From the ‘You can please some of the people some of the time’ file
Author: Hoger
The announcement by Realms of Fantasy it will do a ‘Women in Fantasy” issue has opened up another round of discussion about how the under-representation of female writers in some short fiction markets can be addressed. The announcement that their August 2011 issue will feature fiction, non-fiction and art by female writers has set off a fairly wide-ranging discussion.
There’s not a lot of great data on this out there but I suspect some of the under-representation problem – though far from all – is a flow-through issue. Part of the reason female writers are under-represented in various anthologies and magazines may be that they are under-represented in the number of submissions.
And this is where I’m mostly interested in – and supportive of – the move from Realms. Announcing the issue so far in advance should encourage more female writers to submit. Hopefully that might go beyond just one issue but only time will tell.
Plenty of people are dissing the move and it’s also being conflated with a poor choice of language (which has been apologised for) when the announcement was made. But I think there’s value in it. Unlike a one-off antho, a magazine can address issues like this over time. And if this move helps redress an imbalance and encourage more submissions from a broader range of writers, all the better.
It would be an interesting data-set if Realms tracked their submissions on a gender basis this year and next year and see if the announcement has an impact on submissions. Either way, Shawna McCarthy is a great fiction editor and I’m keen to see what she’ll produce.
Tags: Publishing
January 13th, 2010 at 1:03 am
This post has been added to a linkspam round up.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:12 am
“Announcing the issue so far in advance should encourage more female writers to submit. ”
Not if you call us “girls”.
This isn’t feminist knee-jerk; it’s female knee-jerk. I don’t take kindly to being called a girl. Neither do various of the writers who responded.
> Part of the reason female writers are under-represented in various anthologies and magazines may be that they are under-represented in the number of submissions.
In one of the most recent imbroglios, “The Mammoth Book of Mind-Blowing SF”, an anthology that was all-male, the anthologist admitted that when two invited women had turned him down, he had not solicited any more. That was an invited anthology; the number of submissions had nothing to do with it.
Another example would be the recent ” British Fantasy Society’s In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective; Volume One: “, that interviewed only male writers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/22/horror-sexism-fantasy-society.
I’m afraid you can’t write it off as “well, women just don’t submit.”
January 14th, 2010 at 7:20 am
We are in violent agreement.
It was a poor choice of words in the initial call for submissions. I understand why it upset some people. I imagine some writers may choose not to submit because of it but I doubt they’ll lack subs.
And I’m not writing it off as women just not submitting problem. I suspect in some markets that is part of the problem. But it’s not all of it. Far from it.
In any case, I remain supportive of the move from Realms of Fantasy. I think it’s a positive move, not a negative one.