How to sell out The (hidden) cost of being a Black writer

Sanders, the author of Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph (2021), is done writing about race. What began as an experiment in radical honesty soon became a lucrative financial endeavor. But at what cost? After years of speaking engagements, media appearances, and conducting corporate training sessions, Sanders has chosen to move away from dissecting American race relations and this collection of essays marks that turning point. Sanders writes with raw vulnerability, assessing both the rewards and the exhaustion that came with being the spokesperson for the Black elite. His decision to step away from writing as a "trauma response" is as impactful as his observations on race and identity. The essays are engaging, heartfelt, and reveal his talent for nuanced, universal storytelling. Sanders' honesty, once seen as radical in the corporate world, now emerges as a path to personal freedom. This first venture into broader themes reveals him as a versatile writer with something significant to say, regardless of topic. How to Sell Out is a powerful and distinctive reflection on ambition, identity, and self-preservation.

In this candid memoir-in-essays, Yearbook podcaster Sanders (Black Magic) reflects on his ambivalence over staking out a career writing about racism. After quitting his tech job to try making it in Hollywood, he felt compelled by "market pressure to lean into pain" after noticing that most shows with Black protagonists centered on violent gangsters, and he recalls unsuccessfully pitching dozens of projects that never got picked up because they defied such stereotypes. Sanders offers a rueful account of how, hungry for success, he greeted the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd's murder as a financial opportunity, rejoicing at his newfound platform after publishing a viral opinion piece in the New York Times asserting that he wanted his white friends' money, not their condolences. Speaking engagements at Google and Target followed, as well as more op-eds, a book deal, and countless podcast appearances, but Sanders found that serving as the "voice of Blackness" reduced him to the traumas he had endured, leading him to vow that "this will be my last time writing about race.... Unless I need the money again." Sanders pulls no punches in his self-criticism, offering a scathing assessment of how he "leveraged victimhood for money clicks." Readers will have a hard time putting this down. Agent: Eve Atterman, WME. (Feb.)

A young Black writer offers a fascinating perspective about race, money, and freedom in America. If nothing else, this collection of experiential and observational essays about being a Black writer in America demonstrates that for podcaster, television writer, and author Sanders (Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned From Trauma and Triumph), the unexamined life is certainly not worth living. Sanders analyzes his success after the publication of an op-ed about race and friendship in theNew York Times following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer and his triumphs and trauma as a well-renumerated employee of a renowned tech firm, a Black writer in the entertainment industry whose mentors include Spike Lee, and the son of successful parents living in a tony suburb of Washington, D.C. It would be unwise to dismiss this book by adopting an attitude that many would love to have the comfortable lives of the rich and famous that Sanders portrays in these pages. But stick with it. The last few essays are the sharpest, especially the piece in which Sanders describes how he altered his attitude and approach as a result of the Writers Guild strike of 2023. The blunt ruminations about his experiences, his internal struggles, and the ironic hierarchies he discovered within Black America itself show Sanders at his best and most insightful. His is a voice that should be heeded by anyone who strives to live up to his father's injunction to never let anyone take your freedom. A frank and arresting read. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.