# Male Authors vs. Female Authors



## backslidr (Nov 23, 2012)

I find that I tend to relate better with the writing styles of male writers than with female writers, though I do read both. I've also noticed that you can generally tell when a woman is writing under a male pseudonym because of the style. One of the biggest differences is in how they develop characters. Women tend to really get into the "feelings" of their characters where male authors avoid that to a point, which I think is pretty true in real life. So I was just curious as to whether the men and women here tend to stick with their gender when it comes to reading books, or does it not really matter to you?


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I grew up reading science fiction from the 60s and 70s, mostly male authors with a few very notable exceptions. Now, I read both and it doesn't matter to me one whit. Although, if I am reading a romance novel, I want a female author.


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## IM_Telling (Mar 2, 2013)

7vn11vn said:



> I find that I tend to relate better with the writing styles of male writers than with female writers, though I do read both. I've also noticed that you can generally tell when a woman is writing under a male pseudonym because of the style. One of the biggest differences is in how they develop characters. Women tend to really get into the "feelings" of their characters where male authors avoid that to a point, which I think is pretty true in real life. So I was just curious as to whether the men and women here tend to stick with their gender when it comes to reading books, or does it not really matter to you?


Many of my readers assume that I am female because I write erotica. Frankly, I see that as a compliment!


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## Simone (Feb 28, 2013)

I agree that female authors tend to focus more on the relational and emotional aspects of their characters. I enjoy both genders, but do tend to have a preference for my own gender. My favorite authors are Anne McCaffrey and Jean M. Aul.  But I also have a new favorite series in which the main character is female, but the author is male. The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency is delightful and I love the simple way in which ethics are questioned and dealt with in its exotic setting. I was amazed to find out that the author was a man. So now I have to question, is it the characters that I'm connecting with and not the authors?


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

There are differences in how the two genders handle a character's outlook.  When a man writes about Grak the Barbarian coming to town, the first thing Grak wants is a haunch of roast meat and a woman.  When a female author writes about Grak, the first thing he wants is a bath.


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

Interesting. 
My genre is romance (especially historical romance) and to my knowledge read exclusively female authors. However, this may not be all it seems because there is certainly one well-known author of family sagas (his name eludes me) who writes under a female pen name because his publisher thought women wouldn't buy romance-type books by a male author. To me that would suggest that women are heavily prejudiced against male romance writers. 
What do you think?


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

I'm not sure I even notice the gender of the author, no matter what genre I'm reading.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

When I read Science Fiction or Fantasy, I don't care about the gender of the author at all.  I tend to read more male authors here than female but the genres are dominated by white men from North America.  I will admit that I often specifically look for authors outside that specific group simply because of the different perspective they tend to provide.

However, I also read m/m romances and there I prefer male authors.  Most of the sub-genre are women writing primarily for other women with only a minority of male authors.  I know that's also a function of the audience demographics but I do search out male authors.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

IM_Telling said:


> Many of my readers assume that I am female because I write erotica. Frankly, I see that as a compliment!


Nice! 

I also get a lot of people writing reviews, or sending me emails who call me Mr. McDonald.  My main character is male, so I guess that is why. However, like the OP stated, some readers might figure it out because I think I do try to show the character's feelings a bit. I'm not sure that is exactly a male author/female author difference though. It could just be different author styles. For instance, I haven't read a lot of Nicholas Sparks and what I did read was a while back, but I just saw the latest movie based on one of his books, and I think he does a lot of 'feeling' stuff. His books tend to split the pov (again, dredging this from a ten year old memory) but I think his books show more feeling than say, Lee Child's books do.


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## JDHallowell (Dec 31, 2012)

Teresa Frohock recently ran a contest on her blog to see if readers could tell whether a given prose piece was written by a man or a woman. It's worth checking out.


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## S.W. Hubbard (Feb 16, 2013)

I read both male and female authors.  I think a good male author will also explore his characters' feelings, albeit from a different perspective than a female author.  I wrote a mystery series with a male protagonist and my publisher made me use my initials instead of my first name because the fear was a man wouldn't read a mystery written by a woman but a woman would read mysteries written by either gender.


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## JDHallowell (Dec 31, 2012)

S.W. Hubbard said:


> ... I wrote a mystery series with a male protagonist and my publisher made me use my initials instead of my first name because the fear was a man wouldn't read a mystery written by a woman but a woman would read mysteries written by either gender.


That makes so much sense...I mean, just look at Agatha Christie. It's pretty clear that men would never read female mystery writers, right?


