I’m a queer person of color and I absolutely adore your works and I was wondering if you had any idea on how I could make my experiences relatable to a more “mainstream audience,” or, rather, to any agents or publishers who care about what they imagine is their mainstream audience. I know that there are people like me who exist, many of whom love and identify with your characters, but how can I make characters that resemble my experiences easier for white, cisgendered, heterosexual audiences?

neil-gaiman:

Here is a secret of writing: if you write a person who people can care about, readers will read about them. Never lose sight of that.

You have unique stories, your stories, ones only you can tell. Tell them. I’m much more interested in them than I am in you trying to make them less true and less interesting to please an imaginary audience.

If publishers and agents don’t like them, go around the publishers and the agents, and publish directly — there are so many ways to do that these days. But write your stories. Don’t compromise. You can trust your readers, of all genders and skin colours and experiences to follow you, if you are honest with them.