So Many Female eBook Authors!

[patrickt]

Writing books is not a way to earn extra income. You'd do better digging ditches.

There are more women than men writing in the world of fiction.

Perhaps women have an option of writing while someone else pays the bills.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Perhaps women have an option of writing while someone else pays the bills.

Oink.

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by Fbone

For the stay-at-home mom writing novels while the children are at school or during nap time is a excellent way for them to help with the family budget while maintaining her writing skills perhaps learned at college.

With the rising cost of daycare it is only natural that more mothers remain home and find enterprising ways to earn extra income.

Thats the way my wife chooses to handle it in my house. She is a stay at home mom but does small jobs on the side like cleaning a friends house or making hairbows for friends and family, for a little extra cash.

[GraceKrispy]

Hmm... I don't doubt that to be true (or untrue), as I certainly haven't done the numbers, but I feel as thought the ebooks I've been reading are pretty equally divided, maybe even with male authors coming out in more numbers. But then again, I don't read a lot of straight romance.

I have certainly noticed some gender lines along genre, with some genres having more males and some having more female authors.

[Rhynedahll]

Well, I don't have anything scientific to add, just my own impressions.

As far as the community of online indie writers: predominantly female.

Reasons for this?

My thought is that the general readership for all genres has shifted toward a feminine majority and this might tend to encourage more female writers.

From my perspective as a male indie writer, it also seems to me that the broad general preferences of female readers tends toward subject matter that must be lumped in the general category of romance, no matter what other genre it might be wrapped in.

I am old enough to have read mainstream SF & F in the sixties, and it seems clear to me that plots and themes have moved from male oriented to female oriented since then.

Interestingly enough, literature in France in the middle ages underwent a similar change from martial male oriented long poems to the decidedly artificial courtly romance.

[DreamWriter]

There have been some interesting posts here.

I do think that genre definitely plays a role in the male/female author balance. My father-in-law was a writer who published his romance novels using a female pseudonym. That was some years ago, and I don't know if that's done as often these days.

[LaurieGator]

Maybe I am in the minority with my opinion...

To me, I never notice if the person who wrote the book that I am reading is a male or a female. In fact, lots of the authors that I am reading use initials instead of a name so I couldn't tell if they were male or female unless I did research on the author.

I just like reading authors who write good books. :-)

[daqddyo1]

I'm pleased to have started such an interesting discussion.
I went to the Chapters Indigo bookstore (a Canadian enterprise) website and in their list of the "top 50" books, slightly more than half of the books were authored by female writers.
I guess this is the way it is these days. You go girls!

daqddyo1

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Oink.

I said that maybe women had an option of writing while someone else pays the bills. My wife did. I know a lot of women who did. So, why did that get an "oink"?

Oh, that's right. We're supposed to pretend, aren't we?

[dadioflex]

Originally Posted by Rhynedahll

Well, I don't have anything scientific to add, just my own impressions.

As far as the community of online indie writers: predominantly female.

Reasons for this?

My thought is that the general readership for all genres has shifted toward a feminine majority and this might tend to encourage more female writers.

From my perspective as a male indie writer, it also seems to me that the broad general preferences of female readers tends toward subject matter that must be lumped in the general category of romance, no matter what other genre it might be wrapped in.

I am old enough to have read mainstream SF & F in the sixties, and it seems clear to me that plots and themes have moved from male oriented to female oriented since then.

Interestingly enough, literature in France in the middle ages underwent a similar change from martial male oriented long poems to the decidedly artificial courtly romance.

I think you nailed it. Women read far more than men so it's only natural they write more as well.

I kinda miss the days of the "Boys Own Adventure". I read a fair amount of YA and it's really obvious that you can't have a story that isn't wrapped in a romance and usually some kind of love triangle.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I said that maybe women had an option of writing while someone else pays the bills. My wife did. I know a lot of women who did. So, why did that get an "oink"?

Oh, that's right. We're supposed to pretend, aren't we?

Unless you can provide more evidence than a 'my wife does' for your earlier statement, I'm going to repeat - Oink.

I'm not even sure that the OP's correct that there are more women writers than men, but if there are, it's not because women as a whole have more leisure time than men.

I have a friend who worked while her husband tried to create games, but if I said the reason there are more men game designers than women is because men let their wives support them, you'd think I was nuts, wouldn't you?

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Unless you can provide more evidence than a 'my wife does' for your earlier statement, I'm going to repeat - Oink.

I'm not even sure that the OP's correct that there are more women writers than men, but if there are, it's not because women as a whole have more leisure time than men.

I have a friend who worked while her husband tried to create games, but if I said the reason there are more men game designers than women is because men let their wives support them, you'd think I was nuts, wouldn't you?

I'll see your oink and raise you a suuuueeeeee!!!!! I supported a husband and two kids when he decided to take 2 years off to write a book and we could ill afford it at the time

[=X=]

Do you have any numbers to support this, not just a casual observation you've made?

The reason is some generes are more dominated by some genders than others. Most of the books I read are dominated by males, but for me that is not enough evidence to make a claim ether gender has the whole market.

[daqddyo1]

Just what I have observed at many ebook sellers sites, the up-front listins are dominated by female authors (which what I also found at the "top 50" listing of a local bookstore's website sales).

I imagine if you can select from an ebook seller's site for fiction/suspense or fiction/adventure, there might be more male authors listed.

daqddyo1

[Rhynedahll]

Again, not scientific:

I'm having a book giveaway on Goodreads and just by names it's running around five female signeruppers for every male.