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

I know I read and love books by both m/f authors. I've never calculated, but romance is surely all by women. Most thrillers at a guess are by men. Mysteries, both, although I think cozy mysteries are female territory. Sometimes a book will come across as too strongly one perspective or the other. A man's book that has every woman attracted to the MC and making passes is too much. Similarly, a main female character who is a bundle of please everyone stupidity has me zapping that book without finishing.


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## FranceBarnaby (Feb 10, 2013)

I don't think I could tell. If I'd guess I would be wrong half the time.


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

I read novels by both male and female authors, but if a male author uses too sexist of language or doesn't develop the female characters beyond the superficial, then I won't read any more of his books. On the other hand, if a female author spends too much time discussing feelings or developing romance, I won't read more of her books either. This is particularly true of thrillers. I don't care for romance in my thrillers beyond a minimal amount. It seems to break the pace of the thriller. Beyond these considerations, I don't have preferences one way or the other.


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

I don't care about the author's gender, but I do care about their writing style. If they don't develop one set of characters based on gender (all men/women are cardboard cutouts), then I probably won't keep reading them, but then I don't think gender affects an author's writing as much as which genre they are writing in - look at Jessica Stirling or James Tiptree Jr..



JDHallowell said:


> Teresa Frohock recently ran a contest on her blog to see if readers could tell whether a given prose piece was written by a man or a woman. It's worth checking out.


 Thanks for the link. She also revealed the results here which make very interesting reading.


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## backslidr (Nov 23, 2012)

Carrie Rubin said:


> I read novels by both male and female authors, but if a male author uses too sexist of language or doesn't develop the female characters beyond the superficial, then I won't read any more of his books. On the other hand, if a female author spends too much time discussing feelings or developing romance, I won't read more of her books either. This is particularly true of thrillers. I don't care for romance in my thrillers beyond a minimal amount. It seems to break the pace of the thriller. Beyond these considerations, I don't have preferences one way or the other.


Yes. I agree with you on this. I had just read two books that were part of a forensic geology series. The first one was about stolen nuclear waste in the desert and the second was about a volcano watch at Mammoth mountain. They were both good stories, but I'd gotten so bogged down in the first one I nearly didn't finish it. The lead female character couldn't say a single sentence without us having to read several paragraphs about her feelings and emotions dealing with why she said it. This went on through the entire book. I think someone must have pointed that out to the author because the second book, with the same character, didn't go into quite as much detail which made the story flow better and much more entertaining. To know what a character is feeling every step of the way makes much more sense in a romantic type novel than a thriller, at least in my opinion.


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

Usually prefer male but I'll definitely make an exception if it's a woman like Donna Gillespie whose first book about a female barbarian is one of my all time favorites. Probably because of something like what Avis Black posted.


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

7vn11vn said:


> The lead female character couldn't say a single sentence without us having to read several paragraphs about her feelings and emotions dealing with why she said it. This went on through the entire book. I think someone must have pointed that out to the author because the second book, with the same character, didn't go into quite as much detail which made the story flow better and much more entertaining. To know what a character is feeling every step of the way makes much more sense in a romantic type novel than a thriller, at least in my opinion.


Agreed. I feel the same way about Camilla Läckberg's Nordic thrillers. I love the thriller part, but there's too much relationship stuff in between. I've felt that way about Linda Castillo books, too.


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## Beez (Feb 17, 2013)

I suppose I find it easier to relate to male authors, being of the same gender. But I have read many books by female authors, and enjoy them immensely. I'm particularly fond of Ann Rice. And Diane Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale" is one of my favorite all-time books.


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

BTW, what about a male author who spends too much time talking about feelings?


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

Author gender doesn't even factor into the equation when I buy books. 

It does, unfortunately, often seem than men are more reluctant to read fiction by women. I blame this squarely on an educational system that even today tends to relegate female authors to Women's History Month and spends the rest of the year reading "classics" by white Anglo Saxon male protestants (and the occassional Catholic). 

It's a similar situation with race. How many people see an African American on the cover of a book or an ethnic-sounding name and automatically assume the book must be "urban fiction" or "African American" fiction?


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Author gender doesn't even factor into the equation when I buy books.


There was once a romance ebook that I bought (by a female author) because the blurb conveyed the female MC being so tough and strong-willed I just had to despite it being categorized as romance. I ended up enjoying it... but yeah I guess that's my main criteria.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Author gender doesn't even factor into the equation when I buy books.
> 
> It does, unfortunately, often seem than men are more reluctant to read fiction by women. I blame this squarely on an educational system that even today tends to relegate female authors to Women's History Month and spends the rest of the year reading "classics" by white Anglo Saxon male protestants (and the occassional Catholic).
> 
> It's a similar situation with race. How many people see an African American on the cover of a book or an ethnic-sounding name and automatically assume the book must be "urban fiction" or "African American" fiction?


