""As I discovered who I was, a black teenager in a white-dominated world," Walter Dean Myers writes, "I saw that these characters, these lives, were not mine. Another trope that we see over and over is the one-and-only, the singular, the chosen one, as opposed to the many, the multitude, the community. The ones that said they loved my writing but didn't connect with the character, the ones that didn't think my book would be marketable even though it was already accepted at a major publishing house. It’s not a new phenomenon. That’s what saved our lives over and over—not being singular, one-and-only characters, but being people who are connected and interdependent with a vast network of other people who lift us up with love and support in different ways. And all of those ways of doing it right involve listening to the people around you.I’m surrounded by strong, smart women, that’s for sure, and that certainly plays a part in it.On the one hand, I think there is a certain intentionality that goes into it in terms of undermining stereotypes and creating counter-narratives to the same story that we’re told over and over, whether it’s about race or gender. What’s new is that there’s protest around it, and so people are paying attention. But many of our gifts and challenges won't be seen or recognized within a white cultural context. Thought about the ones that wanted me to delete moments when a character of color gets mean looks from white people because "that doesn't happen anymore" and the white magazine editor who lectured me on how I'd gotten my own culture wrong. I flailed for words that would prepare her for all that lay ahead; none came.These two essays perfectly frame the emotional and social debacle of publishing and diversity today. There were times when I could see a whole arc that went way past it, and there were times when I was like, “Nope! Of course, we have climbed many mountains, and mastery of craft is not a luxury for writers of color, it is a necessity. I'd had this conversation before, years ago, when I was starting out and I didn't know what lay ahead. It’s how we process the world. No one is demanding more tokens though. Older's debut novel Half-Resurrection Blues was published by Penguin Books in the first week of 2015. There are so many pitfalls, but ultimately, it’s about treating that character with the same love and humanity that you would any other and being very aware of the fact that there are many ways to do this wrong and very few to do it right. Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher (Scholastic), the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series (Penguin), and the upcoming Middle Grade sci-fi adventure Flood City (Scholastic). And I think that there’s a power to that, when we’re the ones telling our own story, that supersedes anything else. I took a short story class. My mentors shook their heads, and, I imagine, sent up their own tiny prayers. But there are a lot of ways that we aren’t the same, and I had to take those the most seriously as I was moving forward. There are ways that we intersect, for sure—I certainly was a drawing fanatic when I was her age, and that’s a part of myself that I gave to her. "The Market is so comfortably intangible," Myers writes, "that no one is worried I will go knocking down any doors. We can love a thing and still critique it. And that’s mostly where I went back and forth. Call: 1-800-278-2991 (US) or 1-818-487-2069 (Outside US/Canada) 5 a.m. - 5 p.m. Mon-Fri (Pacific) And it's not just a question of characters of color, it's Ultimately, editors and agents hold exactly the same amount of responsibility that writers do in making literature more diverse. If you have questions or need assistance setting up your account please email pw@pubservice.com or call 1-800-278-2991 (U.S.) or 1-818-487-2069 (all other countries), Monday-Friday between 5am and 5pm Pacific time for assistance. Here's where the critique is met with deafening silence.