im gonna write a best seller- “How to hate a man”- should be popular
Maybe I'm just an old stick in the mud, but for me William Shakespeare's ‘Fuccboi’ will always be the best and greatest.
Spoiler alert: The White Man did it.
Novelist Eliza Clark agrees. “Basically all of our brightest and most successful young male novelists – and there’s a hard divide between those and our old guard male novelists – are queer or men of colour or both. That’s great: I think it represents a true diversifying of the industry, though obviously we have a lot more work to do.”
As the article notes, today's male authors are gay and/or black, and they tend to write books that appeal to gays and blacks. Publishing has gone the same path as Hollywood.
LOL as though men ever escape the constant yammering of women: why would they pay for more?
I have read a lot of academic publications. My impression is that the female authors do a lot of meticulous research, make many interesting individual points, but cannot construct a clear, overarching interpretation or argument.
The vast majority of book are bought by women today. The publishing industry therefore is most concerned about books that appeal to women.
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Most ‘heroes’, nee heroines, are now women in the movies these days. Having conquered everything from abortion to CEO-ship, they are now the go-to protagonists in Holyweird.
I for one am sick of this female heroine stuff in books and movies - so I neither read books by women or have women heroines, same for movies - It in your face like the queer/trans crap.
A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. Gloria Steinem. /spit
I’m a self-published author with a mailing list of 1700+. 65% of my subscribers are women. The majority of book buyers when I sell in person are women.
And the majority are 50+ years old.
Just like I like prefer old music, I prefer older fiction books. I’m not necessarily talking about literary classics here, just books for enjoyment with a lot of action. Going through Louis L’Amour now, and getting close to the end of his catalogue. Starting up on Larry McMurtry, Elmore Leonard and William W. Johnstone and will eventually get to Zane Gray. My local library system is great with thousands of books available electronically. If anyone has any suggestions in the vein, I’d be happy to hear them, especially if they are newer male writers.
I’m almost finished with a novel by Robert Bailey. He is a straight white male, a husband and a father, from Huntsville, Alabama. He has written several best sellers. His books appeal to both men and women.
Next on my table is a novel by Daniel Silva. He has written numerous best sellers, basically spy novels and thrillers.
Both of these authors are talented and readable. They came recommended to me by someone who challenged me to try something other than my usual non-fiction and deep classics.
One reason is that books were increasingly written for women. It became harder and harder to find books for men, so men quit looking or read older books at used book stores and now electronically.
I remember the 60’s and 70’s when there were dozens of adventure series of books for men. Now ther is nothing.
I’ve written three novels—literary fiction—and can’t have an agent in the female dominated publishing world give me the time of day. So self-published. Good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but am glad I don’t have to make my living with a pen....
It started with the Invisible Man.
I read a decent amount of fiction, and have done so for about five decades now.
I have noticed over the past 20 years or so that publishers really seem to get a hard on to publish fiction from women and from people with last names that are obviously from other countries.
A lot of what I would consider to be quality fiction that I have encountered in my life comes from white men. I have noticed a big dropoff in the quality of the fiction I have read in the past 20 years or so, and much of the “good” fiction that gets out these days is still from dudes with white sounding names.
“Novelist Eliza Clark agrees. “Basically all of our brightest and most successful young male novelists – and there’s a hard divide between those and our old guard male novelists – are queer or men of colour or both. That’s great: I think it represents a true diversifying of the industry, though obviously we have a lot more work to do.” The old guard, she clarifies, is the usual roll call: Will Self, Bret Easton Ellis. Does it really matter that that is changing?”
All you need to know.
The first of each month, Amazon offers me a selection of books from which I may choose one for free. They are always ALL written by women, for women. I shudder to think of the dripping vitriol scribed within. I had to look at my profile to make sure they didn’t have me confused with someone else. Nope. It’s been years and I have yet to take them up on their offer.
Women read fiction far more than men, especially girly books written by women. So it’s the result of the paricular supply and demand.
Write more books that appeal to men then !
They got it backwards. I’d say they feminized the industry and produced product that men can’t stand and the men left. Speaking for myself.