Tom Jolly
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I got a very nice and detailed rejection from an agent for my book "Ayo," but her main gripe was that the book is completely based in Kenya with Kenyans, and I'm an old white guy in the US. I sent it to a Kenyan editor for cultural edits, and did a decent amount of research,
03:38 PM - Oct 29, 2023
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Tom Jolly
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thread 2/3
but there's the issue of cultural appropriation and voices that's going to irritate a lot of readers. The question is, should I rewrite the whole thing from a US perspective, with US characters? I kind of hate to do that because I really like the characters in the book, and
03:38 PM - Oct 29, 2023
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Tom Jolly
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the culture does play a significant role in some of the events of the story. There's no place like Kibera in the US, and there are no "Ministries of..." in the government. I could find analogs, but it would be a much different book.
03:38 PM - Oct 29, 2023
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