Be honest. Has the gender of a writer ever influenced your decision to give a book a chance? No judgement please, but open honesty would be nice.
Be honest. Has the gender of a writer ever influenced your decision to give a book a chance? No judgement please, but open honesty would be nice.
No. I’m open to all genders. As long as their writing style is good
No. Hardly ever notice.
No, I pick books based off blurbs. Sometimes by covers ?
And I pick by covers, and sometimes by blurb. ??
Well, sometimes. ?
I don’t even look at the author most times however I will always be surprised when a book I love is written by a man… sometimes I don’t expect the romance from a guy. ??♀️
Not even a little bit.
No, however I’ve always been a bit off with reading books that have male protagonist, I don’t really know why I think maybe it’s because growing up I realise now I never actually read any, I still haven’t it’s really strange I need to though, I’m just so used to certain types of books I’ve mainly always read contemporary books with female protagonists, it’s only recently I’ve began reading light fantasy pushing myself to read different genres etc so hopefully I’ll pick up one soon
Nope. I don’t pay attention to the author unless it’s one of my autobuy authors.
Xela Reece Culletto, any reason for the angry face?
Unfortunately, she won’t be notified that you asked that question.
I know. I was just hoping she would see her name and click on it
Just an accidental click as I scrolled on my phone. Sorry!
You’re fine. I was just curious
No.
Its interesting you all say no, because I would assume that if the gender doesn’t matter then there should be super famous male authors out there as well. But I can’t name one YA male author who achieved the success of Hunger Games or Mortal Instruments. So what’s wrong with them, I wonder.
Rick Riordan is pretty popular. Scott Westerfeld. Lemony Snicket. John Green also though his are realistic ya.
One of my favorite series is written by James Dashner (Maze Runner series)… I think it may have to do with writing what you know, women know what other women are wanting in a book. Since YA is typically consumed by women maybe that is why it’s a genre that generally dominated by women authors… just a guess
John Green is a well known male YA author and one I thought of off the top of my head
John Green
Again, many of these are not YA authors. What Kalli said is interesting. Women know what women want. But, food for thought, no judgment or agro, just a question, is this a case of women not willing to read something that doesn’t fit with their expectations? Just wanting the same story told again and again?
I know a lot of dudes are like that, so I reckon its the same in reverse.
I also wanna add that I typically gravitate to books for the romance in them and the Maze Runner series is definitely lacking in that area. It’s more about the struggle itself and the mystery. And the 5th wave has a male author as well I believe and I find those books very logistical… not so much romantic.
All of the authors mentioned above are YA authors.
Are we saying that women readers care more for the love interest than a complex plot of circumstance?
No, no one said that.
@Josh personally that would be my taste but not exclusively.
Elysia, I’m not, but if we give every single soul consideration we’ll be here all night. We’re talking strictly statistical.
@Josh I do find it interesting now that you pointed it out. It is a typically female dominated genre. There must be a reason for that. I’m just not sure if I can pinpoint that reason
Because at the heart this is still a YA genre built for teens. And teen girls out-read their male counterparts.
Tara, as much as I hate it, I’m afraid I have to debate that point a little bit. YA isn’t a genre. It is an age group beyond that of teen fiction. YA deals with sex, violence, etc without any of the teen filters because this is what people of this age group are now coming to into. What might be unsuitable for a teen (13-16) is better suited for YA (17-25)
@Josh I’d be interested to see a professional study on this… it’s a very intriguing thought, the reasons behind it would be really neat to see
Thanks, Kalli. =) Me too.
Young adult deals with teenage issues, new adult deals with the more mature subjects.
I personally have always hated this New Adult fad. Something which rose up because people complained that their teenage child was reading fiction with adult themes, not understanding this is a young adult book, not a teen book. Its just honestly never sat right with me that YA got lumped into the same demographic as teen fiction because it wasn’t recognised that this is adult fiction.
I’ve never heard that. I thought new adult was just centered more about college age kids as the main characters.
If its OK for me to put my two cents on this, YA was supposed to be for them. They are Young Adults, no longer teens. We don’t call them New Adults, we call them YA.
I think this is kind of nit picky. I don’t really see why it matters, to be honest. As long as the writing is good, I feel that most people would read a book no matter the age range it’s “intended” for.
