Sex Discrimination in Publishing or Something Else?
Take a look at this response from a publisher to a query for my pulpy crime novel. When I asked why the lack of female representation in his catalog, he pointed to the inclusion of the two female authors he's published.
Thanks for getting in touch, Mickey. We don’t do many series – more often we publish just individual stand-alone novels. And one of the few series we do have…[NAMES 2 BOOKS] *are* written by a real female...We’d always be open to adding another female author to the line, of course. But we’re getting about 1,000 submissions per year at this point and only publishing 4 books, so we have to say no to more than 99% of the books we see. And that means a book really has to stand out as a perfect fit for us in order for us to go for it, and I’m afraid this one does not.
A rejection? Pour moi? In this publisher's defense, I will say I was not expecting an acceptance letter. This is a top-notch publishing house with household name authors. But why the lack of talented female writers filling out that list? Two females? In the entire catalog?
According to the publisher, few female writers submit to the press. The publisher says this about that:
Keep in mind that I also reject 99.6% of all the books we get from male authors – the vast majority of those don’t wow me either. But the difference is that if you get 1,000 submissions from men, you can reject 996 and still buy 4. If you get only 100 or 200 submissions from women, you can’t reject 99.6 and buy 0.4 of a book (or reject 199.2 and buy 0.8 of one) – you either reject 99 and buy 1 or reject 100 and buy zero. In any event you end up with one book or zero books, which isn’t a large number either way.
So, is this sex discrimination? Or do the genres naturally fall into well-defined categories determined by sex—of readers and of writers?
But wait: aren't 80 percent of book buyers female?
Hmmmm. What do you think? Is it more difficult to get published if you are a woman? A guy in my writers' group claims today's agents are only looking for women writers. The next author of a Potter, Twilight, or Fifty Shades. And he says agents want minority writers. So white guys have no lit cred anymore.
What's your experience?
Read the original post and some interesting comments here: http://revisionseditions.blogspot.com...
Thanks for getting in touch, Mickey. We don’t do many series – more often we publish just individual stand-alone novels. And one of the few series we do have…[NAMES 2 BOOKS] *are* written by a real female...We’d always be open to adding another female author to the line, of course. But we’re getting about 1,000 submissions per year at this point and only publishing 4 books, so we have to say no to more than 99% of the books we see. And that means a book really has to stand out as a perfect fit for us in order for us to go for it, and I’m afraid this one does not.
A rejection? Pour moi? In this publisher's defense, I will say I was not expecting an acceptance letter. This is a top-notch publishing house with household name authors. But why the lack of talented female writers filling out that list? Two females? In the entire catalog?
According to the publisher, few female writers submit to the press. The publisher says this about that:
Keep in mind that I also reject 99.6% of all the books we get from male authors – the vast majority of those don’t wow me either. But the difference is that if you get 1,000 submissions from men, you can reject 996 and still buy 4. If you get only 100 or 200 submissions from women, you can’t reject 99.6 and buy 0.4 of a book (or reject 199.2 and buy 0.8 of one) – you either reject 99 and buy 1 or reject 100 and buy zero. In any event you end up with one book or zero books, which isn’t a large number either way.
So, is this sex discrimination? Or do the genres naturally fall into well-defined categories determined by sex—of readers and of writers?
But wait: aren't 80 percent of book buyers female?
Hmmmm. What do you think? Is it more difficult to get published if you are a woman? A guy in my writers' group claims today's agents are only looking for women writers. The next author of a Potter, Twilight, or Fifty Shades. And he says agents want minority writers. So white guys have no lit cred anymore.
What's your experience?
Read the original post and some interesting comments here: http://revisionseditions.blogspot.com...
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