It’s Not Chick Lit, It’s Me
Originally posted at Uncreated Conscience.
The Ur-Chick Lit Novel
A while back, I mentioned on Twitter that I did not like chick lit. This is causing me a wee bit of stress as a large portion of the submissions we receive can fall into the realm of “chick lit”, meaning I am more reluctant to read them in favor of other submissions.
One of the great things about Cap’n Sweet Valley and me as a team is that we tend to balance each other out in terms of taste. Cap’n Sweet Valley tends to like more pop and/or commercial fiction where I like more “upmarket” literary-ish, quirky things, as well as genre and historical. (I am a big advocate of genre, especially fantasy and science fiction.)
Where we cannot see eye-to-eye, however, is this niche of fiction called “chick lit”. I try to be open-minded, I really do, and I especially try not to be pejorative or contemptuous of those who like it because I know what it’s like to wholeheartedly love a genre (fantasy) that literary snobs tend to look down on. Also, as Emily Giffin (a St. Martin’s Press author) and Sophie Kinsella would attest, it sells pretty well, and we’re in the business of selling a lot of books.
Read the rest of this entry »