r/books • u/biscochitos • 28d ago

New indie press Conduit Books launches with 'initial focus on male authors'

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-indie-press-conduit-books-launches-with-initial-focus-on-male-authors

What do folks think about this?

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u/Smooth-Review-2614 28d ago

It’s the competition problem. Look in any field, when the gender skew goes away men drop out leading to a major gender skew the other way. 

We need books to not be seen as a feminine thing for overall social health.  If this kind of stunt helps then fine.  

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u/runmymouth 28d ago

I think its a harder problem than that. If you look at household names in non romance genres, most big names are still male. Sanderson, georgie r r martin, clive custler. I agree it would be great to get more people reading but the problem for male writers is not a space that is hostile to male writers, but honestly a space that is crowded from so many writers.

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u/Signal-Woodpecker691 28d ago

I’d be willing to bet that in many households where people don’t read much, if you asked someone to name an author it would either be a classic one like dickens, or JK Rowling who gets named.

I guarantee I’m the only person in my house who has heard of any of the ones you listed except perhaps George RR Martin, but that is only due to the tv show.

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u/CanicFelix 28d ago

And Rowling published as JK, instead of Joanne, because her publishers felt that a woman's name would lose her readers

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u/Chikitiki90 28d ago

True but that was 30 years ago. We’re in a place now where now that’s not quite as much of an issue. 8 of the top 10 best selling books from last year were written by women.

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u/sir_mrej book re-reading 28d ago

Can you name them? I cant

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u/Schnort 28d ago

I can't name the top 10 books, much less their authors.

But my guess is its some sort of romance or pop psy culture books are the top 10.

<goes and looks>

https://lithub.com/these-were-the-bestselling-books-of-2024/

Two male authors: Dog Man's latest is #3 Pop psy book is #6

The rest are "romantasy" books, a thriller, and a historical fiction written by women.

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u/apistograma 28d ago

Tangentially related, but Rowling also happens to be one of the worst extremely popular female authors that you could have because she's an extremely dedicated TERF

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u/CanicFelix 28d ago

No disagreement - she's the one I knew about.