Ask Jennifer Laughran! Tireless agent-in-residence!

Status
Not open for further replies.

MacAllister

'Twas but a dream of thee
Staff member
Boss Mare
Administrator
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
22,010
Reaction score
10,705
Location
Out on a limb
Website
macallisterstone.com
Here's an interesting bit of trivia. If there are three women in a group of between ten and fifteen people, people tend to judge after-the-fact that the mix was about half-and-half, or even that women actually outnumbered the men in the group.

That's also, statistically, pretty close to the registration statistics for AW, by the way -- about 35%, give or take. So women outnumbering men in writers forums simply isn't true -- at least not here.

Perhaps it's time to examine your own deeply-held biases, Richard? Because I'm pretty damned well certain that if you get rejected by publishers and agents, it's got nothing to do with your boy-cooties. And making a thinly-veiled suggestion otherwise is just insulting.
 
Last edited:

Epiphany

Don't kill the bar, Dude.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2009
Messages
5,031
Reaction score
1,680
Location
California
I've been noticing that at least in the "writers forum" world, male writers are seriously outnumbered by women who write. I'm also seeing a relative scarcity of male agents. Now, I realize that there is no "old girl's club" per se, but has anyone studied the unbalance in new debut fiction published between men and women authors? Can a female agent be expected to warm up to the work of a male writer as easily as the work of another woman? Is this a silly question? I know there are sucessful male writers who write what would be considered "women's fiction", but I'm beginning to wonder how gender plays in the market, both reader/consumers and publishers.


Fewer men read fiction. Until that playing field levels out, the writer and business one won't (for "women's" fiction, so to speak). If you're so worried about it, maybe you should start marketing a button like this to your gentlemen friends and replace the chick with Fabio.
 

houndrat

Pulsating Whatnots Queen
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 2, 2009
Messages
7,078
Reaction score
5,227
Location
San Diego, CA
Website
www.houndrat.com
Richard....and yet my female friend whose UF is coming out soon had to use her initials, so as not to scare away readers with her non-masculine name. Hmmm
 

MacAllister

'Twas but a dream of thee
Staff member
Boss Mare
Administrator
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
22,010
Reaction score
10,705
Location
Out on a limb
Website
macallisterstone.com
And with houndrat's excellent observation about the reality a LOT of women writers can expect to encounter, and since everyone's pretty much had a chance to express their appreciation for Jennifer's patient attention and assistance, I guess we really are done here. Thanks everyone - and most especially, thank you, Jennifer!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.