Right now, this is demonstrably false- I wrote not too long ago about scouring the shelves at my local B&N for in-print space opera by women
I want to take a step away from politics to talk about the "only men write SFF, look at the shelves at any bookstore!" thing for a moment...
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It was back in May, I found over 40 distinct women on the shelves right now (I also saw several nb authors then too)https://twitter.com/quartzen/status/864999720468467722 …
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But Barnes and Noble, whose shelves are stocked with a combination of new books and popular backlist, is in constant financial peril lately
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Where do readers find books then? In more curated selections where "everything new" is less of a factor, like libraries and indie bookstores
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Indie bookstores, if not specialized in science fiction and fantasy, may dedicate a shelf or two to the genre, and who's on that shelf? Men.
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(I know, not all indie bookstores! But the ones with diverse shelves I've visited have had SFF genre fans on staff, i.e. specialists)
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(The couple of enduring indies near the college I went to were focused on literature, and carried LotR, ASoIaF, and tie-in novels :/)
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Where else do readers find books? Libraries, which... in my experience looking at shelves and counting, also 90% menhttps://twitter.com/quartzen/status/726473982992650241 …
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And that brings me to the elephant in the room, the digital market, ebooks and eaudiobooks, where a whole lot of SFF fans are now
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Look at a popular work by a bestselling (or even midlist) male SFF author and the "you might like" suggestions are _overwhelmingly_ by men
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Look at promotional emails, and they're overwhelmingly filled with books by men- I got a "best new SFF" email from Audible today, 7/9 by men
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Look at sales, and you will find that the books in the list on sale are also overwhelmingly authored by men! (Audible is especially bad...)
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(I have a thread somewhere I'm not finding where I counted up an Audible sale and found more books by Orson Scott Card than by women total)
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Anyways, my point (so far as I have one) is that I worry that we're heading for unprecedented discoverability issues for SFF not by men :/
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We can fight this by keeping SFF not by men in the conversation, requesting it in spaces like book clubs, libraries, and indie bookstores
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and, for digital markets especially, rating and/or reviewing at vendors' sites where you can to boost rankings in the algorithms too
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(Also review or indicate interest on Goodreads, LibraryThing, if you use social book things like that too I guess!)
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I would also add: if you enjoy books not by men that are bestsellers or that win awards, look into midlist, backlist, and indie titles too!
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(I often see "well of course SFF isn't written only by men, see [list of about 5-10 famous and great women SFF writers everyone knows]!!")
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(But you, dear reader, need not be limited to only a handful of examples, you can have quantity and variety too! There are so many books :D)
End of conversation
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