Hey genre snobs, Shakespeare did fantasy (Tempest), thrillers (Macbeth), comedies (As You Like It), YA (Romeo & Juliet) & erotica (sonnets).
— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) April 23, 2014
This week the publishing blogosphere was doing some soul
searching as they digested an article by Jonathan Emmett on the gender imbalance of children’s books, that The Times picked
up and ran away with...causing a mini feeding frenzy from other news outlets
around the world.
The Times headline trumpeted that the majority of buying/ producing/ reviewing in the publishing
industry is being run by women so it is no wonder that boys aren’t reading.
This is a hot button issue.
There are many angles to this
story. Why has publishing become dominated by women? (low paid... low
status...= women) Where are the books written by men for boys? ( low paid...low
status...= ?) Who are the gatekeepers and why aren’t more books for boys being
promoted and reviewed? - they would review if there were books for boys being written and
published (low paid...low status...)
Why is it a women’s problem if boys don’t read? (Jonathan
Emmet say’s it is not our problem.)
The next hot button issue... the same
arguments this week but this time over diversity in publishing... Where are the books written by and for people of colour? In this Buzzfeed article the same
blocks are being questioned. The editors are white middle class women who don’t
understand the issues/stories from another cultural/colour perspective. Few books by these authors are being
picked up for publishing... which equals less readers... which then becomes one
of those assumptions...that people of colour don’t read.
Why is this a middle class white woman’s problem?
Who are the majority of readers? Demographic/age group.... (answer in your own time)
How do we address the imbalance?
How do we make reading cool for everyone?
Where do the brown boy readers go when they get to high
school? (our resident representative of that demographic reads Stephen King
Horror (Thanks Mr King! He is still reading!)
And the next hot button issue.
Are we over being good literary citizens? Have writers had
enough of supporting publishing platforms?...because it’s good form and expected
by their publishing houses but costs in time and money for the writer. Where
are the blogs/ reviews from the CEO’s promoting the books? Why does the writer
have to promote other writers and reviewers...and bookstores and .... Jane Friedman has a nice response to the above article.
When Mike Shatzkin came out to talk positively about When Authors should Self Publish (minor
earthquake in publishing world) and then goes on to ask for submissions from
everyone about the next five years in digital publishing where he predicts that
Trade publishers will conduct most of their business online... then you have a
lot to talk about.
We are 18 months out from the next National Children’s
Writers and Illustrators conference and so Mike makes timely reading as we look
to work out what issues should be on the hot button list to discuss.
Pick your button… PRESS.
In the Craft Section,
Bob Mayer on The Story Grid - a writer’s tool
Janice Hardy – when you’ve got everything right how do you leap over the line into requested/ bought
territory.
When the first book kills the series... Great article on the fine line of writing a first serial book.
In the Marketing Section,
Building audience with bundles... Dave Gaughran’s book
bundling experiences.
Popular Tumblr’s for readers – how authors are managing Tumblr
To Finish,
This is my 300th post on the Craicer blog, my sixth
year of providing a weekly look at the hot topics and trends in publishing. In
six years I have seen the publishing world go through huge changes. The
amalgamation of publishing houses... the collapse of bookstore chains... the
rise of author publishing. Six years ago I would not have predicted the topic
of this article from Porter Anderson but it does show how far the publishing
pendulum has swung for the author.
Predicting where they may be heading to next will continue to be a
fascinating weekly hot button on Craicer.
maureen
