There’s an author and sometime blogger that I’ve read for twenty plus years. He has been a quite prolific author for at least the last 30 years with more than 50 published novels to his credit. He writes predominantly in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre although he did write a well received book on environmental policy that sold rather few copies. He did know what he was talking about as he had been appointed to a position with the EPA during the Reagan administration and by the end of Reagan’s two terms in office was one of only two appointees to NOT be indicted for a crime (according to him anyway).
This author’s books tend to be a bit more on the cerebral side, with lots of socio-economics, politics, gender relations, and examinations of ethics. Based on references in his books and in his blogging he appears to be either an agnostic or an atheist. I would also hazard a guess that he is pro-feminism, and a secularists to boot. He’s also very accessible to his readers and participates actively in a on-line forum dedicated to discussing his books.
A thread in this forum was started not to long ago where a reader asked him about his book sales. Whether any books sales numbers surprised him and which books sold better than others.
His response was, if anything, unsurprising. He said that his books that featured female leads sold quite fewer copies than his books with male lead characters. There was one reply to this alleging sexism. Another lamenting the fact that men don’t enjoy reading books with female lead characters as much as women are willing to read books with male leads.
A few months back this author was lamenting the changes to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. He was stating that he was having to work ‘harder’ to just make the same amount of money he used to make 10 years ago. Harder would be writing three books a year instead of two. In essence none of his books were selling as well as they used to.
I have several thoughts on both of these items.
Visiting a Barnes and Noble or one of the other remaining chain stores and the first thing to strike me is that the new releases for the last several years have been dominated by urban fantasy of the vampire and werewolf porn variety. The hard science fiction and the more cerebral writers are still around, but their numbers appear to be dwindling. Male authors in the genre are being supplanted by a cadre of women of varying skill writing ‘romance novels with magic.’
Getting back to the author mentioned above. His audience and his style of writing would appear to appeal to men and boys more than to women. The romance in his novels is typically muted or nonexistent. His themes typically involve men and women who are forced by events to make a choice (often the best of many bad choices) in order to save the day. Heroes acting like heroes.
His novels involving women heroes typically have a feminist bent. Men behaving badly and strong women who are or will beat some sense into them. Most often gender differences in strength, speed, and stamina are never considered. Women warriors that can whip the men around them are so typical. It is enough to snap me out of my suspension of disbelief, enough to distract me from the story. It is also why the last few novels he’s written with a female lead I’ve either not read, or stopped reading after a hundred pages or so.
