Comments on: Pink Ghetto

By: Kathleen Bolton

Kathleen Bolton — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:32:25 +0000

Gaahhh, The Notebook. I read it thinking, wow, Spark ripped off about 100 better romance novels, and yet here he is with the big house and film deals.

I felt that way about the Bridges of Madison County guy too, though.

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By: Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:49:05 +0000

I’m sure there are plenty of women who write serious, literary fiction who we’ll never hear about.

I think Jong has a point re: men and their writings about love. I’ve always wondered about Nicholas Spark’s The Notebook. Would that novel have been as elevated by society if it’d been written by a woman? There’s a novel called A Little Love Story, written by Roland Merullo, that uses a cliched plot device but still has the reviewers–Publisher’s Weekly and Washington Post–struggling to give him kudos (even as readers at Amazon rip his story to shreds).

Dictionary.com gives this as a definition for ghetto: any mode of living, working, etc., that results from stereotyping or biased treatment.

Which writers work under stereotyping? Romance novelists do, without a doubt. But I think literary fiction novelists do, too.

A good thinking post, Kath. Thanks.

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By: thea

thea — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:12:18 +0000

hey, what woman of any generation hasn’t at one time or another stood there banging her head against the wall trying to get some attention for her work? but that is how women are conditioned – to hope that external feedback will give us the validation we need internally. But the bottom line is writing is a business and it means money and if men get the lions share of the attention, then they get the lion’s share of the money. also, stephen king has been dissed by just about every award that could be given, and yet his writing has made so much money for this industry. and maybe what we are forgetting is that writing is an art, not just a business and as such, not everyone can be picasso, but that does not mean our work does not give pleasure to the world, if even for a short time.

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By: Kathleen Bolton

Kathleen Bolton — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:01:44 +0000

“What is “serious” fiction? I think most people consider serious fiction to be that which is called “literary” or that which is NOT stocked on a genre shelf. It is definitely not defined by sales.”

This is a great point, Helen. It seems like “literary” is code for “wonderfully written but lots of work to read,” which is why literary books have low sales. IMO of course.

As for men cross gender shopping, mine will clear an afternoon to read Mary Higgins Clark or Laura Lippman but maybe he’s unusually enlightened (hmmm, I WANT to think that ;-)).

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By: Helen Ginger

Helen Ginger — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:36:39 +0000

You bring up many questions and I’m sure there are just as many answers and viewpoints. I do believe it’s more difficult for women to get published outside the “women’s” genres, like chicklit, romance, cozy mysteries, etc. Women authors get reviewed less frequently — look at the mission statement of Sisters in Crime and their monitoring project. Publishers are looking to make back the money they spend on publishing a book. To do that, the book must sell well. Just looking at my own personal experience, men (husband and son) buy books by male authors. Women (myself and daughter) buy books by both men and women. Yet, consider the statistics from Romance Fiction — romance fiction represents 39.3 percent of all fiction sold. That’s a big chunk of sales ($1.2 billion each year), yet you’re unlikely to see a romance writer win a major award outside of those given within the genre. Content Connections did a Women and Books 2007 Survey trying to ascertain the reading habits of women. The results were announce at BEA, but are not up on their website yet. What is “serious” fiction? I think most people consider serious fiction to be that which is called “literary” or that which is NOT stocked on a genre shelf. It is definitely not defined by sales.

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