cliterature

While I talk about gender quite a lot, the great thing about writing is that gender isn’t a big deal.  What I mean by that, is that all the author needs to do is to deliver a book that can sell.  It is, to use an analog, like equestrian sports.  There is a reason that equestrian events are the only Olympic events where men and women compete together.  The horse provides the muscular power, the rider provides the training and strategy.  While it is possible that, in subtle ways, men and women tend to ride differently–in terms of quality of performance both do equally as well.  This is apparent in the roughly equal numbers of men and women competing, and standing on the medal dias, in all major types of equestrian event from the more artistic (dressage) to the more athletic (eventing) “genres”.

 Likewise in writing there may be ways in which men and women tend to write differently, but it is something we do with equla skill.  Whether you choose to be compete in a literary, genre, non-fiction or poetry area what you are packing in the genital area is almost never a big part of the equation.  What matters to the agent, editor, and in most cases the reader, judging your prowess is just one thing: the book you rode in on.  If you get get that book over the hurdles, around the course and across the arena without too much bucking and tail-twitching, you will win a publishing contract and a readership. 

In this publishing era the name of the game is horses for courses.  And men and women are equally capable of choosing a market, writing a book, and submitting a manuscript.  And if that activity is not successful there is no point blaming the hurdles, the judges, the horse, or implicating our gender.  It is our job as the author to create a successful book and ride it to victory–and our responsibility if we do not.

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