Thursday 20 June 2013

Would you like to see posts by authors recommending their favourite female authors?

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, but before I go ahead with the project - as it will take me time to set up and requires me asking others for time and effort - I want to know if you, my readers, are interested in this idea.

I'm thinking of asking authors to recommend 2 or 3 of their favourite female authors.

It keeps coming up that people in SF/F/H read more men than women and I'd like to help change that.  A few months ago SF Signal did a Mind Meld post for Women in Genre Month entitled: Who are your favorite women in genre?  While it brought out some great responses, I was somewhat disturbed to realize that only female panelists were included, as if only women read (and thereby can recommend) female authors.  I'd like to have a mix of male and female authors give recommendations.

I'm thinking of making it a once a week feature, with each author having their own post to recommend others.

Is this something you'd like to see?  Please leave a comment or vote on my poll (if you're reading this on an RSS feed, please click through and vote).  I'm also interested in if you'd just like suggestions by male authors (for those men who want other men's opinions) or the opinions of other bloggers and/or industry professionals.

*** After talking to my husband and mentioning that I felt a bit uncomfortable only asking for recommendations of books by women (because it does feel a bit like reverse sexism, even if I'm honestly interested in the answer) he suggested asking for recommendations of authors or books that haven't received the recognition they deserve.  I like this idea better, as it opens the field to more inclusive recommendations.  Why shouldn't J. A. Pitts, who has an urban fantasy series with a lesbian protagonist, not be mentioned simply because he's a white dude?

So, let me ask you again (and I'll add it to the survey - you can now vote for more than one category, if you'd like me to query other bloggers and industry professionals as well), if I go ahead with this, would you like to see only recommendations of books by women / female authors or should I rephrase it to include anyone authors feel have written awesome books that need a signal boost?

No comments: