Books like Scott’s, which put disability front and centre, are important in an industry that undervalues these stories and sees them as niche rather than universal. Scott wanted to create the Amazon category to dispel this idea, and to encourage other authors to write stories that treat disability as interesting and worthy of artistic attention. Equally important, says Mitchell, is “incidental representation,” where a character “just happens to be disabled and it’s not really central to the plot”. This is almost unheard of in adult fiction, she says.
The reasons for this lack of representation are varied, but Mitchell and Huxley-Jones point to the inaccessibility of publishing as an industry. Hours are long and, for authors, pay is often delayed. Much depends on making contacts at long and inaccessible conferences. And because publishers pay an advance for a book long before they make money from it, they are incentivised to stick to narratives and characters they already know will sell. So it probably shouldn’t be surprising that we see the same tropes again and again.
[Image ID: A sketch of Jon from TMA, a tall British-Indian person with long hair in a braid, a full beard, body hair, and various scars. They are standing with a cane, and wearing a sun dress with black vines and purple and black flowers, and ankle boots. End ID.]
