Authors who use just initials in their name.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I still think it's simply that women generally prefer to read about women, and men prefer to read about men.

To a certain extent that is true. But I also think it might be more complicated than that. For us to like the protagonist, to care about his/her success or failure, we need a way to identify with them in some way. It doesn't HAVE to be gender related.

I think back to the heroine(s) in "The Wind-Up Girl". Who hasn't felt prostituted out at times by circumstances and the power structure? And who hasn't had to figure out a way to work around corporate or governmental bureaucracy more interested in feathering its own nest than it is in doing good? I've never been a bio-engineered dog-girl working the red light district, or a female cop tasked with defending the corrupt status quo, but I could relate to those women.

Actually, I think the reason I liked that story so much was the great plot AND our almost complete understanding of the protagonists motivations.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

To a certain extent that is true. But I also think it might be more complicated than that. For us to like the protagonist, to care about his/her success or failure, we need a way to identify with them in some way. It doesn't HAVE to be gender related.

I think back to the heroine(s) in "The Wind-Up Girl" Who hasn't felt prostituted out at times by circumstances and the power structure? And who hasn't had to figure out a way to work around corporate or governmental bureaucracy more interested in feathering its own nest than it is in doing good? I've never been a bio-engineered dog-girl working the red light district, or a female cop tasked with defending the corrupt status quo, but I could relate to those women.

Actually, I think the reason I liked that story so much was the great plot AND our almost complete understanding of the protagonists motivations.

Sure, I agree with you. I'm just saying that the first, simplest, and most obvious point of reference is probably gender for most of us.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Well, it isn't such a blatant and obvious ploy that makes me wonder if I'm being played for a chump. When you encounter a new author, and you see "Ellis Peters" or even "George Elliot", I would assume most people accept some guy named "Ellis" or "George" wrote the thing. Maybe it's the useless transparency of this "marketing ploy" that I object to the most.

Some of it is a carry over from times when it was considered less than respectable for a woman to be an author.

Me I don't care about an authors gender or race or age etc. , I either like it or I don't. Same as I don't care about who made products or rendered other service based on those issues, and if they want to use initials, or a psuedonym, well why not, for whatever reason. Many men write romances under female names, and many authors have different names for different genres, with no desire to trick the consumer.

I even know people who go by there initials instead of given name, and it has always been a fairly common practice in the business world, J. P. Morgan comes to mind.

Helen

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

It always seems to be women writers trying to hide their gender. At least that's how it FEELS to me, and I feel a bit insulted by it. (OK, CS Lewis is an exception)

H. G. Wells
JRR Tolkien

[speakingtohe]

I am greedy. I want both plot and characters to be great.

I have gone through short phases in my life where I looked for male aythors, or female authors. This was because I read several books by that gender of author and really liked them, but I soon discovered that there were pretty much as many of each gender that produced either trash or treasure.

I like a good plot, a satisfactory conclusion, characters I can relate to, a smidgeon of romance is generally a good thing, but not a necessity, humour/wit is always a bonus, although again not a necessity.

Cliffhanger/to be continued endings really put me off as do cardboard characters who only focus on their mission.

As an aside, I have a friend who prefers books where the authors name is bigger than the title on the book cover, as he figures they must be good

Helen

Perhaps I'm reading the wrong sorts of books; by the overwhelming majority, authors in my personal collection who use their initials are mostly men. In fact, the only female who uses her initials is J.K. Rowling. But then - I couldn't care less about the gender of the author, and I only peeked because of this conversation. For the record, however, I am a female with a staggering number of male authors in my collections and comparatively few female authors. A number of male authors who've used their initials in their nom de plumes:

H.G. Wells, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.D. Salinger, R.A. Salvatore, H. Rider Haggard, F. Scott Fitzgerald, F. Marion Crawford, R.M. Ballantyne.

[Joykins]

Some people go by their initials normally. Perhaps because they have a dorky sounding name like "Clive Staples" or because "D.J." sounds cool.

A lot of people use a pseudonym for various reasons. I don't think adopting initials is really any different. Having married into a last name now that is difficult to pronounce, I can understand the many reasons an author might want to do this.

The authors I read tend to skew female. Possibly the majority of books sold (genre romance?) are written predominantly by women for women.

I also read m/m romance, and there are a lot of authors in that genre using initials. Again, this is a genre mostly written by women for women but it seems like there is a desire to either be a little gender neutral or preserve the illusion that the author could be male (an illusion usually lost the first time you read "about the author").

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by oGorgeous

Perhaps I'm reading the wrong sorts of books; by the overwhelming majority, authors in my personal collection who use their initials are mostly men. In fact, the only female who uses her initials is J.K. Rowling. But then - I couldn't care less about the gender of the author, and I only peeked because of this conversation. For the record, however, I am a female with a staggering number of male authors in my collections and comparatively few female authors. A number of male authors who've used their initials in their nom de plumes:

H.G. Wells, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.D. Salinger, R.A. Salvatore, H. Rider Haggard, F. Scott Fitzgerald, F. Marion Crawford, R.M. Ballantyne.

Mostly older authors no longer concerned with marketing their work, and please recall that I never said NO male writers use initials, just that it is common enough for women writing something other than Romances that it is reasonable to assume that a new writer to you who uses initials IS a woman.

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Mostly older authors no longer concerned with marketing their work, and please recall that I never said NO male writers use initials, just that it is common enough for women writing something other than Romances that it is reasonable to assume that a new writer to you who uses initials IS a woman.

I've disagreed with you; re-stating your point exactly as it was in the first post isn't going to shed any new light on my opinion of the subject, and is a tactic to imply that I didn't pay attention, not a tactic to further discussion. I don't feel that initials are in any way indicative of the gender of any given author.

[DiapDealer]

I. R. Pissed

[FizzyWater]

R. U. Really?

(Sorry, just couldn't resist)

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by oGorgeous

I've disagreed with you; re-stating your point exactly as it was in the first post isn't going to shed any new light on my opinion of the subject, and is a tactic to imply that I didn't pay attention, not a tactic to further discussion. I don't feel that initials are in any way indicative of the gender of any given author.

OK. . . .

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Some people go by their initials normally. Perhaps because they have a dorky sounding name like "Clive Staples" or because "D.J." sounds cool.

I can also see people using initials or pseudonyms if their names are not fit for the market they are writing for. If you've got an someone called "Visawenitadanaram Karishinerenamenanarar" (this fictive name might actually not be too far off where some Indian names are concerned.... :P) who is writing books for the English-speaking market, I can fully understand if the name on the book would be "V. Karishin", or "Visa Karish" or something.

[Apache]

Our store name is my wife's first initial and maiden last name. It sounds better than mine. I am constantly amazed at the number of people who think it is my name on the front of our store.
Apache

[CWatkinsNash]

A quote from my roommate regarding a book he ordered and received sometime last week:

"I don't usually read books by chicks, but I just checked out her photo in the back, and she's pretty hot. Seems smart, too."

No, I'm not claiming he is representative of anyone other than himself, I just thought it was funny in the context of this discussion. He's not normally sexist, obviously, or I wouldn't have been able to share a house with him for the past 13 years. Interestingly, his father, who is 82, adores Harlequin romances, which he "discovered" after retirement.

I do know another guy who says he prefers books by men, but when asked why, he can't explain. He just continues to stick with books that are (or that he believes are) written by men because he believes he prefers them, though he has made no actual effort to read books by female authors for comparison.

Again, not indicative of anything. Just anecdotal examples.