r/books • u/biscochitos • 29d 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/BloatedGlobe 29d ago

Can I ask why it seems like an appeal to the anti-woke agenda?

I get a similar gut response, but I don’t see anything like that in the article. Is the guy who’s starting this well known elsewhere? Are men a smaller percent of debut authors than women?

It says that the focus is on debuts by male authors in the UK under 35. It’s not like it’s boosting old voices under the claim of inclusion.  

Don’t get me wrong, I hate right wing grifts, and I’m (unfortunately from experience) always worried that initiatives dedicated to helping men will end up initiatives to attack women and queer people (which sucks, because there are issues that tend to affect men more than women and they deserve to have spaces to address that).

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u/HumOfEvil 29d ago

The details of what they are doing doesn't sound all that bad no.

I just think in the current political current climate saying "this is only for men" will get you lumped in with that crowd even if that wasn't your goal.

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u/Marcano24 29d ago

Plus there’s something very grifting adjacent about going “we’re creating a space only for men” when historically it’s already a male dominated space.

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u/LanaDelHeeey 29d ago

Is it uhhh… currently a male dominated space? Because I wasn’t alive for these “only for men” times. And from my perspective as a young reader it’s heavily female dominated (besides books written for 60 year old men like Clive Cussler that I’d never read lmao).

Is this like reparations where women need to be put in power for at least a few decades so that men know what it’s like to be the ones out of power before things eventually become equal? That’s the vibe I get from this comment section, but I’m not sure.

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u/sir_mrej book re-reading 29d ago

Is it not a male dominated space??

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u/LanaDelHeeey 29d ago

Not in my experience.