Author's gender: are you biased?

[Krystian Galaj]

I expect most of the books I currently read are by male authors, because I read public domain books, and there were many more male then female authors when they were written.

I usually have no idea whether the author of what I read is/was male or female - it doesn't show from the text for me, and I don't care.

[ravenne]

After checking my book shelves and my reader I voted for #1.

[LazyScot]

I don't *think* I have a preference, but after a quick check of shelves and e-books, I do have more male authors than female, but it is genre specific. SciFi, etc tends to male dominated. Crime tends to be female dominated (now *that* surprised me). Non-fiction tends to be about 50/50, as are my other fiction books not in the category above.

[Daithi]

I generally believe that white males are by far the greatest authors and I voted accordingly.

Kidding, I just felt like stirring the pot. I actually agree with pdurrant who said there should have been an option that said, "I don't care about the author's gender, and I've no idea what ratio my books have."

I have a lot of books written by both men and women. I like vampire books written for teenage girls and about 90% of these books are written by women. However, most of my boring non-fiction books seem to be written by men.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You missed an option.

"I don't care about the author's gender, and I've no idea what ratio my books have"

That would be my choice.......absolutely.

[Sweetpea]

I can't vote...

I don't care about gender and generally, I've no idea either... There were some authors I first thought were male (or female) but were writing under a pseudonym and turned out to be female. So, I've absolutely no idea what I read more, male or female...

[mjh215]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

George Eliot?

lol, no it wasn't... Actually I think it was Andre Norton... I believe I kept thinking of it like Andre the Giant...

-MJ

[LazyScot]

Originally Posted by mjh215

lol, no it wasn't... Actually I think it was Andre Norton... I believe I kept thinking of it like Andre the Giant...

-MJ

Julian May? I still have arguments to check that one. <pauses. quickly runs over to wikipedia.>

[Sweetpea]

May is a pseudonym, that's all I know...

*runs to wikipedia as well*



Edit:

or thought I knew... But apparently, it is her real name....

[no.guru]

Can't believe I'm the only vote in my category.

[LazyScot]

Originally Posted by no.guru

Can't believe I'm the only vote in my category.

It was an intrgiuing question, largely because I didn't expect to be in the category I found myself in. Whether that means I'm biased, or whether publishers are biased (after all, J.K. uses J.K., reportedly, as the publisher was scared a woman's name would alienate male readers), or the authors are biased (in what they write), I have no idea!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

It was an intrgiuing question, largely because I didn't expect to be in the category I found myself in. Whether that means I'm biased, or whether publishers are biased (after all, J.K. uses J.K., reportedly, as the publisher was scared a woman's name would alienate male readers), or the authors are biased (in what they write), I have no idea!

i do have to wonder whether there is some inherent bias in publishing, particularly by genre ; for instance, i would expect that for example in the military science fiction genre, a male author would have more implicit "street cred" than a female author, whether or not this is conscious or not, whereas in romance for example women writers would be seen as more credible. and i was also a bit surprised that in the crime genre women are perhaps more common than men, although when i think about it quite a few of my favorite mystery authors are women (i also like some men authors though). and of course pseudonyms complicate the question ; Fred Vargas has made no secret that she's a woman, and that is her real name (it's quite common for women named Frédérique to be nicknamed Fred) but nonetheless, someone who sees one of her books for the first time without knowing anything about her might assume she was a man.

on the other hand, i also think that the bias was probably much more marked in previous years and the industry is slowly becoming more egalitarian. the remark by Krystian about reading mostly pd authors who are predominantly male is a very good point ; someone mentioned George Eliot, who was forced to use a male pseudonym in order to get published. there are probably quite a lot of people in that situation, and depending on the genre and the era it could go both ways (i have to suppose there must be at least a few male romance writers ; do they use a female pseudonym ? we've got plenty of romance readers around here, maybe someone could give us some insight on that question).

[lilac_jive]

I don't care about an author's gender, but I tend to read a lot more female authors just because I read a lot of romance.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by mjh215

lol, no it wasn't... Actually I think it was Andre Norton... I believe I kept thinking of it like Andre the Giant...

-MJ

Wasn't there an author by the name of George Sand who was female? Rather a rebel in her day......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sand

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

(i have to suppose there must be at least a few male romance writers ; do they use a female pseudonym ? we've got plenty of romance readers around here, maybe someone could give us some insight on that question).

I believe Fabio wrote a couple of romance novels, after having graced their covers for some while, although I also seem to recall some-one saying they were ghost-written...

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some of the romance writers are men using a female nom-de-plume (add yer own accent, accents and correct spelling )

Veering off on a tangent, you then get into writing partnerships - where the author name is a front for two or more writers working together - such as the crime author Nicci French (who is Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, writing together).