And the winner is -- the Y chromosome

[davidlubar]

I recently posted a question on a listserve for librarians, asking whether there is a bias toward males in kidlit awards and promotion. Some interesting and informative responses resulted, as did some interesting replies to those responses in various private message boards. In the interest of generating a more-public discussion, and allowing

Comments

[anonymous]

Interesting discussion. Some people on YALSA-BK say they don't intentionally consider gender, it's not one of the things they're supposed to consider for awards, etc. Well, of course not. But that doesn't mean there's not unintentional ways gender is considered, the most obvious of which is that the publishers push male-authored books more, leading everyone to believe the male-authored books are more "important" and, therefore, award worthy.

The reason I'm posting anonymously is I don't want any of what I say to be perceived as sour grapes. I'm a fairly well-known female author, but I really don't have a dog in this fight. While I *used* to write the sort of novels that might have contended for YALSA awards, I now write more commercial fiction. I don't think males are favored in that arena. Actually, with young-adult, I think females have the advantage in chick lit and fantasy genres. One need only look at the shelves of vampire books to see that.

But with problem novels/literary fiction that contends for awards, what I sometimes see is the following:

1. Author F, a woman, writes a lovely first novel, let's say a problem novel. Publisher acquires it and gives it the standard treatment, spends an adequate amount of time on cover art (though sometimes, the cover is ugly nonetheless), puts it on their website and in their catalog, sends it out to reviewers, and does a few galleys to give to carefully-selected librarians and committee members at conferences. If the female author asks, she will be told this is what is done for all books, and if she never attends a conference (more likely because she is a female), she will believe it. BUT . . .

2. Author M, a man, writes a similarly lovely first problem novel. Publisher acquires it, treats it as "important" and has a bunch of meetings to get the cover just right, prints a zillion galleys and puts stacks of them on the floor at conferences, as well as an "expanded galley mailing," sends the author on a tour, heavily advertises the book, and includes the information about all this promo on the galleys, so the book looks really, really important, so important that it is on the top of every reviewer's list.

Author F's book ends up on the bottom of the stack on everyone's nightstand and may get read. Reviewers may love it and give it nice reviews, but some journals may not get around to reading it and those that do will decide that, despite their reviewer's rave, it's really not "important" enough to star. For this reason it's certainly not getting award buzz because not everyone has heard of it,and those who love it question their judgment because no one else is talking about it (Think: Dewey Beats Truman). It sells a few thousand copies.

Author M's book is on the top of everyone's stack because, clearly, it is the next big thing. It gets starred reviews, all sorts of award buzz, and even if it doesn't actually win the awards, people will talk about how shocking it was that it DIDN'T win the award. Nonetheless, it sells really well.

Of course, there are exceptions. I was thrilled to see A.M. Jenkins (a female) novel, Repossessed win a Printz honor several years back, despite so little publisher push that it barely got reviewed. But I really credited that committee for finding the diamond in the rough (and they chose it while neglecting the heavily pushed 13 Reasons Why, by a male author, too!). But, generally, it seems like publisher push helps with awards (and even Best YA Fiction), and that push is more likely to go to males.

As I said, I think this only applies to school and library-type genres, such as problem novels/literary fiction, not what I write anymore. With bookstore-type genres, such as fantasy or chick lit, publishers do push female authors, based on the perception, true or not, that girls are more likely to go to a bookstore and plunk down $17.00 for a hardcover. Of course, some of this bookstore buzz will cross over to librarians because librarians go to bookstores, but this is not the case with literary novels.

Jmho.

[davidlubar]

A lot of great insights and thoughts. Thank you for participating.

[ext_1018631]

My question is this, as a librarian and as a committee participant -- how am I to help change this, if I can? Or, how do I see that it's happening? I'm very glad to be a part of this discussion here precisely because I'm getting a window into something we librarians just don't see. We don't observe or understand the machinations of publishers the way that you authors do, so I'm very keen to understand why this is the case and if it is, how we might help both see it and change it from our end of things.

One other comment I might add is as follows: while I do mainly read library journal reviews, and librarian-run blogs, and read listservs like YALSA-BK, do not take those to be the only things we librarians consider. They may be the most visible, especially in the case of the very chatty YALSA-BK, but I can tell you -- the majority of teen librarians I know are NOT necessarily chatting on YALSA-BK, or even reading it at all. It's a lot to keep up with.

Also, to give committee members credit (like the ones you discussed with Repossessed and the Printz honor), we do our best to find just that kind of book -- the one's people aren't talking about but are worth taking a look at. We all read widely and in different genres and types, and we all take each other's suggestions very seriously as to what to consider. We also, of course, talk to our teens, as ultimately that's who it's all about.