In the natural world, I believe, some species succeed via tricks such as protective coloration and mimicking other animals. That might come in handy in making publishers think a manuscript will serve their interests when the author has other fish to fry.
A couple very successful books come to mind. One is Tara Westover's "Educated," which the East Coast publishers must have seized upon because it confirmed their prejudices about people in flyover country. While I don't think that author had a subversive intent, what she seems to have wanted was not so much an exposé of her family's culture as just an honest coming to terms with her past. A better example is "Hillbilly Elegy," likewise attractive to publishers, I'm sure, as a way of dumping on all those low-brow types outside the NY - DC corridor. Except J.D. Vance used it as a springboard hopefully to a seat in the Senate.
So maybe the answer is to be a little indirect or ambiguous. (The average reader in publishing houses is no rocket scientist, after all.) Ponder ways of letting them think your next story can support the accepted narrative--when actually it doesn't. There must be other examples of this.
Incidentally, I often think of the scene in your book "In the Shape of a Man" when the guy giving the nature tour warns about invasive species even while mouthing the platitude that no human is illegal. There will always be room for that kind of irony!
In the natural world, I believe, some species succeed via tricks such as protective coloration and mimicking other animals. That might come in handy in making publishers think a manuscript will serve their interests when the author has other fish to fry.
A couple very successful books come to mind. One is Tara Westover's "Educated," which the East Coast publishers must have seized upon because it confirmed their prejudices about people in flyover country. While I don't think that author had a subversive intent, what she seems to have wanted was not so much an exposé of her family's culture as just an honest coming to terms with her past. A better example is "Hillbilly Elegy," likewise attractive to publishers, I'm sure, as a way of dumping on all those low-brow types outside the NY - DC corridor. Except J.D. Vance used it as a springboard hopefully to a seat in the Senate.
So maybe the answer is to be a little indirect or ambiguous. (The average reader in publishing houses is no rocket scientist, after all.) Ponder ways of letting them think your next story can support the accepted narrative--when actually it doesn't. There must be other examples of this.
Incidentally, I often think of the scene in your book "In the Shape of a Man" when the guy giving the nature tour warns about invasive species even while mouthing the platitude that no human is illegal. There will always be room for that kind of irony!