Like it or not, that's the way the human brain works: it looks for patterns. Sometimes those patterns are misleading or just plain wrong, but it's not easy to get past them without a conscious effort (and sometimes they do, in fact, give a pretty accurate representation of reality). That being said, _*in general*_ I tend to prefer books written by male authors. However, there have been enough exceptions that I don't automatically rule out anything that appears to be written by a female author -- but I do usually look a bit more closely at the description and reviews to see if it appears to be a romance to a large degree -- sorry romance-lovers, but spending significant time dealing with emotions, relationships, whether or not the hero[ine] will bed the hero[ine] _*generally*_ does not float my boat. But these are, as stated, _*generalizations*_ with plenty of exceptions. (I recently re-read Samuel Delaney's "Triton", which is all about relationships and romance -- and happens to be sci-fi written by an author who happens to be a gay African-American male -- which I once again found to be interesting, challenging, and moving; making it one of those exceptions to the general rule.)

On a related note, I sometimes feel a little ... embarrassed? ... when every important female character created by _*some*_ male authors seems to essentially be either a man with an attractive female body (the "spunky" heroine who can out-fight and out-drink most men) or else a stereotyped woman (with an attractive female body, of course) who _*only*_ thinks about shoes, gossip, and romance.


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2013)

NogDog said:


> the "spunky" heroine who can out-fight and out-drink most men


IMO these qualities do not preclude a character from having depth or coming off believably female.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

glutton said:


> IMO these qualities do not preclude a character from having depth or coming off believably female.


Of course not, it's all about generalizations.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

I read books by either gender, but there is usually a definite difference between the way the sexes portray romance. A male author will either downplay the male MC's emotions and concentrate on how attracted he is to the heroine, and the need he feels to "take care" of her. A female author may be unrealistic in portraying the man's feelings for the heroine who continually mistreats or rejects him, i.e., the undying love he will feel forever and no other woman comes close to her ideal, whether she loved him or not. Really? Most men would eventually feel as Rhett Butler did about Scarlett: they have been trampled on long enough and it's time to move on.

Apart from that, I do usually prefer adventure stories written by men, mysteries by either gender, fantasy ditto. Not really into pure romance novels, just those set against an historical background like Gone With the Wind and The Far Pavilions.


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## Adrian Howell (Feb 24, 2013)

I read both and enjoy both (for the most part) equally across all genres. And while the author's gender may easily play a role in writing style and character development, I believe that the author's educational background, life experiences and current age play just as important a role. The great part about reading is that you get to see all the perspectives, and even those that you don't identifiy well with can still be a good reading experience.


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## charlie51923 (Mar 4, 2013)

There aren't too many women authors I can read, especially from the past 50 years. Susanna Clarke is one of the few. Prior to 1960 there were several good women writers. Now it's all descriptive mush.


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2013)

charlie51923 said:


> There aren't too many women authors I can read, especially from the past 50 years. Susanna Clarke is one of the few. Prior to 1960 there were several good women writers. Now it's all descriptive mush.


Thanks. That is EXACTLY what _A Game of Blood_ is! A paranormal thriller filled with descriptive mush about a sociopathic vampire and a burnt-out cop trying to stop him.


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## charlie51923 (Mar 4, 2013)

Vampire? You lost me in one word.


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2013)

charlie51923 said:


> Vampire? You lost me in one word.


Hey, my vampires don't sparkle, twinkle, or even have any empathy!


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## charlie51923 (Mar 4, 2013)

They sound more like fairies. Not the little cutesy ones from Walt Disney, but the older ones from the 18th century when they were more demon-like and somewhat cruel beings from another reality. They looked human but were anything but.


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## Elizabeth Black (Apr 8, 2011)

I usually don't care. As long as the book is good, that's what matters to me. I have favorite writers of both genders in several genres. I have noticed that some genres have more of one gender than the other. Erotica and erotic romances have more female authors, and horror has more male. That does affect my reading because of exposure.

I also heard that most people assume that if an author uses initials, like J. K. Rowling, they assume the author is female. So if you're a woman writer trying to hide your identity with initials, that's likely to backfire on you.


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## Nicolai Grunnet (Mar 2, 2013)

I'll honestly say this topic came as some of a revelation to me, as I decided to sit down and do a comparison of the male and female authors I've read.
As I scanned through my collection, I realized the only female author around is Rowling. This saddens me, somehow, but I honestly never gave it a thought till this topic. Really odd.
In a psychological aspect, I am sure there are plenty of mechanisms worth mentioning, but on a personal layer I've always stuck with fantasy. There are some prominent names within this genre too, for some reason Margaret Weis comes to mind first, but I never really got into those, no matter how hard I tried. I don't think it has much to do with gender, though.

