Are men reading less? Is anyone to blame? Is there a solution?

Other than theft for AI training, (don't worry - I'll get to that in another post) the current popular topic in the online book community, is the idea that men are reading a lot less than they used to, and certainly less than women, and a suggested main reason for this is that despite the huge diversity of books available for anyone to buy, only a few very narrowly defined categories get the benefit of hefty marketing budgets and prominent placing in book shops.

My attention to this topic was first drawn by editor and YouTuber Kristin / The Nonsense-Free Editor, who has plenty to say on it, including responses to those who commented dismissing the idea altogether. Link here: https://youtu.be/VGgMpnHj_-4?si=P4_B5...

Since then the discussion has been all over twitter and I've seen plenty of tweets, acknowledging it, but also celebrating it as justice for a past era where women could hardly find anything to read, leading to a category that somehow still exists called "women's fiction", implying that every other type of fiction is either uninteresting to or unsuitable for women. Apparently we haven't moved on from that, but we certainly do have plenty of other categories of fiction which are loved almost exclusively by women.

I personally don't have a problem with the amount of romantasy and dark romance there is out there. There is an awful lot of it, but there is also a lot of porn in video form which men enjoy, and as long as everyone knows it's not real, and no-one's behaviour is influenced by it then that's absolutely fine. I do find it surprising that for every man who enjoys watching video centred around the abuse of a woman, there's a woman who enjoys reading a book centred around the abuse of a woman, but we all have our kinks, myself included, and as long as fiction stays fiction, and reality stays bound by consent, then as far as I'm concerned, have at!



This morning I came across another YouTube video on the topic from an Australian Indie Author who runs the bald book geek channel. Link here: https://youtu.be/w4Mq7yPQP-Y?si=6H4dS...

The following is based on the comment I left upon watching it:

I think there is something to get out of the "Let's celebrate" type of responses, and that's a clue to how to solve the problem. Men are reading less because the types of books they enjoy aren't spoonfed to the public the way romantasy books are. Fewer books for men are marketed because men are reading less. So the solution must be similar to how women took their place in the market to begin with, and that's for Indie authors who write the types of books those men want to read work together to increase the visibility of their combined work, so that those men among the general public become aware that there are plenty of books out there that they would enjoy. Then in turn those male readers (or any readers of those books), need to get together and discuss the books in a public space, creating their own version of booktok.

Unfortunately nothing will happen on its own. This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. I think it should probably start with the indie authors, but once they get the ball rolling, the responsibility lies with the readers to show that they do truly want these books enough for larger publishers to notice.

I believe a lot of people who say they want more diverse content, films based on original concepts, music untouched by Max Martin, etc. really mean they want diverse content to be vetted for quality, given a healthy budget and marketed heavily to them, so they can then consume it with high confidence that it will satisfy them. The industries will only do that for the tried and tested and copied to death material that has made them money before. So it is up to those who say they want diverse material to take the risk, and buy recordings, books, or cinema tickets to obscure material that no-one can review for them, because it's not very well-known. And before they can do that, they have to look for it and find it in the first place. Some of it will be great. Some will be terrible. A lot will be simply OK. It might not feel worth the effort. But that's the only alternative to getting the same stuff again and again that you claim to be sick of.

If you want to take a punt on something, visit the Fellowship of the Indie Author website, http://www.thefotia.com - or Indiosyncrasy, http://www.indiosyncrasy.com - where you'll find all sorts of diverse content and hopefully something you might enjoy. My own work is there too, but chances are if you're reading this you've already discovered it.