I think it only matters as a parent of a teen… you should be involved and be aware of what they are consuming. As for yourself… we can like what we like regardless of the intended audience
@Elysia This is what we’re taught in library school as well. As for the classification of Teen/YA, they’re typically used interchangeably. Teen/YA books are typically 12+. Which is the way it’s also laid out by most publishers and the ALA.
Kalli, thank you, that is the point I’m making. Too many people aren’t paying attention to what their kids are doing then act surprised when they find a book with a detailed sex scene in their fourteen year olds possession, and subsequently attack the book for putting such things in a book for teens. But it wasn’t a teen’s book. It’s for older people. :'(
I don’t tend to read new adult either-it’s often contemporary and I prefer fantasy. From what I can gather it is acceptable to include sex in YA as long as it isn’t too descriptive. Violence doesn’t seem to matter too much in YA (I’ve only ever heard of sex being an issue) which is rather interesting
Sarah, would it be alright if I made a point there. The problem is that this idea that sex shouldn’t be overly descriptive in YA is because it is wrongfully believed to be aimed at people who shouldn’t yet be reading that. This is what upsets me. YA can and should have absolutely everything besides being downright porn (XD). It shouldn’t be censored for this mistake. I don’t personally mind who reads what or when, but the age group is dedicated to older than teen, you know?
@Josh I have always found that to be a silly flimsy excuse for lazy parenting. Teens needs to be monitored if parents don’t want them reading that stuff. You can’t always trust the genre itself.
Sorry, Kalli, I think I’m tired. What’s a silly, flimsy excuse for parenting?
@Josh blaming the book when you find your child reading something that’s too mature lol
Aaaah, yes. My point exactly. I feel like that’s how NA came about. People lost sight of the true demographic for YA and made a new one for Young Adults, not realising that YA is for Young Adults. :'(
I mean… Its in the name. XD
There was a book released last year called Wintersong Josh. I loved it personally but it was originally intended to be YA as it was but her agent classed it as adult due to the sex and dark themes. The publishers had her tone down the sex to market as YA.
Yeah… That’s honestly wrong, Sarah. It really shouldn’t have been. That’s unnecessary censorship. :'(
No. I choose based on covers and blurbs.
Haha guilty of cover choosing too
I definitely judge a book by its cover. I read all these recommendationa on these boards, then go look at the covers. 3/4s of them I don’t get because I dislike the covers. Oi.
Josh, what about Rick Riordan? Also, Neil Gaiman. Although he’s not strictly a YA wrote he has written a good number of them. David Levithan, Adam Silvera, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Ransom Riggs, and of course R. L. Stein.
Rick Riordan is a teen author and also still not quite the millionaire success of the others, really, or am I wrong about his success?
What do you mean by teen author? Do you mean books for teens? Because typically YA and Teen are used synonymously in regards to publishing.
Sometimes. For instance, I read a lot of scifi/fantasy, and historically male authors tend to get lost in the technical details of scifi and I find that distracting to a story. So unless I’m hearing rave reviews over something or it’s an author I already know balances the technical with the story, then I’ll pass.
That is a fantastic question. And going over my collection I read female authors more then male. I would say 90% female to 10% male. I didn’t know this!
Not one little bit. I care about good stories and characters, not author gender. I was shocked to meet someone last month who refuses to read anything by female authors–even goes so far as to research the pseudonyms and initials.
That’s psychotic.
Patrick Ness writes YA. His chaos walking trilogy is currently being adapted to film. And his book a monster calls was made into a film and is very popular
One of my all-time fave series’
Nah. I do judge third person and first person though. Can’t stand third person. Don’t know why.
I was like that too, after reading a few books in third person, I adjusted to it. Still prefer first person books LOL
And yeah, Rick Riordon is hugely successful, as well as Jeff Kinney, and Brandon Mull.
Oh yeah and Brandon Sanderson. Gender discrimination in authors is interesting. They made Rowling stick to her initials b/c they didn’t think anyone would read fantasy written by a woman.
Traditional (Non-Urban) Adult Fantasy is still a highly male dominated genre. It’s super hard for a woman to make a name for herself. You will see many women using gender neutral names.
Same for Nora Roberts, hence her pseudonym J.D Robb. Schwab uses one too.