Now I'm actually getting stubborn to go out and read more fantasy from female authors. Well played, topic : P


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## JDHallowell (Dec 31, 2012)

charlie51923 said:


> They sound more like fairies. Not the little cutesy ones from Walt Disney, but the older ones from the 18th century when they were more demon-like and somewhat cruel beings from another reality. They looked human but were anything but.


Wow, someone else who knows what traditional fairies are. Pleased to meet you.


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## JDHallowell (Dec 31, 2012)

Nicolai Grunnet said:


> Now I'm actually getting stubborn to go out and read more fantasy from female authors. Well played, topic : P


I suggest starting with Ursula K. Le Guin's _A Wizard of Earthsea_.


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## charlie51923 (Mar 4, 2013)

JDHallowell said:


> Wow, someone else who knows what traditional fairies are. Pleased to meet you.


Same here. Susanna Clarke, by the way, has the best modern tales about fairies (or faeries if you like) that I've come across.

The thing that makes the fairies of old interesting to me is not just their magic powers, but the fact that most seem to be without conscience. They often stole children from humans etc. George MacDonald had a few good fairy stories.


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

Gender of the author plays no part in my buying decisions. I buy mostly from recommendation, followed by back cover blurb. I read mostly thrillers and do find some male authors bore me when they get too technical, especially over weapons. I'll buy a gun mag if I want to know that much. While I love great character development, I'm more interested in the plot.


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2013)

Nicolai Grunnet said:


> I'll honestly say this topic came as some of a revelation to me, as I decided to sit down and do a comparison of the male and female authors I've read.
> As I scanned through my collection, I realized the only female author around is Rowling. This saddens me, somehow, but I honestly never gave it a thought till this topic. Really odd.
> In a psychological aspect, I am sure there are plenty of mechanisms worth mentioning, but on a personal layer I've always stuck with fantasy. There are some prominent names within this genre too, for some reason Margaret Weis comes to mind first, but I never really got into those, no matter how hard I tried. I don't think it has much to do with gender, though.
> 
> Now I'm actually getting stubborn to go out and read more fantasy from female authors. Well played, topic : P


Elizabeth Moon. She's more hardcore than a lot of male authors and her stuff should appeal to readers who are more used to writing by men.

Yes, my mind is very one-track. _Very._


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## Ann Chambers (Apr 24, 2011)

I read mostly mysteries/thrillers these days, and don't care anything about author gender. A quick glance at my bookshelf, it's probably about 50/50. 

I usually select books based on the blurb/back cover copy. The most important thing is the basic set up of the mystery. I don't tend to enjoy heavy-duty spy books and burned myself out on legal thrillers a few years ago, so I skip those now. Books that focus on bad things happening to children bother me too, so I skip them. 

Will pick up nearly anything with an unusual sort of crime at the center or a historical angle or FBI agents. Yay! 

Then it's up the writer to keep my attention. If they do, I'll buy more (or all) of their books.


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## Emma Clark Lam (Mar 11, 2013)

I enjoy both male and female authors, although I agree that they tend to have different styles. Perhaps I am generalising, but male authors such as Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes have a very pithy, masculine style while women like Maggie O'Farrell, Kiran Desai and JoJo Moyes are more emotive in their style. Sebastian Faulks, however, can be quite a chameleon and doesn't necessarily fall between gender lines.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I once overheard a woman explaining that her husband wouldn't read books written by female authors, so when I published my first novel I changed my name from Janet to Jan to make it gender neutral (a female friend named Jan would often get annoyed when people phoned her expecting to hear a man's voice  ).


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2013)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I once overheard a woman explaining that her husband wouldn't read books written by female authors, so when I published my first novel I changed my name from Janet to Jan to make it gender neutral (a female friend named Jan would often get annoyed when people phoned her expecting to hear a man's voice ).


That only works in certain countries, here in the States we assume Jan as a female name... hence male KB author joking he is referred as 'that woman, Jan Strand'.


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## L M May (Mar 14, 2013)

7vn11vn said:


> I find that I tend to relate better with the writing styles of male writers than with female writers, though I do read both. I've also noticed that you can generally tell when a woman is writing under a male pseudonym because of the style. One of the biggest differences is in how they develop characters. Women tend to really get into the "feelings" of their characters where male authors avoid that to a point, which I think is pretty true in real life. So I was just curious as to whether the men and women here tend to stick with their gender when it comes to reading books, or does it not really matter to you?


