An open question... I have just got back from the USA, and in a large branch of Barnes and Noble, saw the following on display:

1) A table labelled "Good Reads for Mom", carrying books with pastel covers, domestic animals on covers, and 'heartwarming tales of love and devotion' (that's a quote from one cover...)and books on religion that looked sacccharine.

2)A table labelled "Good Reads for the Man of the House", carrying books on DIY, cars, all kinds of sport, politics, war tales, "tales of bravery and endurance" (thats's a quote too), history, travel...religion.

I thought I'd ask... when you wrtite, do you have a 'Mom' figure or a 'Man of the HOuse' figure in your head as the ideal reader..?

Vanessa

Hi Vanessa
I know I would never pick up a DIY book, that's for sure!
I read somewhere that middle aged, middle class women are the main audience for crime novels, which is my genre. (I presume the people that compiled those stats weren't including political crime and espionage novels in their calculations - I think they may come under 'thrillers'?)anyway, in answer to your question I don't write with middle class women in mind (I think they'd find parts of the story grim/gritty) but I do have, if you like, communters in mind when I picure the readership, and I would hope that would include men as well as women.

Interesting question, Vanessa.

It seems a common way to market books, and many other things.

I do have someone in mind when I write - someone either male or female, but like me in other respects.

My MC is male and isn't getting on with his wife, and I find that men tend to sympathise with him and women more with her. Since my MC is the male one I wonder if therefore my book will work better for male readers..? I think I have quite a male brain which is why it doesn't matter to me.

Deb

I enjoy crime novels, occasionally. I've just read Keepers of Truth by Michael Collins... very very good, engaging, snappy writing, a real page turner and deals with a much wider topic... makes a valid and poignant social comment.


But nope... there were no crime novels.. nothing to 'get your teeth into' at all, on the "Mom" table. Maybe they reckon that women lose their brains when they have children? (Actually, not far from the truth, here! I put a pair of shoes in the fridge last week...))

I was thinking about it afterwards, (the book tables) and thinking how many of my stories could be said to appeal to one sex more than the other. I have to hold my hand up and say I think mostly, it is female readers (Moms or no) who would elect to read my work.

I know there's a thread elsewhere arguing about chick-lit... I am definitely not a chick...

so

Is there something called 'old boiler' lit?

Vanessa

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1475630,00.html

That display sounds to me like one aimed at people who aren't natural book-buyers. It's all very well the likes of us effortlessly de-coding covers and titles and book-shop categories to find things which are what I'd call a promising challenge, but much of the world finds bookshops very daunting. As such, you'd expect the books put under those two categories to be 'safe' choices - nothing too pink or emotional for the blokes, nothing too violent or mechanical for the women.

I don't have a reader in mind when I write, though: I write what I want to find in a book. But though I'm a middle-class woman heading for middle age, my novels are full of military history which is about as 'male' a subject as it gets, and half the time I have male character-narrators.

Emma

Any book table labelled ‘good reads for Mom’ or ‘good reads for the man about the house’ risks me projectile vomiting all over it. Or, alternatively, taking a blunt axe to the shop’s manager. How sodding patronising is that!

Dee

Tori, you make me laugh when you say how middle-aged middle-class women would find your stories 'grim and gritty'. I checked to see how old you were and I was right. Most middle-aged middle-class women who read probably would think nothing of the sort. Most of the best 'grim and gritty' crime stuff is written by that said group after all!

Ha Ha! I thought that as I wrote the comment, although we're still outnumbered by our male peers. However, I think that some crime novels are more explicit than others, in some the violence is implied rather than detailed. A comment Emma made in an earlier thread interested me. She stated something about being advised that men don't buy books with 'love' in the title (that was the gist, Emma?)and then someone else made the comment about men not buying books written by women (I can't remember who said that). I carried out a straw poll of friends and found to my disappointment that those observations were correct. Even my hubby who really enjoyed Emma's TMOL (Which I bought) admitted that when he goes into a bookshop he does tend to buy books written by men (out of habit really). I'll probably get my legs slapped but my favourite crime writers are male too (although is it fair to even think of the sex of the author - I hadn't thought of its importance until now). I'm sure there are exceptions but on the whole you can tell whether a book has been written by a man (certainly in crime, I can't speak for other genres)and that was one of the reasons that compelled me to write, to create the kind of novel I like to read (with a bit more emphasis on the victim's families, rather than just, 'jane doe 1, Jane doe 2' case closed, etc etc. We're rarely given time to care about the victims. I'm generalising so please don't take offence anyone, some of the most successful american writers produce this kind of work so what do I know? Feedback in the early days from agents was they liked my writing but wanted more hard hitting crime so that's why I say my stuff may appear a bit dark in parts. I'd certainly hate to think that 50% of crime readers wouldn't even consider my work just because of the name on the cover....but then as I'm still unpublished it may be a problem I never have to worry about!....

I don’t have a problem with these displays. They’re not for me, but some people do respond to them and I think that’s fine. It doesn’t surprise me crime novels were not included alongside them tho’. Speaking of which, I’ve newly discovered Icelandic crime (mystery?) author, Arnaldur Indridason. ‘Silence of the Grave’ (Random House / Vintage) which arrived this morning has a very dark, brooding cover. The novel begins:

“He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing it.”

Clearly nothing pastel about that! It would be out of place on those B&N marketing tables. Not a safe or light choice at all. (If anyone’s interested, here’s the guardian interview: Northern Exposure )

--ps
Answering the original question, my novel’s protag is male and my ideal reader - who may be male or female - takes that on its merits, enjoys the book, and hopefully, if I’m incredibly lucky, takes something from it for keeps.

It's a valid point, that maybe the display was aimed at people who are relatively 'new' to the joys of reading.

But I found my reactions were mixed... yes, it's lovely to encourage those who havent read for pleasure in the past... but wow. What assumptions were being made, hey?

Now I'm off to my pink volume of warm, fuzzy 'getting saved from a storm by my cat' stories.

As for the gender of the protgaonists versus gender of reader... most of my stories have male protags. (That says somethng, I'm not sure what!) But rarely do they contain overt sex, violence, horror ...yet..


Maybe I ought to experiment?

vaness

--But rarely do they contain overt sex, violence, horror ...yet..

Why should they? I'm not quite with you, can you expand on that?

Yes.

Jim

Our local paper went though a phase of that 'for him' 'for her' 'for the kids' in their 'book reviews'.

Possibly still do?

Mind you, there was also a female film reviewer who seemed to rate all films on whether she fancied the leading man or not

Not that it isn't of interest but a little light comment on what the film was about might have been helpful.

sarah

Why should they? I'm not quite with you, can you expand on that?

I made th point above that I reckoned most of my work would appeal more to a female reader than a male... that despite the protags being male themselves.

I guess I was picking up on the point above that female crime writers dont necessarily include a lot of raw detail... and I was wondering if, should I grace my male protags with overet sex, violence and so forth, they might appeal more to male readers?

vast oversimplification, I know...I am now waiting for the flack!

vanessa