Romance and female readers

Liot · Post by **Liot** » 10 Sep 2014, 04:20

This is one for the female readers:

When looking for a Romance to read do you deliberately, or perhaps subconsciously, only look at books of that genre written by women? if you knew it was written by a man, would it put you off?

As a male author writing womens' fiction I use my non gender specific name of Fran Connor rather than my full name of Francis Connor. Does that annoy you?

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 10 Sep 2014, 04:41

Personally? I don't care either way.
I have been able to tell the gender of an author by their writing. I can't explain how I could tell but I could.
I may have read a male romantic author before and not known it...

Who knows?

People were judging women authors a few years ago for writing fantasy/urban fantasy...now they seem to be taking over.
There are pros and cons in both situations.

Besides, like you were saying, that's what pen names/pseudonyms are for.
Everybody uses them, whether openly or not, so whatever works for you.

Interesting topic though...

Airam Velarde · Post by **Airam Velarde** » 10 Sep 2014, 20:54

Personally, I never choose a book based on whether it was written by a man or a woman. I know that it does happen quite often that people are judged because they write in a certain genre that is stereotypical of the opposite sex. For example if a woman writes sci-fi or if a man writes romance. But I think that if a book is good, then I will enjoy it, regardless of whether it was written by a man or a woman.

Alden Loveshade · Post by **Alden Loveshade** » 10 Sep 2014, 21:11

Graverobber wrote:Personally? I don't care either way.
I have been able to tell the gender of an author by their writing. I can't explain how I could tell but I could.
I may have read a male romantic author before and not known it...

I participated in a survey a few months or so ago where we would read a passage from a romance novel and then say whether we thought it was written by a man or a woman. The main thing I saw was that the style of writing seemed to reflect more the time and place it was written than the author's gender.

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 10 Sep 2014, 21:40

Alden Loveshade wrote:I participated in a survey a few months or so ago where we would read a passage from a romance novel and then say whether we thought it was written by a man or a woman. The main thing I saw was that the style of writing seemed to reflect more the time and place it was written than the author's gender.

Awhile back, right after I had gotten into reading The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, I was trying to find male, urban fantasy authors.(I have read male and female urban fantasy for years now.) Anyway...I found some promising new series.

I started the Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman.
(This is a wonderfully dark and intense urban fantasy series by the way.)
I told everyone around me that I couldn't believe the series was written by a man. The writing just "felt" feminine to me.
For the first few books I was in shock.
Not that the writing was better or worse than the male authors I'd read, just different. I still couldn't wrap my head around it.
Then I got the next book in the series...(I have a thing about reading the about the author pages in books)...it told that Rob was short for Robyn...and that yes he was really a she.

I didn't know what to think.
I don't know how I knew but I did.
Maybe it's my talent? I think I got shorted if it is.

Also, side note...I think women are more likely to...
1 write character driven novels
2 be pantsters instead of plotters

Exceptions of course are expected...
And it's just my opinion.
But I still don't know how I knew.

L_Therese · Post by **L_Therese** » 11 Sep 2014, 04:31

I don't think the author's sex has ever been a factor in my conscious decision-making process, but I'm sure I'll be paying more attention now to find out if I tend to read more male or female authors.

helenWall · Post by **helenWall** » 11 Sep 2014, 15:55

I never choose books based on gender of the author regardless of what type of book it is. I find a good author writes within their capabilities and does their research before writing a story.

RebekaV · Post by **RebekaV** » 20 Sep 2014, 19:00

I don't choose books by the author's gender either. I look at the cover and the summary and give it a shot before deciding if the writer is good or not. If the story interests me I don't care if it was written by a man or woman or if they used a pen name or their full name. I do like however if I can tell the author's gender by their name.

Melsabelle · Post by **Melsabelle** » 20 Sep 2014, 19:11

I love romance books, and I must admit I do tend to go for the female authors. Not sure if that's subconscious on my part, or there just aren't that many male ones!

If I read a good romance novel by who I thought was a female author, and I discovered it was a male I would be impressed rather than put off!

mrsallen7114 · Post by **mrsallen7114** » 20 Sep 2014, 19:26

I confess -- I probably wouldn't even notice the author's gender. It makes no difference to me!

SparklingOne · Post by **SparklingOne** » 20 Sep 2014, 19:31

The sex of the writer makes no difference to me. I do think most romance novels are read by females perhaps not exclusively though to be fair. I loved The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks. I've read most Nora Roberts and Stephanie Laurens books as well. If you were to choose books based on whether they were a man or woman you would probably cut down your options. Also you never truly know who an author is if the use a pen name anyway. There have been many writers both female and male who have used a pseudonym of the opposite sex when publishing works.

hollirm · Post by **hollirm** » 21 Oct 2014, 23:22

I find nothing wrong with changing your name on a book. I mean, look at Stephen king's son is also a author, but he didn't want people to read his books just because of who his father was. Therefore he changed his name. I personally don't care it its a male or female author, if the books' good, the books' good. Men are just as capable to write a wonderful romance book. Look at Nicholas Sparks, wonderful author of wonderful romantic books.

mellysw · Post by **mellysw** » 21 Oct 2014, 23:40

I would actually probably be more likely to buy a romance book written by a male author, just out of curiosity. Plus I would feel like I was supporting a rare wild beast no one ever saw. We should start up the Institute for Conservation of Male Romance Authors.

Anyway...I rarely pay attention to the sex of authors. Half the time I rarely pay attention to authors at all.

Cenna · Post by **Cenna** » 22 Oct 2014, 00:05

I don't care, but I found that I ended up reading a lot of books by female authors. But it doesn't make much of a difference. If the book is good and I enjoyed it, who cares really.