That is a really good question. I have never really thought about it to be honest. I read so many different authors and genre, but I guess the idea of a male writing a romance is sort of on the the edge of the scale. I think I will try a male romance writer out of curiosity now!I have read plenty of non-romance stories that still have a good balance of romance within the story.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

charlie51923 said:


> There aren't too many women authors I can read, especially from the past 50 years. Susanna Clarke is one of the few. Prior to 1960 there were several good women writers. Now it's all descriptive mush.


Really? Wow. I think you're stereo-typing just a bit there.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

MaryMcDonald said:


> Really? Wow. I think you're stereo-typing just a bit there.


Well, but if that's his impression, it's perfectly valid.

It is entirely reasonable, I think, to try books, find they're not for you, and try to figure out what it is that didn't work so you know how to avoid such in the future. For example, if it's an "Oprah book club" pick, I am pretty certain I won't like it based on the one or two I have read. So I skip those: there are lots of other things to choose from, after all.  Charlie's apparently discovered that, for him, women writers don't provide what he's looking for, in general, so he chooses elsewhere.

YMMV, of course.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

I read both and I'm not sure I could differentiate between the two.


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## Flyover (Apr 18, 2013)

I mostly read male writers. Though I have read books written by female writers,  my tastes in genre lead toward the books that men are more likely to write.  I like Clancy, Cussler, Griffin just to name a few.  
In my own book Flyover County, I believe I did to develop my characters fully and so show their feelings.  I do not think the people in my books are shallow or hollow.  However, I wrote it - so I can hardly judge.


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## mattposner (Oct 28, 2010)

I think each book and each author is individual and that styles can't be distinguished automatically. I read writers who write what I want to read or whose ideas are generally intriguing. Gender isn't the issue. No genre is completely controlled by one gender. For two examples, there are male erotica and romance writers, and lots of women thriller and police procedural writers. Women write good action -- for example, thriller author Dakota Franklin writes absolutely amazing car chase and racing scenes. And men can write about feelings well. It's just that _some_ of us have difficulty expressing them face-to-face. I try to include everything in my books -- dramatic interpersonal conflict, action, and romance. If you look at a writer considered to have a very masculine style -- like, say, George R.R. Martin -- I think you will find the same thing there.


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## RobinBreyer (May 12, 2013)

I find that the gender of the author is irrelevant. Too many write under pen-names any way to make any real interpretation just from the name on the cover or the writing style. The choices a writer makes are not determined by their gender.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

NogDog said:


> Like it or not, that's the way the human brain works: it looks for patterns. Sometimes those patterns are misleading or just plain wrong, but it's not easy to get past them without a conscious effort (and sometimes they do, in fact, give a pretty accurate representation of reality). That being said, _*in general*_ I tend to prefer books written by male authors. However, there have been enough exceptions that I don't automatically rule out anything that appears to be written by a female author -- but I do usually look a bit more closely at the description and reviews to see if it appears to be a romance to a large degree -- sorry romance-lovers, but spending significant time dealing with emotions, relationships, whether or not the hero[ine] will bed the hero[ine] _*generally*_ does not float my boat. But these are, as stated, _*generalizations*_ with plenty of exceptions. (I recently re-read Samuel Delaney's "Triton", which is all about relationships and romance -- and happens to be sci-fi written by an author who happens to be a gay African-American male -- which I once again found to be interesting, challenging, and moving; making it one of those exceptions to the general rule.)
> 
> On a related note, I sometimes feel a little ... embarrassed? ... when every important female character created by _*some*_ male authors seems to essentially be either a man with an attractive female body (the "spunky" heroine who can out-fight and out-drink most men) or else a stereotyped woman (with an attractive female body, of course) who _*only*_ thinks about shoes, gossip, and romance.


I get so confused with what readers want, sometimes. I write thrillers and there is a romantic on again/off again sub-plot. I created it initially because I needed someone outside of prison who could be working to help get my main character free. I made it a new romance just before he was arrested, and that takes place 'off-camera' before the book starts. They eventually re-connect in that book, but break up at the beginning of the next. I honestly wanted to break it off for good with them, but readers liked the relationship--male readers included-- and so I kept her around, but kept their relationship as friendly, a little bit wistful and like maybe they'll get back together. I should kill her off.  Now, I'm writing the next book and she's not there yet. I haven't decided if she will be or not.

