Do we actually want extra male novelists?

‘Wright here have all of the literary blokes gone?” is a query that has popped up in bookish discussions and op-eds every now and then in recent times. Who’re this era’s hotshot younger male novelists, the trendy incarnations of the Amis/McEwan/Rushdie crew of the 80s?

The query flared once more this week as author Jude Cook dinner launched a new press, Conduit Books, which plans to focus, no less than initially, on publishing male authors.

Cook dinner says the publishing panorama has modified “dramatically” during the last 15 years as a response to the “poisonous male-dominated” scene of the 80s, 90s and 00s. Now, pleasure in publishing circles centres on a “new breed of younger feminine authors, spearheaded by Sally Rooney et al”. Whereas that is “solely proper as a well timed corrective”, the side-effect is that male authors are “typically neglected”, their voices deemed problematic.

Are male novelists truly in decline? Some metrics definitely say so: of all of the writers to look on the weekly Sunday Occasions bestseller lists for fiction hardbacks thus far this 12 months, only a third are males.

Nevertheless, there are a number of methods to chop the pie. Although girls dominate the fiction charts, Richard Osman’s novels took the highest two spots for probably the most books offered within the UK final 12 months. Whereas the 2024 Booker prize shortlist featured 5 girls and one man, the 2023 checklist had extra folks referred to as Paul than girls.

In nonfiction the image is clearer: males make up 63% of authors to characteristic on the Sunday Occasions nonfiction hardback bestseller lists thus far this 12 months and 70% of these on the nonfiction paperback charts, with titles similar to Atomic Habits by James Clear persevering with to promote effectively years after publication.

Writers and publishing insiders disagree over the extent of the gender imbalance in fiction, and the extent to which that imbalance is a priority.

“It’s certainly the case that publishers are discovering it more and more troublesome to interrupt out male writers, as [publisher] Hannah Westland famous a number of years in the past”, mentioned Neel Mukherjee, writer of novels together with The Lives of Others. In 2021, Westland informed the Observer that the “paths to success” are narrower for male writers.

“There is no such thing as a doubt male voices speaking about male experiences – in center age particularly – are usually not getting a lot traction amongst businesses and publishers for the time being,” mentioned one male agent, who requested to stay nameless. Nevertheless, males are “hardly underrepresented within the leisure trade, and they should earn their place as a lot as anybody else”.

Males “ought to make the work and let everybody determine if it’s value anybody’s time, fairly than fake they’re a minority within the arts”, says Sheena Patel, writer of I’m a Fan. “I really feel like males are doing simply high-quality.”

Madeleine Milburn, who runs the main literary company of the identical identify, thinks we do want extra male novelists. “There was definitely a time after we wanted extra feminine novelists, notably within the areas of crime and suspense, so I’m thrilled that female-led psychological suspense continues to be so standard, however the pendulum in the end must land someplace within the center,” she mentioned.

Whereas Milburn is “excited” about Conduit Books, she believes “we additionally want extra male editors buying fiction within the areas males wish to learn”. The most recent Publishers Affiliation workforce survey means that 68% of publishing workers are girls.

One other feminine agent mentioned that class could also be a “larger situation than gender relating to what’s being printed”. Missing racial illustration additionally continues to be an issue: only one particular person of color appeared on every of the Prime 10 fiction and nonfiction hardback bestseller lists final week, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for fiction and Roxie Nafousi for nonfiction.

Luke Brown, the writer of My Greatest Lie and Theft, mentioned he is aware of “so many working-class males from my era who bought into studying fiction via Irvine Welsh, for instance, as a result of it spoke to a world they recognised”.

Welsh himself says that “males want to begin studying earlier than they begin writing. My take is that males have gotten stupider as a result of they over-rely on the web and ladies have gotten smarter as a result of they learn extra books.”

Certainly, some counsel the decline of male novelists being commissioned is because of low demand from males. In 2024, 37% of fiction purchases within the UK had been made by males, in response to NielsenIQ BookData. Whereas girls purchase extra books total, having made 58% of all e-book purchases final 12 months, males purchase extra nonfiction (55% v 45% purchased by girls).

“Males must learn girls and I believe girls ought to learn males,” says Brown. “It’s one of many nice methods we are able to come to grasp one another higher”.

Cook dinner’s new enterprise met with some criticism on-line. Nevertheless, Mukherjee mentioned that the undertaking comes from a place that’s “the alternative of Farage-ist grievance or misogyny-driven rabble-rousing.”

“Little doubt there might be loads of hand-wringing about this, and condemnation” he added. “However writing and publishing are usually not zero-sum video games.”