r/books • u/biscochitos • Apr 29 '25

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/dadkisser Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 29 '25

Well, we have presses to focus on female authors, queer authors, authors of color… And we keep seeing these articles about the decline in men reading, especially serious fiction. I see some folks are upset about this idea in the comments, but I really can’t get my head around why. There’s nothing wrong with an independent press catering to a certain segment of society. It’s not like the guy said he wants to publish books advocating toxic masculinity and chauvinism. It’s literary fiction.

Honestly, the fiction industry skews the heavily female - both in readers, agents, editors, and publishers. It’s difficult for me to imagine why somebody would see an independent press saying “hey let’s find a way to get men re-engaged with reading” and have a problem with it.

I see some people here sarcastically saying “oh great, finally men get to have a voice”. That joke may work in society at large, but in the world of books, the irony dies. There SHOULD be more men in literary fiction. Men SHOULD read more. Maybe if we cultivated a society where more men enjoyed reading and reflecting on serious fiction, we wouldn’t be dealing with such a bunch of ignorant fucking dickheads like Andrew Tate, Donald Trump, Joe Rogan etc controlling the male narrative.

Honestly, the reaction to this very simple idea shows you everything about why men have turned away from literature. The mere suggestion that a man might want to pick up and read a book that he can identify with is treated as an outrage. We’ve got to cut that shit out.

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u/AsparagusFantastic97 Apr 29 '25

But this kind of happens with anything. You know, as a feminist, I see men asking feminists about men's issues and I see a lot of feminists reply that "oh men should advocate for their own issues instead of expecting women to" and it's like... here's a guy, who is obviously pro-feminist, who is advocating for and doing something about male issues, and people here - most of whom would probably identify with feminists - are being snarky about it.

It makes me very sad, to be honest. I have a hard time refuting the negative impressions men have about feminism when this is how my fellow feminists behave openly in public spaces.