cliterature

Realms of Fantasy is closing, John Updike has died of lung cancer, Diamond (the main distributor for indy comic books) is becoming less accessable, In a continuing trend Borders is choosing not to carry the latest book by highly popular author L Bujold. In the world of words (and making money there-from) things, frankly, could be better.  But what’s a grrl to do?  I like to read and I like to write, and the entertainment genres do tend to stay boutant even in a downturn.  But perhaps it is not surprise which picture of mine has made the most sales of late:

The more I think about it the more I see it.  It is often said of women that they fancy the bad boy, but they marry a good man.  But isn’t the same story told just as often about men?  Even Puss in Boots, the “cat” is willing to doing anything for the miller’s son, even thought see is set aside for the princess.  And most recently I have been reading an old adventure/romance called, robustly, The Pirate and the Lady, by Leslie Turner White (Ace, 1961).

The blurb and inside synopsis is very focused on the relationship between the pirate and his “insatiable” lady.  The lady, Genevieve, is a gorgeous 40-year-old who married to avoid the unfortunate fate of a cavalier family on the losing side, and found the respectable husband she never loved to be unpleasant and impotent,  and proceeded to cuckold him–repeatedly.  By the end of chapter two she has been surprised in bed with a sea captain by her outraged husband, shot him dead, protected and cunningly implicated her lover, and made a break for America with him to escape justice.

My kind of woman.

The sad-but-true aspect of the story is that this is not the woman the pirate marries in the final chapter.  That is, as usual, a juvenile daughter of an influential father whom the pirate has greatly impressed–the father being an earl who will get the pirate a knighthood as well as a wife (So sue me, the pirate and the father seem more in love than any other couple in the book).  And Genevieve?  Said father of the groom brushes her off in the closing scene:  ”Faint heart n’er won fair lady … As for your affair with the Lady Genevieve, that can be chalked off to experience.”

Overall it is a rather interesting book, being an adventure romance not clearly aimed at only men or only women. But it does seem that if there is an exciting older, femme fatale in the bed during act one, there with be a wedding to a princess in the epilogue. Just like the gay stories that end with some kind of suicide, or career woman old movies where she proves to the man that she is his equal… then marries him and quits work to raise the kids.  (Eat the cake too?  I don’t think so!)

Just like a woman might date James Dean, but marry Pat Boone –it seems men are meant to fantasize about fooling around with Lilith before they settle down with Eve. And when it comes right down to it, it looks like double standards right across the board. Of course, I am still reading this book (you caught me, I skipped over and read the last chapter ahead of time) and haven’t yet discovered the ultimate fate of fiesty Genevieve–keep your fingers crossed for her.  Maybe she settles down with a hot Jamaican and lives lustily ever after (however I suspect not).

The preface of Dr Smith’s Smaller Classical Mythology (a.k.a. A Smaller Classical Mythology: With Translations from the Ancient Poets, and Questions Upon the Work) states: “The following work has been prepared by a lady, for the use of schools and young persons of both sexes.  In common with many other teachers, she has long felt the want of a consecutive account of the Heathen Deities, which might safely be placed in the hands of the young.”

What do I think about this, let me count the thoughts:

#1: So Dr Smith’s Smaller Classical Mythology was not written by Dr Smith.  The work was in fact “drawn up under his superintendence” at which point he put his name not only on the cover, but in the title as it is printed on the spine of the book.

#2: The female author of the actual volume is not even named.

#3: The involvement of a lady writer is implied as helping in removing (I imagine with some difficulty) the sexual references from ancient Greek mythology.

#4: No wonder there is an association between women and book writing.  Because during a period ranging roughly from the mid-eighteen century to the Edwardian period when this book was published many women from reasonably well-off or traditionally higher class (but sometimes impoverished) families were very well educated–but barred from almost every profession.  The only way a woman of education but little fortune could earn money was as a teacher or as an author (or in this case, both).  And the feminization of these professions extends to some extent to the present day.

#5: At least 10 editions were printed within the life of the books copyright.  I wonder how much the “lady” was paid for her scholarship and authorship.

#6: I would love to somehow, no matter how belatedly, discover the name of the actual author of the Smaller Classical Mythology, but does anyone know how this could be done?  Because the copy I own (a 1905 10th edition) credits only William Smith as the “editor” and other version available online (i.e the 1882 original) simply state the book is “by” William Smith.

 p.s. 5 bonus points for anyone who can come up with the author’s name.  (Current point tally–Judi: 1, Boone: 1).  You my exchange 100 points for a toaster, or one of my scissor sculptures–whichever you prefer.

