I’m Not Hiding Anymore
When I first started querying literary agents, I felt an unexpected pressure…a quiet, creeping sense that in order to be taken seriously, I needed to hide who I am.
I’d spent months writing my manuscript. I knew the story had merit. I knew the characters mattered. And yet, when it came time to put myself out there…to find an agent…I hesitated. Not because I didn’t believe in my work, but because I was worried they wouldn’t believe in me.
Not if they knew what I believed.
So I did what many writers quietly do in the shadows of their submission process: I sanitized. I scrolled through my social media and deleted or archived anything that hinted I might lean right-of-center. Anything that could mark me as a conservative. I unpublished large portions of my personal website. I stripped it of my voice. Of my beliefs. Of my perspective. I tried to make myself invisible.
Why?
Because as I browsed agency websites and agent wishlists, a common thread appeared: “marginalized voices,” “underrepresented authors,” “LGBTQ stories,” “progressive values.” Over and over, I saw the same words, the same calls for “diversity”…but it was a very specific kind of diversity. The kind that comes with a checklist. The kind that seems to welcome every viewpoint except the ones held by people like me.
And in that moment, I felt it: the suffocating irony of it all.
In the name of inclusion, I felt excluded. In the name of openness, I felt silenced.
It didn’t take me long to snap out of it.
Because here’s the truth: I’m not going to hide who I am just to get picked. I’m a writer. I’m a storyteller. I’m a believer in free speech, in liberty, in personal responsibility. I’m a converted Christian. I lean conservative…closer to libertarian these days. And none of that makes me less worthy of representation. If anything, it makes my voice even more necessary in a publishing landscape that claims to celebrate a full spectrum of human experience, yet often only amplifies one side.
If a literary agency won’t even read my manuscript because of what I believe, then they were never going to fight for my story in the first place.
And if they require me to hide parts of myself to be marketable, then I don’t want their version of success.
I’m not bitter. I’m not angry. I’m just done pretending. Because real diversity includes ideological diversity. Real freedom means I don’t have to trade authenticity for opportunity.
I won’t be sanitized. I won’t be silenced. And I won’t apologize for being exactly who I am.
If you’ve ever felt this tension…if you’re a writer or creative trying to navigate an industry that says “be yourself” but means “be like us”…you’re not alone.
Let’s build a space where honest voices can speak without fear. Where stories matter more than politics. And where no one has to pretend to belong.
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