No. I rarely notice the authors name nevermind gender. (Unless I am looking for a specific authors book)
I think there are more female authors out there in the YA market honestly. So them being more famous is just because they come from a bigger pool.
Male authors still dominate on a wider basis, so I wouldn’t lose any sleep over there being more female YA authors. Let us have this one success!! https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/oct/19/male-writers-still-dominate-book-reviews-and-critic-jobs-vida-study-finds
Nope. I’ve never read something because of an author. I choose books that sound good.
Ailsa, no one is trying to take any achievements of the fairer sex. I promise it was just a query.
I can’t say so. I think male authors used to be the majority, and I think because of that changing I am currently reading more female authors…especially because the majority of my preferred genres (YA fantasy and psych thrillers) are female authors at this particular moment. Growing up my favorites were Ann Martin (Baby-Sitters Club) and R.L. Stine (Goosebumps). I don’t have a favorite right now, but my two faves of 2018 so far have been Sarah Glenn Marsh (Reign of the Fallen) and Adam Silvera (They Both Die at the End). I don’t select books based off of authors gender and a good author can tell a story from either perspective.
Sometimes I’ll get nervous that a male author won’t get the mushy romance stuff right (that I need like air) and I’ll be stuck with a bunch of dragons and shit but not much else. But then I remember my boy Pierce Brown and how he portrayed both the dead wife and the current love interest in the Red Rising books and it’s all good.
The only person I ever honestly look for is Stephen Kings reviews just because he’s honest.
I personally not a fan of his habit of insulting other writers. You can be honest without being stuck up. It just doesn’t sit right with me. =(
I’d rather him speak his mind freely than sugar coat anything.??♀️
That’s fair, but I just can’t say that’s for me. You can speak your mind without being insulting. I don’t think a writer should act like a no good critic when he/she knows how it feels to be unjustly insulted.
Everyone’s different and his words mean more to me when they’re raw and uncensored. It lets us know exactly how he feels about the work.
I tend to lean tord female authors, I guess because I am female but I love Stephan King, Dean Koontz, and Harlin Coban.
Thank you so much to those people who provided their opinion and meaningful and debate-filled responses. It’s nice to know we can still have a conversation like this without everyone freaking out.
No.. not sure why it would. Half the time I don’t even notice the authors name unless I specifically looked for the author.
I was merely curious as, while male authors do succeed, they never seem to make the millions like female authors. Are they doing something wrong, is it based on prejudice, is there a hidden factor, etc etc?
No, never. I have however been swayed by the cover of books before. Gender of an author is never a factor though.
Cover always plays a role for me. Admittedly I’ve missed out on some great books initially by skipping them because I wasn’t into the cover
Me too. I’ve passed up a lot of books that were great because of the cover. I always go back and read them.
No. The summary is the only thing that determines if I buy the book or not.
No, though I am guilty of judging a book by its cover.
No I’m a cover buyer too
Yes. I find that I usually enjoy female writers more and it’s probably because I haven’t read as many male published YA books. Perhaps there are not as many, or perhaps its due to a bias. I can tell you that im in the middle of publishing my own series, and I didnt want to use my name for this reason. Thanks for bringing this up. Great subject.
I would have to say yes. I prefer to read more books with the leading character being female. Which most female authors write about in ya, romcom, fantasy, romance etc.
Not at all.
Nope not at all
Yes. I’ve read romance written by men and they just aren’t as emotionally satisfying to me. But for other genres not as much.
Come to think of it most of the fiction books I own are written by females. I’m not sure if it is just because I prefer female authors or that I haven’t expanded my horizons to unknown authors as I like to stick to what I know. I must admit that I’m not biased at all but I also judge a book by it’s cover and summary. Interesting question though!
Nopeeee
Occasionally.
Not at all. If I don’t go into the book knowing who the author is ahead of time, I rarely even notice the author at all. If I really enjoyed the book, then I’ll look more into the author and see what other books they may have out.. whether it be male or female ??♀️
Nahh, lol I normally don’t ever notice the author unless…the book is amazing and I want to read more of their books.???
True story.
Same ?
Never. Mostly I do my ‘research’ on the author after I read the book(s).
Nope. There have, however, been several instances where I’d take passing notice of an author’s name and incorrectly assume their gender. But, no, gender or assumed gender has never played a role in whether I read a book.
Now, title or cover art on the other hand…