The most recent survey that I can find* states that only 12% of romance novels with a contemporary setting included the use of condoms (in 2000)–and in several novels the heroine is shown as rejecting condom use when the hero mentions it. In the same study undergraduates who read romance novels had less favorable attitudes to condoms and were less likely to use them. I have two somewhat conflicting thoughts that relate to whether contemporary romance novels should depict safe sex.Firstly, I feel fiction should not be socially engineered. Authors should be free to write (publishers to manufacture and retailer to sell) any material they they wish. The contents of a novel may influence, but never cause a reader’s behavior. The reader remains responsible for what they read, and for everything they subsequently do. In fact, research is very ambiguous about how fiction may affect behavior. Most studies taken to show that media (such as television) influence behavior (such as violence) probably relate more to the suggestion of a permissive environment–rather than an effect on temperament or long term behavioral tendencies.

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.

The following is just my personal  opinion based on seven years of writing and publishing erotic romance ebooks.  Your mileage may vary :)

 1) Why do you want to know about your readers?
You want them to buy your book, right? It is hard, and in most cases impossible, to make a person want your book.  Books are diverse, consumers are diverse–you have to play the overlap.  That is, you do not grab the nearest person and try to force their book into their hands; you try to find the people who would love to buy your book if only they knew about it.  In old style marketing terms this is called the ’soft sell’.  Using it is more often a matter of finesse than great effort and expense.  And bear in mind that your publisher will have done an enormous amount of ground work because in a general sense your readers and their readers will be the same readers.  You just need to piggy back on their efforts with  message fine-tuned for your specific material.  Finally, this is something of a cliche, but nevertheless true: the best way to spend your time is writing the next book.  Promote in your extra time.

 2) What do you want to know about your readers?

You should not approach you readers like you are writing a police blotter, nailing down their age, gender, race, nationality and so forth.   Thinking demographically leads into a number of fallacies such as the consequential fallacy.  Two examples of this incorrect reversal of thinking are 1) Harlequin’s: because most of our customers are woman, what we provide is what all women want and 2) Ellora’s Cave’s initial disinterest in gay romance because their customers were women, they were women, so whatever they were not interested in, their customers would not be interested in (not so!).  Try not to assume that even if 99% of your readers are female, or American (or whatever) that they all are–this may lead you to use language that excludes the minority group or implies their interest in your work is abnormal.  What you want to know about your readers is what they like about your writing.  The easiest way to discover this is to observe them (have your pen name on a Google Alert and lurk) and to ask them.  Your readers will be buying your book because it does something for them.  It might be the erotica, the prose styling, the complex plotting, the world building, it may be as specific as a certain fetish.  You can then look for those readers in places devoted to that interest such as your publisher’s yahoogroup, fetish forums, genre chats, specialist review sites etc.  And don’t forget, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.  If a reader has bought your books once or twice before they may do so again.  So try to reprise popular themes with a new twist, develop series and build up a backlist, preferably at a limited number of publishers with decent distribution abilities–and provide a book listing in your website.

3) What do readers want to know about you?

In most cases, nothing.  Really.  There are a lot of very active online sites where readers and authors can mix but the great majority of readers will buy your book and that is it.  Attitudes are mixed when it comes to how much authors should share online.  My attitude is that I am online not as an author, but as me.  Your may take a different approach (e.g. building your author brand assertively online, or surfing under a different name entirely).  In my case, writing is not my primary income so I can afford not to care.  I would suggest that it pays to have a fairly relaxed attitude to the internet no matter who you are.  Readers will tend to stereotype authors just as we stereotype them.  Erotica writers are easy (or frigid).  Romance writers are stupid and unimaginative.  People will say stuff online, swathed in relative anonymity, and some of it might not be pleasant–but most of it will blow over very quickly if you extenuate the positive and gloss over the rest.  In the end if you don’t stereotype your readers, do appreciate them, and try not to act like an ass (too often) — most of them will do the same.  And not only will you sell books, you will sell them to people who will enjoy them, and a good time will be had by all. :)

I don’t know how many times I have heard a nice line or two of poetry used as a ‘love poem’ and done a double-take. The thing is, a lot of these so called poems are not about loving a someone, not at all. And I am not sure who is dumber, the guy that uses them so ineptly or a female who falls for it (or male, Shakespeare’s ‘bud’–to whom the following poem was addressed–was quite possibly male). Can we show a little more erudition in this area? The first poem I would like to see banished from screen, book or–God forbid–real life wooing this this one. Allow me to explain, and translate.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

You’re hot.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But you’re going to get old and ugly.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

My poetry, however, rocks–and will last forever.

So there we have it. This icon of love poetry is in fact really about the male ego. So any man using this poem is basically say his ability to praise you is probably more important that any beauty you might–fleetingly–possess.  So let’s drop the darling buds and research a little further.  Shakespeare’s poetry did rock, but he wasn’t really a role model in terms of romance.  Or at least I doubt the wife and children he deserted to pursue his career thought he was.

 Heck, you might want to try writing your own poems.  They may suck as verse, but they will express real feelings better than soundbites from a piece of pretty egotism–and in my book it really is the thought that counts.