Arthur's Creations
  • Home
  • Photography
    • Nature Page 1 >
      • The Bare Mother
      • The Clothing of the Mother
      • A Colorful Farewell
      • Deep Still Waters
      • Electric Skies
    • Nature Page 2 >
      • Fire In The Sky
      • Flames of the Mother
      • A Fresh Start
      • From the Wellspring
      • Heavenly
    • Nature Page 3 >
      • Nature's Passion
      • The Resting Time
      • Panorama
      • Royalty of the Earth
      • Shades of Pure
    • Nature Page 4 >
      • A Subtle Touch
      • We Prefer The Dark
      • Where Land And Ocean Meet
    • People >
      • Rachel Kirton >
        • June 9, 2013 Page 1
        • June 9, 2013 Page 2
        • June 9, 2013 Page 3
        • June 9, 2013 Page 4
      • The Essence of Woman
    • Proofs >
      • Distinct Electrical >
        • 001
        • 002
  • Artwork
    • Digital Art >
      • A simpler style
      • Abstractions
      • A Different View
      • Attitude
      • Binary Creations
      • Creatures of the Earth
      • Fantasy and SciFi
      • Icons
      • Light and Dark
    • Traditional Art >
      • Drawings
      • Paintings >
        • Mixed Medium and Watercolor
        • Acrylic
    • Divine Feminine Oracle Deck >
      • Chrystalis
      • Breathe
      • Letting Go
      • Depth
  • Sculpture
    • Animals
    • Contemporary
    • Mythical
  • Poetry
  • Writings
    • And You Shall Know The Reaper
    • Out of the Mist >
      • Ancient Memory
      • Apache Moon
    • Short Stories >
      • A Moment of Time
      • Mousetrap
      • The Secret of Happiness
  • Musings
    • House and CISPA
  • Once upon a time...
  • Downloads
    • Whispering Blades 1920 x 1080
    • Desperate Measures
    • Gymnasium Chaos
    • Camera Eye 1920 x 1080

Gender bias and the question of whether to Non de Plume.

4/12/2013

2 Comments

 
I just finished my fourth novel, right on the heels of my third, which is being edited, and I've run headlong right into a wall.  Unlike the first three, which are modern, mythological fantasies, this one is more of an erotic thriller.  Though still fiction, it is separated from the others by at least a few degrees, genre speaking.  So I am confronted with the possible necessity of publishing it under a pen name.
     There are several reasons why I should probably do this, of course.  Readers tend to like their authors to write in just one genre, otherwise they are perceived to be too much of a "Jack-of-all-trades", and their books probably aren't as good as an author who sticks to just one genre.  I've already noted this phenomena in my career as a visual artist, where I indulge myself in painting, photography, and sculpture, as well as commercial art.
     Many authors of the past and present have used Nom de Plumes for this very reason, to keep separate their various readerships.  Okay, it's common practice, so why do I hesitate?
     The biggest reason, though, for me personally, to consider using a pen name, and thus try to build two reputations instead of just one--which is hard enough, believe me--is because of gender bias.
     I just read a string on one of Goodreads' forums about this very question.  The general opinion there was that men tended to be better at writing tight plots, while women were better at writing deep characters.  The posters on that string were quite convinced--for the most part--that neither gender was very good at the other, respectively.  The feeling was that they were more likely to read a male author's contributions in female dominated genres if that man wrote under either a gender neutral pen name, or one of a woman, both of which are common.  Once that--I hesitate to use the word deception, but lets be frank--had been accepted, and the work judged for itself, the readers were more likely to accept the author, even if they were to find out it was a man.  Now, don't get me wrong, this happens in the opposite direction as well, with women authors in male dominated genres.
     My big question, I suppose, is why we, as a species, do this.  Why does there have to be a conflict.
     If you were to read my new book, which is written first person, from a woman's point of view, would you automatically discount the character, thinking that I, as a man, cannot properly write that character.
     When it comes down to it, that is the only real reason I am considering coming up with a pen name, to give that character a fair chance of being accepted for who she is.  I don't really care if some readers think I'm too much a Jack-of-all-trades, because, let's face it, I am.  I don't really care if some people will be turned off the erotic elements in the story and may judge my other works because of that.  I mean, sure, I want to be successful as a writer, and to be that, I need to make money doing it.  But, bottom line, the real reason is I want that character, and that story, to be judged on their own merits, and not by the person who happened to write them.
       
