Women are by far the biggest readers of fiction (and are significantly bigger readers than men, overall). And, as a result, writers and publishers are beginning to focus more on women as the purchasers of their product.
“If I’m pitching a new novel in an editorial meeting, I have a better chance of acquiring it if I say it will appeal to women,” said Carole DeSanti, a veteran editor at Viking Penguin who has worked with such noted fiction writers as Walter Mosley, Melissa Bank and Terry McMillan. “It’s not that male readers of fiction don’t exist, but they’re less of a sure bet. And women are more promiscuous readers, willing to take risks, to read across a lot of categories. As a consequence, almost every aspect of trade book publishing has been ‘gendered.’ It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy — and it effects what writers produce.”
For retailers like Brad Zellar, co-owner of Rag and Bone, a used bookstore in Minneapolis, the consequences are evident at the till: “If I had to count on male fiction readers, I’d go broke.”
(Via Cursor.org)
So just how much does a women who is a voracious reader across most categories, but almost never reads fiction, screw up the demographics? I live to screw up the demographers.
Yes, and I read lots of fiction and very little non-. But, then, most of my friends are a sigma or two off of the mean.