What is diversity in books

I always thought it meant different races and cultures eg Asian, Chinese etc and not just white characters written about. But since I've started writing about autistic children, I now know there is more to it. It can mean disabled children in books, not just physically disabled but hidden and invisible ones, too. Eg autistic children might look normal but they are not inside. Also, deafness and heart problems. They all affect people and are not visible, unless someone is wearing hearing aids.

There is another way to help diversity in writing, especially if you are an indie author like me. As well as writing about these different characters, you can choose which font to print in and how much space to have on the page, to make it easier for children with learning difficulties to read. My current children's books (The Rainbow School) has large font because I was told that was best for that age range (7-9s). When I published via Createspace, I found there were big spaces between some pages (where I had written long paragraphs which didn't fit on 1 page). I wasn't happy but then I got thinking. At the retreat in May, I sold a copy of Billy to a new friend, who bought it for her friend's daughter who was older than the target age but had learning difficulties. She liked the book. So, now I feel that even thought it wasn't intentional to have those gaps, it is a good thing to have, because it makes the books more accessible and available for a wider audience than I intended. I shall try to keep this in mind for the further children's books.

What does diversity mean to you with books?

Title and branding - A cautionary tale

I was going to post about shopping as an Aspie but something cropped up yesterday that made me feel I should warn others about. It is about titles and branding for book series. As some of you know, I have branded my new fiction series about children with Asperger's Syndrome a certain name. I did do lots of research on names back in May when I was thinking about it all. One name I really liked but had been used by someone else, so I message them on Facebook to ask if they owned the rights to it. I never heard back...until yesterday. Because I hadn't heard all this time, of course, I went ahead and used the name. The message I got yesterday was that the name was the name of the company founded by the woman who runs it and she had the rights to it, and the only other person who could use it with authorisation was a specialist publisher I know about. Anyone else couldn't use it, and if they did, they could end up being sued by the company. This gave me great worry and anxiety with my own Asperger's. I thought, oh no, I am going to get in to great trouble here and panicked. I had to come up with alternative names for my brand.

I came up with a couple of titles this morning, but when I Googled both, they were already taken by magazines and companies, so they were a no go as well. I got a few suggestions from others on a FB post I put up last night, but most of them are too similar to the first one I had. One suggestion, by my designer, Rachel Lawston, was to drop the idea of a brand. And this is what I now plan to do. Someone else I know said that if I do drop the brand idea, then my books would reach a wider audience. So, it is a good idea. I want my books to find as many readers as possible. I have deleted the brand name on the blurb for Billy, and will ask Rachel to delete it from the cover, too. For those books I already have ordered, I am going to blank out the name. The same with the postcards I have which were made from the cover. I might relaunch it again in the new year, we shall see.

So, the motto here is: if you are thinking of giving a series a brand name, like I did, do a thorough research. If it looks like it has been taken, even by a magazine, forget the idea. You will be thankful in the future. I did want to give all my books a brand but it might seem it is best not to. You will see from this post that I haven't actually put the title of the brand I had, that is because I have emailed the company concerned to say that I won't use the term anywhere again.