By Edwina Perkins @EdwinaPerkins

Consider the world you live in. Your cultural experiences, likes, dislikes, fears, and even biases are based on your community. As an author writing about another culture, how can you best represent a group of people who are not like you? One way is through help from a sensitivity reader. Without a sensitivity reader, the likelihood of authentic representation significantly dwindles. Why? Because from the outside looking in, it’s unlikely that you as the author would understand the complete experience of what it means to be a part of a marginalized community.

The role of a sensitivity reader is not censorship but to assist the author in creating an accurate portrayal of a marginalized community. My desire is to open doors of communication between ethnic and non-ethnic writers in a safe environment to learn and ask questions. 

I was inspired to create Sensitivity Between the Lines (Sensitivity BTL) because my passion is to see people from marginalized communities represented well in manuscripts and by the publishing industry. When I approached Edie Melson and DiAnn Mills, they were totally supportive of offering this program to Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers.

So, what is Sensitivity BTL? 

The purpose is to help connect writers with professional sensitivity readers in an environment that brings both together and assists in strengthening writers’ understanding and authenticity in their manuscript concerning a marginalized community.

The goal is to connect writers with readers from marginalized communities and allow writers to obtain a more accurate depiction of individuals/communities outside of their own. 

Sensitivity BTL is designed to give authors the needed assistance to write with genuineness in their manuscripts concerning diversity in order to honor and respect the marginalized communities. 

What can writers expect? A reader thoroughly reviews the material for bias, stereotypes, offensiveness, lack of understanding, etc., and offers the author their thoughts for solutions to possible problem areas within a manuscript. The objective is to review text for authentic portrayal of a marginalized community, not to edit a manuscript for clarity and logic. They’re there to help the writer achieve authenticity, but there’s no guarantee a reader will catch everything. 

I’ve been asked if there’s a difference between a beta reader and a sensitivity reader. Yes. Beta readers are individuals who read a manuscript prior to publishing or read a pre-release of a book. They’re often asked to read for spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors and are not paid for their services. They may comment on parts of a story that are confusing or things that don’t make sense. Sensitivity readers—as mentioned above—allows the writer to enter their world and offer ways to represent their communities with accuracy. They are paid for their expertise. 

The question may be asked, who needs a sensitivity reader? Anyone who writes outside of their own community. I believe this shouldn’t be optional for writers who choose to write with diversity.

As authors and those in the publishing industry, God has given us a powerful tool—our words. Writers may not have the whole solution, but we can make a positive difference in the world with what we write. 

To learn more about Sensitivity Between the Lines, contact me at sensitivitybtl@gmail.com

One final thought:

If your story were the only one people read about a marginalized community, what kind of impact would you have on that community?

Edwina Perkins is an award-winning writer, freelance editor, speaker, and a sensitivity reader. She is the Managing Editor of Harambee Press—an imprint which seeks to publish ethnic writers—with Iron Stream Media. As the Mentoring Coordinator with Blue Ridge Mountains Writers Conference, Edwina loves the excitement of writers and watching them develop in their craft. She serves on the Word Weavers International Advisory Committee and is also a freelance writer for Guideposts Magazine. After thirty years away, she loves calling North Carolina home again. Edwina is a wife, mother of four adult children, and grandmother of two.