t buy it,” you, as the author, will probably wish you had someone look over it before it was published. A sensitivity reader will keep you from that pain.
4. You may get an agent quicker. Agents have reputations to uphold, and in this day and age, being racist, homophobic, transphobic, against any sort of ethnicity or minority group, is not going to help them sell books. For example, I don’t think that any agent would pick up a book that exalted the KKK. Maybe I’m wrong; however, I have yet to see a #MSWL where an agent is asking for a pro-KKK book. An inside view of the KKK where the author escaped and now is a better cis white male? Maybe... But, a memoir of his fond memories with the KKK that continues to this day and leaves the reader with “So, he’s still in the group and actively participating…?” Get a sensitivity reader.
Maybe you have someone in your social circle who can read your book as a sensitivity reader. Maybe you have to reach out and pay someone. My advice (which is a saying that comes from my grandmother) is that it’s “money well spent.”
