This conversation first appeared in Scratch magazine’s Q4 2014 issue. Read more Scratch about the business of being a writer here . In the publishing industry, most of the gatekeepers come from a place of race and class privilege. How does this skewed power dynamic affect the careers of writers of color? Scratch invited our panelists to have a conversation about their experiences as people who walk through those “gates” every day. Novelist and essayist…

Nicole Cliffe (The Toast): We’ve literally been in business two months now, so anything I say in terms of its prescriptive power is ridiculous because it’s like we’re those people in 1992 who are like, “Who wants to buy spatulas online?” Until we’re profitable, I don’t think what I have to say has much relevance to this conversation.

But we pay everybody.