I actually like the buddy/buddy relationships in stories and that is what I tend to write.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I get so confused with what readers want, sometimes. I write thrillers and there is a romantic on again/off again sub-plot. I created it initially because I needed someone outside of prison who could be working to help get my main character free. I made it a new romance just before he was arrested, and that takes place 'off-camera' before the book starts. They eventually re-connect in that book, but break up at the beginning of the next. I honestly wanted to break it off for good with them, but readers liked the relationship--male readers included-- and so I kept her around, but kept their relationship as friendly, a little bit wistful and like maybe they'll get back together. I should kill her off.  Now, I'm writing the next book and she's not there yet. I haven't decided if she will be or not.
> 
> I actually like the buddy/buddy relationships in stories and that is what I tend to write.


Well, the problem is, you can't make generalizations. All readers are not the same. . .which was pretty much nogdog's point. . . . . one can make generalizations, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to find people that don't fit the stereotype.

Also. . .a gentle reminder. . . .this thread is in the Book Corner so should be addressed from the point of view of a reader, not that of a writer, thanks.


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## Book Master (May 3, 2013)

Male or Female just doesn't matter as long as it is a great book with a excellent story!
Isn't that the true point of it all in writing?


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

I remember the shock waves that went out across the globe when it was revealed that JK Rowling was a woman. Shoot, *I* was shocked that she was a woman. I was living in a small town at the time and saw how she, single-handedly, shifted the landscape in our community. Prior to that, it seemed like there was a big split between male vs. female writers and their readers. But there were all of these elementary school-aged boys (who would NEVER be caught dead reading a _girl_ book prior to this reveal) who already loved the Harry Potter series and weren't going to give up on it now. The taboo crumbled. And those boys are now grown with children of their own and encouraging them to read without prejudice.

Personally, I just like good books, doesn't matter who wrote it. If I'm going to discriminate, it is along genre lines, not author-gender lines. Just make it good.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

D H Lawrence did a good job of the female sexual response in Lady Chatterley's Lover.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Most of the fiction I've read is science fiction and fantasy, and after looking my books over, I'm pretty evenly split between male and female authors.  There is something I notice about them, though.  The male authors I like best are unusually good at plotting and/or show great verbal ability.  The female authors are very good at world-building, and are quite talented at handling characters and their personalities.  There may be something quirky about my sample, though.


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## Mahree Moyle (Jun 19, 2013)

Maybe two authors of the opposite sex should get together and write a fiction. Then you would have a good book.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Already happened. Jennifer Crusie and KB's own Bob Mayer wrote three action adventure romances where she wrote the female and he the male POV scenes.


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## MineBook (May 31, 2013)

No difference male or female author, if book story is GOOD.


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## JenniferHarlow (Jun 8, 2013)

Once when I was in college I went to a panel. Some of the women, mystery writers, were talking about this very topic. They pointed out that women will read both men and women writers but men tend not to read books written by women. Then a man stood up and suggested that women should write like men or use men names when publishing and they'd read the books, then sat down. The audience was gobsmacked but then I got to thinking about all the men, ages 14-80, I know who read. I could not remember a single one of them reading anything written by a woman, and when I asked them why they didn't even realize it was true. Still they didn't change their patterns. They just would not pick up a book by a woman, even when it was in a genre they liked like spy novels. I've written a book with superheroes in it, but the main character is a female and I used my real name. I did consider just using initials but decided not to. (Mistake?) On Amazon in the recommends I have a ton of books written by women in different genres but none linked to the other superhero books, which are predominantly written and read by men (which was the #1 reason publishers gave for rejecting it.) There are of course some exceptions, as shown by some of the previous comments, but it hasn't been my experience.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

JenniferHarlow said:


> Once when I was in college I went to a panel. Some of the women, mystery writers, were talking about this very topic. They pointed out that women will read both men and women writers but men tend not to read books written by women. Then a man stood up and suggested that women should write like men or use men names when publishing and they'd read the books, then sat down. The audience was gobsmacked but then I got to thinking about all the men, ages 14-80, I know who read. I could not remember a single one of them reading anything written by a woman, and when I asked them why they didn't even realize it was true. Still they didn't change their patterns. They just would not pick up a book by a woman, even when it was in a genre they liked like spy novels. I've written a book with superheroes in it, but the main character is a female and I used my real name. I did consider just using initials but decided not to. (Mistake?) On Amazon in the recommends I have a ton of books written by women in different genres but none linked to the other superhero books, which are predominantly written and read by men (which was the #1 reason publishers gave for rejecting it.) There are of course some exceptions, as shown by some of the previous comments, but it hasn't been my experience.


That's exactly why I use Janet Hurst-Nicholson for my children's books and Jan Hurst-Nicholson for the novels and humor books as it's gender neutral (in SA it's more likely to be a man's name) .


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## sarahlane (Jun 25, 2013)

What about Male Muses vs. Female Muses?

What inspires male authors vs. female authors? Or does it simply vary from artist to artist?


