Telling Readers What to Read and Authors What to Write By S.C. Wynne
Good morning!
Most people know that this week, yet again, our genre exploded with drama. This rant from a certain element comes around every few months; the horror of women writing gay romance. It's usually the same players too. Every time it simply shows again that these angry authors just don't get what it is that makes books sell. They don't want to write to the readers market, they want to tell the readers what they're allowed to read. That's not how the market works. Whether you're talking about selling gay romance or pies, the consumer is who decides what the market is.
I get the feeling this type of angry male author doesn't understand why something sells. They seem very bitter that other authors, largely female, sell more books. They seem to want to drive female authors out of mm romance. But the thing is, this angry author in question is writing gay fiction. He's catering to a different audience. He isn't writing mm romance, so why is he so angry at those who do write mm romance who are successful? He accuses female authors who write to market as not being allies. Apparently we're evil for writing stories that readers actually want to read? Our stories aren't realistic enough .Well... we're not writing biographies. We're writing romantic FICTION. Our mm romance characters are no more realistic than the millions of stories written in MF FICTION. We aren't obligated to reflect true life. We're writing romance. Silly, entertaining fun stories that end happily. Why is that a problem?
This particular angry male author seems to be under the impression that we as authors have trained the readers to read what we want them to read. Um... nope. WRONG. The readers BUY what they enjoy. Authors don't drive the market, the readers do. THE READERS DRIVE THE MARKET. We can't force them to read what they don't enjoy. It's their money. It's their time. We have NO BUSINESS telling readers what they are allowed to read. Shaming readers will never work. It will not produce a profitable career. All authors can do, men, women and gender fluid authors, all we can do is write to what the readers want, if we are going to have a successful career. We can scream and throw a tantrum if we want, but it will change NOTHING. This holds true in MF books as well. Readers drive the market in all genres.
As a woman author of mm romance, I personally find it exhausting having to justify WHY I write the books I write. I don't owe anybody an explanation. Ever since this man's ranting post, I see women authors all over Facebook trying to explain and justify why they write what they write. I call bullshit. We don't owe anyone an explanation of why we write what we write.
I also don't feel ashamed that I need to make money writing my stories. This is my job. This is how I support my family. There's nothing wrong with that. But I'll tell you this, writing is damn hard work, and as much as I love it, I doubt I'd put in ten hours a day doing it if I didn't make money writing. Whether I love to write or not, my family needs to eat.
I don't tend to weigh in on this stuff. As I said before, it comes around every few months. But this time, some of the things said were so horribly offensive, I felt moved to let off some steam. I'm very happy that the majority of readers have no ideas this drama is even happening. Thank God.
S.C.
www.scwynne.com
Most people know that this week, yet again, our genre exploded with drama. This rant from a certain element comes around every few months; the horror of women writing gay romance. It's usually the same players too. Every time it simply shows again that these angry authors just don't get what it is that makes books sell. They don't want to write to the readers market, they want to tell the readers what they're allowed to read. That's not how the market works. Whether you're talking about selling gay romance or pies, the consumer is who decides what the market is.
I get the feeling this type of angry male author doesn't understand why something sells. They seem very bitter that other authors, largely female, sell more books. They seem to want to drive female authors out of mm romance. But the thing is, this angry author in question is writing gay fiction. He's catering to a different audience. He isn't writing mm romance, so why is he so angry at those who do write mm romance who are successful? He accuses female authors who write to market as not being allies. Apparently we're evil for writing stories that readers actually want to read? Our stories aren't realistic enough .Well... we're not writing biographies. We're writing romantic FICTION. Our mm romance characters are no more realistic than the millions of stories written in MF FICTION. We aren't obligated to reflect true life. We're writing romance. Silly, entertaining fun stories that end happily. Why is that a problem?
This particular angry male author seems to be under the impression that we as authors have trained the readers to read what we want them to read. Um... nope. WRONG. The readers BUY what they enjoy. Authors don't drive the market, the readers do. THE READERS DRIVE THE MARKET. We can't force them to read what they don't enjoy. It's their money. It's their time. We have NO BUSINESS telling readers what they are allowed to read. Shaming readers will never work. It will not produce a profitable career. All authors can do, men, women and gender fluid authors, all we can do is write to what the readers want, if we are going to have a successful career. We can scream and throw a tantrum if we want, but it will change NOTHING. This holds true in MF books as well. Readers drive the market in all genres.
As a woman author of mm romance, I personally find it exhausting having to justify WHY I write the books I write. I don't owe anybody an explanation. Ever since this man's ranting post, I see women authors all over Facebook trying to explain and justify why they write what they write. I call bullshit. We don't owe anyone an explanation of why we write what we write.
I also don't feel ashamed that I need to make money writing my stories. This is my job. This is how I support my family. There's nothing wrong with that. But I'll tell you this, writing is damn hard work, and as much as I love it, I doubt I'd put in ten hours a day doing it if I didn't make money writing. Whether I love to write or not, my family needs to eat.
I don't tend to weigh in on this stuff. As I said before, it comes around every few months. But this time, some of the things said were so horribly offensive, I felt moved to let off some steam. I'm very happy that the majority of readers have no ideas this drama is even happening. Thank God.
S.C.
www.scwynne.com
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