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Do female writers still need to hide their gender behind pen names?
In the 19th century it was common for women to adopt male pen names to ease the path to publishing. "George Eliot" was really Mary Ann Evans.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, women have managed to sell millions of books without hiding their gender.
I just looked at nine NYTimes bestsellers lists, and in almost every category authors with female names had two out of the top five positions. That's nothing to be ashamed of; and it may be that if I examined bigger lists and lists that spanned more time, that women would have higher percentages.
Wikipedia says (and you don't have to believe it) that Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare are tied for first place in the number of fiction books sold (between 2 and 4 billion each).
Nevertheless, some female writers hide behind gender-neutral identities. Joanne (J. K.) Rowling has apparently sold more than 400 million books. On this forum, we have J. Lang Wood, DJ Young and DC Stanfa. My friend Christy Pinheiro writes as C. Pinheiro.
So ladies, what's the story? Do you still think that agents, publishers and readers will reject you if they know you don't have the X chromosome like us guys?
Michael N. Marcus
-- president of the Independent Self-Publishers Alliance (formed on 1/11/10), http://www.independentselfpublishers.org
-- author of "Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don’t be a Victim of a Vanity Press," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981661742
-- author of "Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults)," coming 4/1/10. http://www.silversandsbooks.com/storiesbookinfo.html
-- http://BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
-- http://www.SilverSandsBooks.com
-- president of the Independent Self-Publishers Alliance (formed on 1/11/10), http://www.independentselfpublishers.org
-- author of "Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don’t be a Victim of a Vanity Press," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981661742
-- author of "Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults)," coming 4/1/10. http://www.silversandsbooks.com/storiesbookinfo.html
-- http://BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
-- http://www.SilverSandsBooks.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael N. Marcus on -
So, if there is real discrimination against female writers, wouldn't it be better for Charlotte Naomi Perkins to write as Charles N. Perkins rather than C. N. Perkins?
So many women are now mimicking J. K. Rowling, that when I see an author's name expressed with initials, I _assume_ the writer is a woman. The camouflage is so common that it has become an identifier.
In the 20th century, some famous male authors such as J. R. R. Tolkein and E. B. White used initials, but the pattern seems to be less common with men who are writing now,
In some specialized fields, the perceived gender of the author could help or hurt. I assume that a bodice-ripping chick-lit book from Harlequin would have trouble if the author was listed as Chuck rather than Charlotte or Max rather than Maria. But if I'm shopping for a cook book, or a book about travel, finances, poker, history or almost anything else, gender just doesn't matter to me.
I certainly don't reject books if I see "N" instead of Nancy or Norman. I just find it amusing, and am surprised and disappointed that it still seems to be necessary.
But I'm a feminist, so maybe I'm not the typical book buyer.
Michael N. Marcus
-- president of the Independent Self-Publishers Alliance, http://www.independentselfpublishers.org
-- author of "Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don’t be a Victim of a Vanity Press," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981661742
-- author of "Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults)," coming 4/1/10. http://www.silversandsbooks.com/storiesbookinfo.html
-- http://BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
-- http://www.SilverSandsBooks.com
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Permalink Reply by DC Stanfa on
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This came up on my google alert. First of all, thank you for thrilling me by putting my name in the same paragraph as J.K. Rowling! I can't speak for the others, but the intials are not a pen name intended to disguise my gender. DC is my nickname that I have had since birth. I was only called by my real name, Denise, when I was in trouble. Which in Catholic school was a lot. So, thanks to some mean nuns, decades later I only go by DC and even dropped Denise from business cards in the 90s.
Glad to be a part of this forum. For more on how mean nuns can be funny, the first chapter of "The art Of table Dancing:Escapades Of An Irreverent Woman" is available for free on my website: http://www.dcstanfa.com
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Permalink Reply by J. Lang Wood on -
I use the initial in tribute--to all those women writers who went before and couldn't get published under their own names. I remember--in gratitude.
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