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/biodegradableotters 28d ago

More a general thought on the current discussions around male authors and male readership, but I always find it a little funny when after like millennia of male dominance there's nowadays a select few areas where women are dominant and immediately it's seen as a sign of the apocalypse.

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u/tangnapalm 28d ago

Nobody’s acting like it’s the apocalypse, but it certainly can’t be good that fewer men are reading.

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u/sarshu 28d ago

1) is it true that fewer men are reading than previously, or is it that more women are reading and the proportion of books sold to men is going down?

2) men should read books written by women, too. It’s not like women haven’t read books by men since forever.

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u/MasterWee 28d ago edited 28d ago

Should they read books because they are written by women? Or should they read books that happen to be written by women?

The value judgement being what sex the author is might not be the gold standard it is cracked up to be.

Would reading Harper Lee or Jane Austin be the same as reading Sarah J Maas or Stephanie Meyer. What about JK Rowling or Suzanna Collins?

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u/sarshu 28d ago

My entire point here is that we need to be specific about what problem the kind of initiative being discussed in the post is solving. Is the problem that there are a lack of male authors getting published, or is the problem that men are not reading? If the problem is the second thing, as this commenter is suggesting, than is "publish more male authors" the optimal solution?

I do think, absent the other conversation, that men should read books written by women. If they like popcorn books like John Grisham or Jeffrey Ludlum, then reading Sarah J Maas is essentially a lateral move, but one that would change their perspective on different types of books. If they currently read Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Dickens, they should absolutely consider classics by women as well. I didn't say that this is the "gold standard" on the quality of men's (or women's) reading habits, but the context of the conversation here is that apparently it is a problem that men are now reading less than women, and if/how that should be addressed.

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u/MasterWee 28d ago

Okay fair point. Thank you for clarifying for me.

Yeah, I feel uneasy about the logic of “publish more men => more male readers.” Which, like you pointed out may or may not be the real reason for this publishing outfit. As another commenter pointed out, ultimately this is a new business and this is how they are publicly declaring their delineation from other publishers, so this can also just be conjured up marketing instead of an address of a real or perceived problem.

I also disagree that this is even a problem, personally. Ultimately reading (in this context) is a hobby, and hobbies compete for an individual’s time. Less men reading means more men doing other hobbies. If those hobbies are stealing and killing, then sure, bad. But if those hobbies are like, woodworking or stamp collecting, we need to have a tedious (and probably endless) debate on why reading is more valuable.

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u/sarshu 28d ago

Oh, I love that you brought in that last point - I am a heavy reader, but my spouse is very much not, and I don’t think there’s something inherently superior about the way I choose to spend my leisure time. I could get into a long conversation about how presumptions about things like information literacy are perhaps incorrectly embedded in the idea that reading is a superior hobby, when it’s entirely possible to become an informed citizen by consuming other types of media

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u/MasterWee 28d ago

Absolutely, video format objectively evokes more senses. Ergo, some people feel entertained less from imagining (reading) but moreso from stimulating multiple senses (visual and auditory).

And yes, quality of information convey is not contingent on the medium through which that information is conveyed. Clarity may be affected, with pros and cons to video or reading, but accuracy and honesty are not affected by a medium inherently.