Marketing Appeal

[Wo7f]

I have dilemma. I'm published under D. E. Jackson, using my initials because men tend not to read books written by women.

Why is that guys?

Anyway, I find myself skipping over books that don't have a picture of the author. It makes me feel like they have something to hide I suppose. However, I'm doing the same thing. Should I allow the world to know a woman wrote this book and possibly hurt my sales? Or would a picture help my sales instead?

Thoughts?

 

[HareBrain]

It makes me feel like they have something to hide I suppose.

What, like they try to get money off people for telling lies?

Personally, I think a bad author photo is more off-putting than none. For me, you have to look interesting and wise, someone life's tossed around a bit and who's learned from it, someone with a quirk to their smile and a glint to their eye. Otherwise you'd do better with mystery, in my opinion, even without the issue of possible sexism (which I can't explain). But I'm mostly not interested in authors (unless they're brilliant), only in their books.

(I'll fess up and say I really thought you were a man. I don't know if it's because your username looks a bit like Worf, or my own lazy assumptions.)

 

[Wo7f]

Yes! My evil plan of disguise worked!

As for a photo, I can absolutely do a quirk in my smile. I was actually thinking that exactly. My aim would be going for mysterious, elegant, and the quirk smile as if I know something you do not.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I thought you were a were-wolf. Do wolves smile?

Personally I take no notice of photos or sex of writer.

 

[DrMclony]

Wait, men don't read female writers? Since when? I must have missed that memo, along with most of the male readers I know!

 

[Tower75]

I don't think a photo really matters, no? Unless your publisher wants one. I can't say that a photo, or lack of one, has every bothered me, it's not even something I look for. I read blurbs, reviews and look at pretty covers.

I have dilemma. I'm published under D. E. Jackson, using my initials because men tend not to read books written by women.

Why is that guys?

Mainly because as a gender we're rubbish, and in no way should we be entertained.

I must confess that I haven't read many females authors, mysterious gender-neutral initials not withstanding, I can't say that I've purposely avoided females authors, though, I think it's just more a case of the books I pick up are written by men, or aforementioned mysterious initials.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I agree with the others regarding pictures of the author - it makes no difference to me.

As for men not reading women - I thought I paid no attention to the gender, but then I looked through my index of books in the flat and (to my horror!) found that only 3.5% of my collection had a female author.

I've tried to think why this is the case - it may be a genre thing. Essentially I have a lot of history books (so armchair generals!), SF - classic and modern and 'classics' both post and pre 20th Century. I don't know what the statistics are for numbers of women authors in all these genres, but my guess is that they are quite low. I do not really buy any fantasy, which I do think has more female authors, but SF and particularly the hardish to hard Space Opera and SF that I tend to gravitate to seem to be mostly men. So unfortunately Wo7f if your book is fantasy I probably won't be attracted to it

That is a very interesting topic of discussion though, I feel.

EDIT it's unscientific but counting the numbers of female authors in the 'Authors' section of Chrons I get a female participation of 25%, not sure how many exactly would be in the hard-ish side of SF, a few at least, but not many.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I did a poll a few years ago on that and very few of the female writers on the Chrons wrote sci fi (from memory me, TDZ, The Judge were in there). Whereas the men were more evenly split between fantasy and sci fi. I think- but don't know - it would fall again in hard sf (but have no idea why that is).

I have no problem with people knowing I'm a female sf writer, or having my picture out there (except that I hate my picture being taken) and have not found it to be a barrier. However, I'm not sure from my cover people would neccessarily pick up I'm a lady, and I'm not bothered about that either. I'd rather a reader went by the book and not me.

In short, @Wo7f tis up to you.

 

[Venusian Broon]

@springs - as a basic (silly) rule of thumb, if I go into the SF&F section of Waterstones (or other bookstore) to peruse a book and want to scratch my SF itch then anything with a spaceship on the front cover gets my attention.

So you are definitely in

 

[Wo7f]

Interesting answers! I would love to put my picture up. Would have to give myself a photo shoot. (I love taking pictures) No problem Venusian Broon that you're not into fantasy. It's a genre that's on my back burner to write, but it's there. Focused on fantasy for now.

So I guess I'll start to play around with some photos. Yay!

 

[tinkerdan]

It looks like you just released and the first three months often sets the trend so you should decide soon

 

[ralphkern]

The top selling SF author on Amazon for a good few months last year was Jennifer Foehner Wells with Fluency. Now, whether that was because people didn't care and she had simply released a good book, or the fact she is a woman added to the appeal I don't know, but either way it certainly wasn't a barrier for her!

 

[Wo7f]

Will do tinkerdan!

I took a look at JFW's profile picture. It's really good. It just encourages me more that I was wrong about male readers reading women authors.

 

[Wo7f]

I have three pictures I took to choose from. I'm not sure which I like best, so I put them on Facebook and am letting my family and friends decide which one is best. I sort of made it into a contest and announcing the winning picture on Monday.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Here are some more to look at

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Women buy many more books then men do, so being a woman is only a hindrance in some genres. SFF is one place where it makes a difference, although not as much as it used to do. Women can do very well in the fantasy genre, but they never have the same kind of popularity as a GRR Martin or a Joe Abercrombie. Yes, there is J K Rowling who sold a zillion copies of her books, but the Harry Potter books were not released from a genre imprint and not promoted as fantasy as such. In fact, she insists she didn't know she was writing fantasy, and makes an effort to disassociate herself from the genre. She needed those non-genre readers to push her sales to the point where the hype took over. Books like Twilight, which are basically supernatural romances, sell well because they tap into that huge audience for romance novels. And women do well in YA.

But a large number of male SFF readers resist buying books by female writers. Not enough to prevent a woman from having a successful career, if her books have a widespread appeal -- for instance, Lois McMaster Bujold -- but it is a factor. Witness the huge difference in sales when Megan Lindholm changed her name to the androgynous Robin Hobb.

 

[ratsy]

It's funny. I just bought Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells and read it a couple weeks ago. It never crossed my mind to not buy it because a woman wrote it! And I'm reading Springs Jo's book now, and am on to Susan's next so there you go. I'm working at breaking down barriers....I won't tell you the past ten were written by men

 

[Ray McCarthy]

large number of male SFF readers resist buying books by female writers

Daft ejits.
BTW BBC R4 is airing Ursula LeGuin's "Left hand of Darkness", I think maybe on Sunday. Or part 1 (I can't imagine it fits in one afternoon).


Edit:
BBC Radio 4 (VHF-FM. LW, DAB, Satellite and maybe online, but could be geo-blocked)
Date: Sunday 12th April 2015 (repeated 18th 2100hrs)
Time: 15:00 to 16:00 (1 hour long)
Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (Part 1). Episode 1.

part2 is 19th @ 1500hrs and repeated no doubt.

I'll be listening on LW on the 18th, my satellite system is down and I'm travelling Sunday, probably.

 

[millymollymo]

I buy a book because I like the sound of the book. The blurb, the cover, the spine. The font. Packaged well, it can capture everything that book promises to be.

What doesn't hold any sway over my purchase is the number of initials the author has or what curves they claim. I'm buying the story, not the person.
On reading a book, I'll have a looksee about who wrote it, and maybe go and buy more. I am in an ever reducing minority though.

 

[Glitch]

Witness the huge difference in sales when Megan Lindholm changed her name to the androgynous Robin Hobb.

Megan Lindholm spoke about pseudonyms at wfc 2013. She said it allowed her to take on a new persona for her books.

She also said using a gender neutral author name allowed people to believe in her POV characters.

Another snippet she gave was to make sure the bank accepts the cheque in your pseudonym!