“I told people I’m open to having wheelchair people working for me, why hasn’t anyone applied?”“I don’t know, maybe because your store is on the second floor and there is no elevator?”
Has this happened to you? Have you opened your business to a minority group and they haven’t applied? For a completely random example, saying you want to publish Neurodivergent writers.
You did everything right, just like you always do. You put out the call. Paid for the FB ads, announced it at conventions. All the traditional means of reaching writers. You tell the group to just fill out things like normal through the query.
Metaphorically speaking, you are telling people in wheelchairs to come up icy steps, when you tell neurodivergent people to follow all the normal steps done by the neurotypical. If they could do the neurotypical actions, you wouldn’t need to reach out to them.
Eric Smith, a literary agent, went looking for neurodivergent writers to represent. When they didn’t respond with a title wave of query letters, he went to his twitter group and asked “why?”
The answer was “HOW????”
“Discussing Barriers in Querying and Pitching for Neurodivergent Writers” by Eric Smith, 3/17/2021. https://www.ericsmithrocks.com/blog/2021/3/17/barriers-in-querying-amp-pitching-for-neurodivergent-writers
I’ve discussed the barriers I face attending conventions and any other in-person interaction. This article covers a wider array of neurodivergent challenges. Read it.
Post script – remember that ND stories are not going to read like standard stories. You want a different type of writer, you are going to get a different type of story.