How a Reading Audit Can Elevate Your Writing

After attending AWP’s conference in 2021, I took a serious look at the books I was reading. This changed the way I write permanently.

The idea of doing a reading audit—looking back over the books you read in a year’s time, specifically tracking the identities of the authors—had never occurred to me. I generally read what was popular at the time or what was recommended to me by friends or local book clubs.

But the truth was laid out clearly. The authors I was reading kept me in a straight, white box, which didn’t align with my identity as a queer nonbinary person, let alone with the characters that I wanted to write.

It was time to make a change.

Reading audits can be beneficial for many reasons, including:

• Identifying gaps in your knowledge. Especially those of us who utilize extensive world-building (like fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction writers), you want to ensure that you’re not appropriating cultures or perpetuating harmful stereotypes
• Enriching your storytelling. By immersing yourself in the work of a wide range of writers, you gain a flood of inspiration and can deepen the world-building and storytelling by furthering your education
• Gain a better understanding of your genre. If you’re not reading widely, then you’re not gaining a full picture of the genre that you’re writing in. This will limit you when you go to publish since you won’t have a firm understanding of who your audience is (or could be), as well as the works you can comp.

Conducting an Audit

To conduct your reading audit, you’ll need your reading history for the last 12 calendar months. If you’re not someone who tracks your reading via a site or apps like Goodreads and Fable or even a notebook, then just create your list to the best of your ability.

Keep in mind that writers do not owe us their identities. There may be authors on your list that have not disclosed their gender, sexuality, or disability status. Because of this, you might also want to consider the subjects and themes that they write about or their educational background. For example, you might have an author who has obtained a Ph.D. in gender studies and incorporate trans characters in their work.

The next step will be to compile your data based on author identities or story subjects/themes like:

• Disability
• LGBTQIA+
• Race
• Culture

And you can even go so far as to see whether they were published by one of the big publishing houses, a small publisher, or self-published.

After you compile the data, go ahead and journal what you’re noticing. Do so without judgment; this is not a time to shame yourself but to acknowledge gaps and encourage growth. What identities do you seem to write most about? Where could you pay more attention? How do you feel about the list now that you’re sitting and looking at it?

(3 Ideas for Increasing the Diversity of Children’s Home Libraries)

Discovering New Works

Unfortunately, we can’t trust BookTok popularity to give us the end-all-be-all of stories. I encourage you to seek out queer, disabled, and creators of color on social media and YouTube. There are plenty of reviewers, writers, and readers out there who are promoting works that they admire and explaining the complications of published works, emotional labor that they spend time doing so that we can push for change in our industry.

I also recommend getting in touch with your local library. They will keep you appraised of writers in all genres and identities. For example, my local library has some discussion series and specialty tables for Black History Month and Women’s History Month, just to name some upcoming ones!

Don’t be afraid to head to Google as well. Something as simple as “Black horror authors” will open your world and give your TBR list a fresh jolt!