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## TRGoodman (Jul 9, 2012)

Even though it always comes down in the end to the individual story and characters, I've noticed that I tend to gravitate somewhat toward male authors for scifi and female authors for fantasy, though that all goes out the window if the blurb or cover are compelling. Not sure why that is, but I've read great books by both genders in both genres.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Steven Hardesty said:


> I think the time is past when men will read only male writers and women only women writers.


It never existed in the first place. Men like Sir Walter Scott, King George the IV, and Sir Richard Burton read and enjoyed a pure woman's romance writer like Jane Austen. Mrs. Radcliffe, writer of gothic heroines, was read by people such as Lord Byron, Shelley, Dickens, and Balzac.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Avis Black said:


> It never existed in the first place. Men like Sir Walter Scott, King George the IV, and Sir Richard Burton read and enjoyed *a pure woman's romance writer like Jane Austen*. Mrs. Radcliffe, writer of gothic heroines, was read by people such as Lord Byron, Shelley, Dickens, and Balzac.


um, I could rather argue that point.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Krista D. Ball said:


> um, I could rather argue that point.


She's a classic author, but her genre is still women's romance.


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## jkkelley (Jul 3, 2013)

I don't really consider the author's gender (as has been mentioned, it could be camouflaged with a pseudonym anyway) as a factor in book appeal, but I will consider the skill with which matters are presented. If one is going to write fiction, there is no way around being able to create and develop credible characters with credible genders. I was briefly in a writing group where a piece was passed around for critique, and my comment was: "Your men seem to me very much like women." The writer was stunned. I guess she'd never thought about it.

One also has to know one's audience. I recently edited an author's second true-life romance book, and I hammered again and again on the letters YFR: Your Female Reader. Of course, there are serious limits to the value of generalization (starting with any notion that all of a readerbase would be of a given gender), but I had to try to think as YFR: what about this scene would she wish to know, that my client is not providing her? What appeals to her? I had to make him aware of some subtle sexism in references, stuff like that. He's naturally fairly well equipped to know what his own gender prefers, but to be a complete author he had to write for both, and in this case probably more for the opposite gender. Happily, he was a speedy learner and did a bang-up job.

So I guess for me it comes down to expecting authors to develop at least enough gender empathy to present credible characters, and to accommodate the intended audience. If I'm not part of that audience, then, well, I guess my interest may be more limited. However, I also strongly suspect that women out-read men overall. If that's true, male authors who want good reception are well advised to immerse themselves as much as possible in the difference of the world women live in, things they must consider, stuff they have to put up with, and otherwise show the ability to 'get it.' When I need to puzzle out gender matters, I ask my wife as a starting point.

I often point out that I could write off a subscription to Cosmo on my taxes. How? Because that's an example of stuff from the women's world, even if for many women it's an example of everything that adds frustration and annoyance to their worlds. I could learn as much from why some women like the mag as from why many others find it repellent. Either way, for me as an author and editor, it is a developmental tool of value because if I throw up my hands and whine that I can't understand my female reader, I'm probably not going to create material she will find credible and enjoyable.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Avis Black said:


> She's a classic author, but her genre is still women's romance.


Only some of her books. Mansfield Park is not a romance; that's a family saga on par with the Thorn Birds (come on! It has all of the elements!). Neither is any of the juvenile. Emma is chick lit on par with the Shopaholic series. Northanger Abbey is clearly a parody. Sense and Sensibility is bleak women's fiction written by Nicholas Sparks' ghost.

Persuasion is very much a romance. Sure, it's about the self-made man of the era, but it's a romance. We could argue Pride and Prejudice being a romance. I personally see it as a fluffy chick lit wrapped around a desperate and bleak look at the social aspects of the time. But, since it's a Cinderella story, I usually just don't die on the hill for it. The others, however, I'll die on the hill. Especially Mansfield Park.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Only some of her books. Mansfield Park is not a romance; that's a family saga on par with the Thorn Birds (come on! It has all of the elements!). Neither is any of the juvenile. Emma is chick lit on par with the Shopaholic series. Northanger Abbey is clearly a parody. Sense and Sensibility is bleak women's fiction written by Nicholas Sparks' ghost.
> 
> Persuasion is very much a romance. Sure, it's about the self-made man of the era, but it's a romance. We could argue Pride and Prejudice being a romance. I personally see it as a fluffy chick lit wrapped around a desperate and bleak look at the social aspects of the time. But, since it's a Cinderella story, I usually just don't die on the hill for it. The others, however, I'll die on the hill. Especially Mansfield Park.


