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| Katharine Quarmby |
Recently
historical fiction has been selling well with the success of such series as George
RR Martin's Game of Thrones which
combines fantasy and history for vivid effect and also Hilary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies.
Many of the
writers of historical fiction happen to be women and they have found that in
order to achieve sales to men they have to publish under gender non specific
names such as - SJ Parris, Al Berridge, MJ Carter, MC Scott.
As stated in
the Sunday Times magazine (P.Nicol Dec
2013) when writer Miranda Scott published her Rome espionage series as
Miranda her readership was 80% female/ 20% male, yet when she published as MC
Scott her readers shifted to 50/ 50 male/female.
Philippa
Gregory author of the White Queen holds 7 of the top 20 titles and Cornwell is
the only male author in the top 15 of best selling historical fiction. .
It should be
noted also (!) that not ALL women
writers of historical fiction are writing romance tales and that some write of bloody
war adventures and intrigue.
Women will
read male writers and watch male movies and it helps women to understand the
male psyche. A male writer wrote recently that if men want to understand women
then they should read the books on women's book shelves and watch the tv and
films that women enjoy!
Cathy
Renzenbrink, reviewer The Bookseller, ' While
more women read books, there is more attention in book-review pages to books
written by men. Hilary
Mantel's Bring up the Bodies, the
second in her Thomas Cromwell series, was a best seller in 2013. She holds the top and third place in the best
sellers list and she says,' It is the
nature of the World that men and women take men more seriously.'
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| Elif Şafak |
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| Noo Sara-Wiwa |
