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Fempub

Brian Niemeier

May be a better name for the dying New York publishing cartel than oldpub.

Data courtesy of author Ben Cheah:

Some significant context: digging under the following data points turned up that it predominantly applies to oldpub. In that regard, they make for a pretty accurate snapshot of oldpub’s readership ca. 2014.

What do we find?

At first blush, it’s not unreasonable to look at these numbers and conclude that oldpub’s catering to female readers is just a common sense reaction to market forces. After all, if most of your customers are women, your products should target them.
With all respect to Ben, this explanation puts the cart before the horse. It’s not that men don’t like to read. We know they love to read. Male-targeted fiction dominated pop culture during the reign of the pulps. It took frustrated lit fic authors-turned-editors at NYC houses to suppress men’s adventure fiction and usher in the pink revolt.
A former oldpub editor explains what happened:

 

In my opinion, this empty excuse of ‘Men Don’t Read’ has begotten a vicious cycle. I was hesitant to write this article, mainly because in no way do I want to be perceived as diminishing the talents of many, many brilliant women in publishing, nor do I believe that there is a true ‘gender bias’. A bias insinuates some sort of malice, a purposeful exclusion of a segment of society for selfish or ignorant reasons. Those kind of insinuations are not the aim of this piece, nor are they my opinions in any way. This is a critique of the system, not those who work within it.

This NPR piece three years ago came to the conclusion that women read more fiction than men by a 4-1 margin. Articles like this madden me because I think they miss the big picture, or perhaps are even ignoring it purposefully. It’s like discussing global warming, while completely ignoring the fact that hey, maybe we have something to do with it.

Nobody can deny the fact that most editorial meetings tend to be dominated by women. Saying the ratio is 75/25 is not overstating things. So needless to say when a male editor pitches a book aimed at men, there are perilously few men to read it and give their opinions. Not to mention that, because there are so few men, the competition to buy books aimed at men is astronomical. I was once shot down in an effort to buy a sports humor book because I couldn’t get the support of a senior editor. The reason? This editor had written a similar book proposal on submission and didn’t want to hurt his chances of selling it.

Men read. Tons of them do. But they are not marketed to, not targeted, and often totally dismissed. Go to a book conference, a signing. Outside of a Tucker Max event, what percentage of attendees are men? 

 

This editor’s Death Cult membership aside–it’s serendipitous that his verbal contortions over the word bias reveals his own bias–he correctly identifies the Men Don’t Read canard as a self-fulfilling oldpub prophecy.
The New York houses used to publish fiction that men liked to read. Now they don’t. It doesn’t take a marketing whiz to see why most of their readers are now women.
But contra Mr. Editor lip-synching to the progressive pieties, there is clear and open bias behind oldpub’s shunning of men. He rightly acknowledges that men love to read just as much as women. Then he ignores the 75-25 elephant in editorial. Does he think women just like editing more?
Spouting blatant untruths like that is just another humiliation ritual. Mr. Editor is hanging a Workers of the World Unite! star in his storefront.
Of course there’s a purposeful, malice-driven exclusion of male readers from oldpub. The mass exodus of those readers has the Big Five circling the drain while lining newpub’s pockets. Oldpub can only be alienating male readers out of malice or stupidity.
It’s not like the fempub crowd makes a secret of their hatred for men. Here’s one of their former darlings issuing a fatwa against books by the Death Cult’s enemies.
Suffice it to say, don’t give money to people who hate you. Consider supporting the work of authors who strive to serve that forgotten male audience by writing explosive adventure books.
Like the latest entry in my thrilling Combat Frame XSeed series.
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