Austen's main characters are always female, and the heroine always lands a husband by the end of the book, even in Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility. Genre-wise, that's romance intended for women. Austen is adding more than usual to the genre, but her foundation is solid romance.

Generations of bone-headed male critics have tried to trivialize Austen because of her genre. There's no reason to join them, Krista, by claiming her work is X instead of Y. Romance is as legitimate a writerly genre as anything out there. Men don't like romance? Tough sh*t. Too bad for them. It can be superb, despite what they think.

The perspective that romance is icky and worthless because it makes a man feel squishy-soft sweet emotions and subjects him to girl-cooties, is an incredibly silly one, as well as being emotionally immature. Nonetheless, it's the viewpoint that the above-named critics have tried to brainwash the public with.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Just because the "guy gets the girl" in the end doesn't, in my mind, make a book "romance".  It might just make it a book with a romantic element.

With Austen, I think the value lies in the realization that there is so much more to it than the romantic element. . .as Krista points out. Could be a family saga; could be a playful parody; could be (often is) a somewhat critical look at the social mores of the time and the role assigned women.  I also always have the feeling that if Austen had thought she could get away with NOT having the girl end up married and still be perfectly happy, she would have.  But she knew her readers wouldn't approve. 

Frankly, most modern romances, for me, don't have that extra depth and is why I almost never read the stuff.  I tend to find it flat and predictable.  But I recognize that the formula is what really resonates with a lot of people and that's why they're popular. Great!  But they're absolutely not for me.  And yet, I enjoy Austen.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Just because the "guy gets the girl" in the end doesn't, in my mind, make a book "romance". It might just make it a book with a romantic element.


That. Plus, I did say that one of her books is a romance. The book falls apart without the romance plot. Emma would still be Emma, if she didn't marry Knightley. Anne Elliott, however, would not be Anne Elliott without the romance.



> I also always have the feeling that if Austen had thought she could get away with NOT having the girl end up married and still be perfectly happy, she would have. But she knew her readers wouldn't approve.


Since marriage was a job for gentlewomen, Austen gave everyone a job at the end that they enjoyed 

Kim Stanley Robinson's main character in 2312 is female and gets married at the end of the book. I doubt anyone would call that romance


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Avis Black said:


> Generations of bone-headed male critics have tried to trivialize Austen because of her genre. There's no reason to join them, Krista, by claiming her work is X instead of Y.


And female critics. Like my university prof who I took a course about Austen from and studied the historical aspects of Austen's books. She never trivialized Austen. Dr. Banford argued modern audiences trivialized Austen by missing everything but Mr. Darcy.



> Romance is as legitimate a writerly genre as anything out there.


I didn't even hint it. Um, my modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is as legitimately a writerly thing as my military science fiction.



> Men don't like romance? Tough sh*t. Too bad for them. It can be superb, despite what they think.


Not only do plenty of men love romance, plenty of men write it. in fact, Austen was well-read in the trenches of WW1. It reminded the troops of home.



> The perspective that romance is icky and worthless because it makes a man feel squishy-soft sweet emotions and subjects him to girl-cooties, is an incredibly silly one, as well as being emotionally immature. Nonetheless, it's the viewpoint that the above-named critics have tried to brainwash the public with.


During certain periods, they didn't like Austen's work. Even one of the Brontes didn't like it. Was it Dickens who said he wanted to dig Austen up and beat her with one of her limbs? Since I believe the 40s, Austen has been recognized by scholars as a key piece of the historical puzzle to a specific strata of time and rank. Her books assume a lot of her reader; many people have dedicated their lives to finding out all of the odds and ends of the odd-hand comments in Austen to draw a bigger picture of the period.

Persuasion is in my favourite Austen book. It is 100% a romance. It's perhaps the most beautiful romance ever written in the English language. It's the bar I use to measure romance by. But I'm also not going to argue that because Austen wrote my favourite romance novel that all of her novels are therefore romance.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Anne's going to yell at me for going off-point, so I'm going to wander off now and let everyone think whatever they may


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## Y. K. Greene (Jan 26, 2011)

I'm the terrible type of reader that doesn't really notice what sex the author of the books I'm reading is one way or another ^_^; 

Usually I'm just out to find an interesting story and then another and then another, I usually only remember author names so I can find more in their series and I don't think I've ever consciously thought "this is great fe/male writing I should get more of that." I just want to be entertained, maybe educated, mostly I want to love their characters and their world so much I don't ever want to leave or think about the wo/man behind the curtain for a single minute.


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

I've never cared one way or the other about the author's gender; it's a non-factor.  My goal was just to find good books.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Funny...  I never really thought about this until I saw this thread.  I have read both male and female authors, and enjoyed books from both, but I generally lean towards male writers.


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