2 Comments
Julia West link
4/12/2013 11:05:50 am

There are plenty of romance writers who are male and write under female (or gender neutral) pen names. I don't think there's really anything wrong with that, if having a non-male name makes the book appeal more to female readers (who for the most part are the audience for romance books). As you stated, there are several things going here. One is the erotic element in this new novel. I personally prefer my reading a bit less spicy, so I'd hesitate to read it. But if I was at a book store (online or brick-and-mortar) and saw a new novel by a writer whose earlier work I had enjoyed, I'd grab it and go, "Hey, a new Arthur Roberg! I must buy this." Maybe it's just me, but I often don't read cover blurbs when buying a work by someone I "know." And then I might be put off that it *was* more erotic than the earlier books.

I've had this same quandary for my novels. I tend to write both science fiction and fantasy, rather interchangeably. It's probably because I have, since the age of six, *read* both rather interchangeably. So should I go for a pen name for one or the other? My published short fiction is in both genres, but I might want to separate them out for novels. What to do? What to do?

Anyway, back to your novels. I am probably not your average reader. I've been reading SF since the 50s, when it was a male-dominated field. When I started writing, I thought of taking a masculine pen name (like Andre Norton did) so that I would not get *that* gender bias. Nowadays, there doesn't seem to be as much bias against women writing SF and fantasy (although it seems people expect women to write fantasy rather than SF). Katharine Kerr (she's the one who springs to mind most readily) has published both SF and fantasy under her name. So has Lois McMaster Bujold, now that I think of it.

Don't know if any of this nattering has helped you, but at least you've got some thoughts from a long-time reader of SF and fantasy who never looks at the gender of a writer, just thinks, "I've read his/her books before and I LOVE them."

Reply
Tinney S. Heath link
4/13/2013 02:41:43 am

An interesting question, and one I've given some thought to lately. I have a gender-ambiguous name, and I've recently had my first novel published - historical fiction, 1st person POV, male protagonist. I dithered over whether to include my (obviously female) middle name, and ultimately decided to do so. In historical fiction, most readers are female, except for a sort of sub-genre in which men are writing (and reading) about Roman legions and assorted other battle-intensive topics. I wasn't doing that; in fact, I was writing about the actions of several rather remarkable women, as seen by the male main character. I've had nothing but praise for the protagonist, which makes me happy, because I think if I had been male, lived in the 13th century, and been less introverted, he's who I would have been. But I did encounter several people (young women, all) who mentioned that they only like to read historical fiction from the women's point of view. I believe they thought (1) that they were making some sort of meaningful feminist statement, and (2) that the thought was original with them. They weren't, and it wasn't. But that attitude persists, and causes problems. It did for me, even though my book was in many ways more about women than about men. Apparently you can't have a man telling the story.

As for writing from the POV of the opposite sex, I see no problem with it. We're always told to write what we know, but there are many ways of knowing. And SF/fantasy and historical fiction share a commitment to world-building, and to creating a setting that is not instantly knowable and verifiable for the reader, so I think we have to take that dictum with a grain of salt. Maybe a whole truckload of salt.

Anyway, I don't know what the best answer is, but I do know that no matter what you do, somebody won't like it. Let that be their problem, not yours, I'd say. If you present the book honestly for what it is and make an excerpt available, anyone who buys it and is disappointed in its genre or approach has only him/herself to blame. If you use another name, you've got to deal with two sets of marketing efforts, which alone was enough to deter me. One is more than I can handle.

I see Julia's point about seeing a work by a familiar author and going with certain expectations based on previous work; still, no one is required (no matter what agents say...) to write the same book several times, so caveat emptor. There's no way to adjust for everyone's preconceptions and expectations. I can tell you there's no way I'll write the same book twice, so if you're looking at one of mine, better read the blurb if you want to know what you're getting.

Good luck figuring it out!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I will find someone to write something about me here.

    Archives

    June 2016
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    August 2012
    July 2012
    November 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly