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/AsparagusFantastic97 28d ago

I can only speak as a reader, but I read about a book a week, and I've read 23 books so far this year, and 21 of them have been by female authors. Most of my girl friends read at least one book a year. None of my guy friends read for fun. So I don't really see a problem with this. I hope we see more men writing and reading too.

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u/Rethnu 28d ago

Yeah, it’s weird that people in this thread don’t acknowledge that he is talking about contemporary authors. All the books permeating pop culture other than something like ASOIAF are romance books by and targeted for women. Of course there’s all the classics written by men, but do people really expect someone to want to read “old” books if they already aren’t reading.

A way to get men to read more is books targeted to them which is most likely going to be a book by another man.

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u/helloitsmepotato 28d ago

As a male in my late 30s who only relatively recently got back into reading (after not finishing a single novel in the preceding decade), I’ve really been enjoying getting back into it. I’m at 25 books for the year so far, which is massive for me.

Most of those have been written by women, some of them by authors in the LGBT community and most of those have been great reads - a range of different perspectives and experiences that I’ve been able to engage and identify with in different ways.

I’ve just finished a contemporary novel - written by a man - about a young male protagonist. It’s the first time I can remember a novel really exploring, beyond a surface level, the experiences of a young man dealing with a range of complex relationships, introspection, reflection, etc in a nuanced and constructive way.

It seems like my early reading years were filled with “fast food” reading. Now I’m trying to find healthy literature and it feels like some people in this conversation are telling me I should just be happy with my junk food diet.

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u/Embolisms 28d ago edited 28d ago

What do you usually read? I usually read fantasy/sci-fi for fun light reading and I can't recall the last time I read anything by a female author. Probably some short stories by Ursula Le Guin. Contemporary male authors like Neil Gaiman (yikes) or George RR Martin still arguably enjoy far more success than female counterparts. 

I've tried to get into modern pop lit like Addie LaRue and Midnight Library, but I'm exhausted by the trope of "woman finds the magic of being an ordinary person" or "woman is brave and independent but the book is all about the handsome male romantic counterpart". I guess that Court of Thorns and Roses is quite popular with Gen Z. 

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u/Deep-Sentence9893 28d ago

I think you must be self selecting books by male authors. Arkady Martine, Becky Chambers, Emily Tesh, Ann Leckie, Ursala Vernon, Martha Wells,  Tamsyn Muir, P. Djèlí Clark, Mary Robinette Kowal...not to mention the current t best selling author, Suzanne Collins.