There’s nothing more polarized in the western world than politics. I’ve got strong political views – and I’m sure you do as well.
In a case in missing the point, I read an article on “Why you shouldn’t discuss politics on LinkedIn”, and the reason is – why cut off 50% of your customer base. One reader wrote a comment and suggested, “shouldn’t I then discuss politics so that I can sell more effectively to those who agree with me?”
The answer was already stated – YOU DON’T WANT TO ALIENATE HALF OF THE BUYING PUBLIC – because your readers may be firmly entrenched in the 50% of the public you don’t agree with!
Think about that for a minute.
I will say that I read a science fiction book once that was a blatant effort to write political polemic, and wrapped an interplanetary war around it. The book half worked with me, because I agreed with the author on many things, but dismissed others. And I was irritated he kept pushing the thing I disagreed with throughout the book.
And yes, if you’re a ___________ and your readers are too, you might still be tempted to – but in this day and age…
I’d strongly advise against it.
So here’s the five ways that politics may harm your novel!
- You may alienate a prospective agent. Shut down, right from the start!
- You may alienate a prospective publisher. Don’t you think they may talk to one another?
- You may limit the shelf life of your book. Books that advocate political views tend to have shorter shelf lives as well. A book with a limited shelf life brings limited income – and longevity is the name of the game in writing.
- Your book may not sell at all! What if you write a book firmly advocating one political party and blasting the other as enemies of freedom – and all of your readers have the other parties’ ideology? Your latest book will then sell ZERO copies, and your publisher is going to consider whether or not to keep you on.
- You may alienate all of your readers! What if you’re a __________ and all your readers may happen to be the other party? You may have a publishing contract, an agent and a following – but offend that following completely in that kind of way, and you may lose all of the above! You just lost your entire following. All of your die hard fans are offended, because you’re a________ and they were all __________.
Conclusion. It may be tempting, because obviously, we all are convinced we’re 100% correct! But in this day and age where people are being evaluated solely on their political affiliations, it’s far too risky. We can expect that since our readers will usually be a cross section of society – young, middle aged, old, white, black, Jewish, Native American, Hispanic, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Communist – you have far more to lose by bringing politics into your novel than you stand to gain!
