Branded as "chick-lit"

[DMB]

Today's Guardian has a rant by a woman author about the habit of publishers of classifying all women's fiction as "chick-lit", with the accompanying soppy covers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...womens-fiction

On Wednesday night, I launched my sixth novel. In doing so, I unceremoniously ditched the HarperCollins imprint that has published my last three books. Dramatic? Yes. Risky? Yes. Unnecessary? No...

...The term "women's fiction" has been adopted by publishers and retailers alike as a shorthand for fiction that involves shopping sprees, bodily insecurities and the hunt for Mr Right. No – hang on. That's "chick lit", isn't it?

This is the problem. The line that used to define "chick lit" as a sub-genre of women's fiction has blurred, giving publishers the authority to brand huge swathes of fiction in pink and green swirly covers, on the assumption that this is what women want. As Margaret Carroll, a fellow ex-HarperCollins author, put it: "Very ironic to find this is an industry run by women."

[abookreader]

Well - I can see her point.

The problem is, there are very few ground-breakers in publishing anymore because publishing is already a risky and increasingly unprofitable business. A huge percentage of books lose money. Publishers instead desperately try to stick to tried and true formulas

Bridget Jones - Blockbuster, give me 9 more of those!
Twilight - Holy Crap did you see that, do that again!!!!

So any author/agent/editor that is trying to get a book to market almost has to try and shoehorn it into a mold "This is just like ______, only just a bit better" in order to get it published. That isn't unique to Chick Lit, sci fi, mystery, action suspense authors .... they all face the same challenge. Be unique, but be just like (Lee Child, Dan Brown, Janet Evanovich etc etc)

But really, all she needs to do is have her main character max out a credit card at a fashion designer rack sale, throw in a few references to whether or not she can fit into her skinny jeans, and one measly night where she goes out on the town with her pack of 3 best friends (at least one of whom is a gay male), gets smashingly drunk, and wakes up in naked in bed the next morning with the highly unsuitable and irresponsible yet perfectly attractive pretty boy of her college year fantasies. There ya go, instant chick lit!

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by abookreader

But really, all she needs to do is have her main character max out a credit card at a fashion designer rack sale, throw in a few references to whether or not she can fit into her skinny jeans, and one measly night where she goes out on the town with her pack of 3 best friends (at least one of whom is a gay male), gets smashingly drunk, and wakes up in naked in bed the next morning with the highly unsuitable and irresponsible yet perfectly attractive pretty boy of her college year fantasies. There ya go, instant chick lit!

For bonus points, there should be a reference to one or more Jane Austen characters.

[xg4bx]

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

[OneandonlyDoc]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

Yeeeah...I like my 'chick lit' to come with swords, magic, space combat, shoot-outs, and characters that aren't perfect. Both male and female.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

Pretty much dead these days - pulpy sort of stuff. It's been squeezed out by chick lit and the rest have seemingly migrated to comic books.

Even formerly male orientated genres like fantasy/sword&sorcery have largely been replaced by paranormal romance and urban fantasy. About the only thing left aimed mostly at men is military SF.

[jhempel24]

guy lit = Don Pendleton's The Executioner.....They were the inspiration behind The Punisher comic books...the early books are freaking awesome!!

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

guy lit = Don Pendleton's The Executioner.....They were the inspiration behind The Punisher comic books...the early books are freaking awesome!!

Are those the Mack Bolan books? I used to love those. Terribly, wonderfully addictive to read.

[DMB]

I've always assumed books like this are guy-lit. It was also turned into a film.

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

...Even formerly male orientated genres like fantasy/sword&sorcery have largely been replaced by paranormal romance and urban fantasy. ...

Paranormal. Now there is a sub-genre I love to hate. Soft porn and talks about our feelings. Brrrrr.

I'd better go read some John Ringo...

[OneandonlyDoc]

...wow, there are some bitter gents around here!

[OtterBooks]

So, in order to get some free press, the author of such titles as It's a Man's World (But it takes a woman to run it) is pretending to care about people labeling her garbage appropriately. k. And in bizarro fashion tries to state that "women's fiction" is somehow not chick-lit. Is it the hyphen?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

if i was a woman i'd be insulted by the "chick lit" label period. the "chicks" i know read horror and science fiction, not every woman wants soft&fuzzy literature. a pandering label like that is a disgrace.

whats "guy lit", books about football dipped in motor oil and old spice?

I agree. The more things change.... I understand women authors who wrote science fiction in the early part of the last century had similar problems. i.e. women can't write science fiction and so on. Of course they did write it often using a pen name I imagine. While I imagine many women do read books that are now considered chick lit you can't really pigeon hole anyone's reading tastes by their gender or age.

[Andrew H.]

Guy lit: most thrillers - Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum, early Ken Follett, even early John LeCarre.

This genre hasn't really regained its footing (IMO) since the end of the cold war - having the fate of the world world in the balance, and/or pitting two fundamentally different (or are they? see LeCarre...) societies against each other makes for some powerful situations.

Also, since far more adult women read than men, the market for guy-lit isn't as compelling. Dan Brown's oeuvre could be described as "thrillers," but not particularly "masculine" ones. I don't recall Jason Bourne or Mack Bolan spending much time in a *museum.*

It's interesting that the author of the rant isn't objecting to the existence of the "chick-lit" genre (which is good, since "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "The Nanny Diaries" and similar books are clearly a genre), but is objecting to the fact that other books about women are being put into the same genre.

[Nyssa]

I personally don't care about the term "chick-lit", as it does not determine whether or not I'll read the book. If the story sounds interesting I'll read it. That being said, when I hear "chick-lit" there are two automatic assumptions that come to mind:

1. One or more of the main characters is a woman.

2. Strong friendships and/or romance may be involved.

I have never actually equated the word "chick-lit" with the gender of the author. In fact, I've never read anything, except for maternity books, where I've cared about the gender of the author. Its not that important to me.