Note to Readers – From time to time, I will re-post a past entry that has withstood the test of time. Whether you missed it the first time ‘round or read it years ago, I feel it’s worth sharing again. I chose Pardon My Gender from September 2015 because newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that female authors helped American bookstores increases sales for the first time since 2007. The top three U.S. bestselling authors were Harper Lee, E.L. James and Paula Hawkins. Listen up publishers!
Curran Bell, Acton Bell and Ellis Bell may not be names you recognize but what if I were to say Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë? In the 1800s, the famous Brontë sisters had to don male names in order to get their writing published after England’s poet laureate Robert Southey responded to 20-year-old Charlotte’s selection of poetry with, “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life.” Other noted female authors of the same period who disguised their gender in order to get published include George Sand (Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) and George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans.)
A century later, Nell Harper Lee dropped her first name for the more androgynous Harper Lee. Nora Roberts, a bestselling author of romance novels under her real name, became a bestselling author of detective fiction using the pseudonym J.D. Robb.
Perhaps the best known contemporary female author to neuter her name is J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. Her UK publisher, Bloomsbury, felt that replacing her first name (Joanne) with initials would make her book more appealing to boys. Without a middle name of her own, she used her grandmother’s, Kathleen. “They could have called me Enid Snodgrass,” Rowling told The Telegraph in an interview. “I just wanted it [the book] published.”
As long as women have written, they have had to contend with bias in the publishing industry. While some are hopeful that the growing number of female authors with successful books will open doors for more women, statistics suggest that traditional publishers still view women primarily as writers and readers of romance novels.
Two 2011 studies prove the point. They showed that The New York Review of Books reviewed 71 female authors, compared to 293 male authors; The New York Times reviewed 273 women and 520 men. Only Crown published a similar number of male and female authors; the others clearly favored men.
Women authors are not the only ones battling discrimination in the publishing world. Minorities are also largely underserved, much to the loss of booklovers. But women are not a minority, which is why I highlight this sorry aspect of the publishing world.
The emergence of self-publishing is resulting in some hugely successful female writers (see Footnotes) but traditional publishers need to step up to the plate. It makes good business sense. Car dealers, real estate marketers and political parties have awakened to the potential women offer, not only as consumers but as producers. It’s time for the white male bastions of the publishing world to make way for diversity. Let it begin with women authors.