Last week the Christy Awards were announced and I made some comments that, I’m sure, won’t endear me to some folks. Over at Becky Miller’s A Christian Worldview of Fiction, she perused the list and, as Becky is wont to do, commented on the absence of a Visionary or Sci-Fi / Fantasy category. I took it a step further with these comments:
I find it equally disturbing that, of the twenty-five nominees, only five are men. Apart from Women’s Fiction comprising over half of all CBA fiction, I’ve often wondered how the proliferation of women affects and shapes the industry. Is it possible that the absence of sci-fi/fantasy categories is part of that tilt? The only consolation is that, of the three nominated SpeFic authors, two are men. You go, Guys!
I’ve never been accused of being the most tactful bloke on the block. And my follow-up comments probably didn’t help matters. Nevertheless, I did not receive hate mail or get pummeled by rotten tomatoes. And really, it’s a legitimate question.
The typical estimates are that women readers comprise 80-90% of the market. Apart from the rhetoric or perceived chauvinism, the female-leaning demographic must influence and shape the industry. How? I’m not exactly sure. It personally disturbs me that so many “Christian books” look like 
Little House on the Prairie or Harlequin wannabes. But is this wrong? If the CBA is primarily aiming for women readers, isn’t this the natural outcome?
Of course, there is plenty of intelligent, finely-crafted Women’s Fiction. I would be remiss to suggest that all Christian women read or write this stuff. I’d probably also be wrong to infer that all of it is actually bad (in a literary sense). But, in the case of the Christy’s (and the CBA in general), since men traditionally gravitate toward the Spec-Fic / Sci-Fi / Fantasy categories, this could explain its absence. If the industry is tilted toward women, then Men’s Fiction will continue to struggle and we should get accustomed to the disproportionate male to female Christy split.
As much as I’d love to unveil some conspiracy, the discrepancy may ultimately go back to the shortage of male readers. For whatever reasons, men are Absent Without Reading. Blaming something on genetics is
a cheap way out but, in this case, maybe it’s true. Most men aren’t born readers; we’ve an inborn gender deficiency (and please, no bad “man jokes”). Bookninja recently broached the subject, referencing a reading list for reluctant boys. George, at the ninja, suggests that, in order to get boys reading, we should lead them “. . .from comic books with themes similar to where you’d like the boys to end up and work up from there. From X-Men to Dragonlance to Tolkien to ‘X’, kind-of-thing.” It’s an interesting proposal and one I think is valid. However, if men are genetically predisposed to literary sloth, then any attempts to alter the inadequacies amounts to kicking against the goads. In which case, I should get used to the pastels, flowers and GQ caricatures that dominate the shelves of the local Christian bookstore.
It’s a tough question. Amonst the people I know, it is mainly the women I know who read fiction. A lot of the Christian guys I know just don’t read fiction. A few do. I once heard a pastor say he felt it was a waste of time to read fiction. He seemed to feel it was sort of frivilous- that reading non-fiction books was more useful/righteous. Is this a common feeling among Christians? I don’t know. I just checked my recently started list of “books I read and loved this year” on my blog. It’s short- only 11 titles so far, but 7 are by men. I love, love, love good fiction written by men. Peretti, Dekker, Bret Lott, Charles Martin, Leif Egner in the Christian world. I’m nutso about Stephen King right now. And of course, you know I’m a big Duran fan:)
Mike,
I’m not commenting on the sci-fi fantasy thing.
However, you have not been reading current and upcoming releases in Christian Fiction, right?
Tom Morrisey’s In High Places
Randy Alcorn’s Deception
Geoff Woods’ Leaper
Paul Robertson’s The Heir
all come to mind. Great books written by guys telling great stories in well-written and strong voice.
Book for book – yep – you are outnumbered. But honestly, you gotta look at what’s happening right now to get a clearer picture.
The Christy Awards are books released in 2006 – which means they were written and contracted in early 2006, late 2005…up to two years ago.
Robertson and Woods are newbies. And what about Mike Snyder – didn’t he just get a two book contract?
My husband doesn’t read much fiction, but since I’ve started reviewing he’ll grab a book that looks interesting and devour it, so far, all male authors.
He is currently reading Leaper and he laughs out loud. Usually I’m the only one who gets a hearty laugh out of him, that or a great pratfall. Frankly, I’m a little jealous…
I think you might be right about you assumption that SFF suffers from the tilt toward “women’s” genres. But this whole preoccupation with “selling to the target audience” is also to blame, I think. I grew up in an era when books were targeted to readers and everyone was hopefully becoming a reader.
The educational studies are pretty consistent–if you want your boys to be readers, their dads should model reading but even more they should read out loud to their sons.
May not work every time, but it is more successful than NOT reading aloud.
Becky
Thanks for the comments, Kelly! In this post, I’m not concerned with “male writers” as much as I am “male readers.” The fact is, readers shape the market more than writers. It does appear that there is a trend toward more male writers. But even then, a man writing in the CBA must keep in mind that 80% of potential readers are still woman. (It’s one reason why the lead protag in my first novel is a woman. I know, I’m a coward!)
Of the current CBA Fiction Best-seller list, two authors are men and they are THE biggies, Peretti and Dekker. Even more intimidating, of the top 20, only four are men. 4 out of 20! There may be changes, but the Christy Awards parallel what’s currently going on in the industry.
Once again, I am not disputing that there’s more male writers or well-written books by men, but that women still control the conversation, so to speak. My only question is, how does this affect the industry? I think the Christy Awards, namely the absence of a SpecFic category, is a possible indication of the answer. But, as to how to change this trend, I’m clueless.
Mike,
I don’t know the answer to this, but I feel your pain. Less CBA men readers equals less CBA books by men writers equals less CBA books that I want to read equals me shopping in the ABA bookstores. Again.
Honestly, I can only do my small part. Buy CBA guy books when they are really good. Tell people I know about those books. Support those writers by buying their next book, even if I don’t like it quite as much because maybe the book after that will be fantastic and I don’t want their publisher to quit believing in this new voice.
All I know is that change happens slowly. Being aware of the problem is the first step.
As all of this is being discussed, on this blog and others, I realize that my writing falls into some vague netherland can’t-quite-classify it category. Woman writer, man protagonist.
I just know that I only have so many hours a day to devote to my writing. Therefore I have to write something that I love and I have to spend that time with characters I enjoy.
Mike,
I think for some reason, a lot of guys think that reading a book is emasculating.
Where I grew up, if you liked to play tennis or tuck your shirt in, you were considered gay.
-dayle
My 2 pennies worth…
I’m not a big reader fiction or non-fiction. Mostly because it is difficult for me to take the time to sit and read a book because I tend to be a slower reader.
When I get hooked, I want to stay up all night reading, which ain’t great when ya gotta get up and go to work the next morning.
When I do read, I enjoy good fiction, but as you have lamented not that long ago, it can be tough to find.
So in line with what Janet wrote, I find that if I have the time to read, I feel like it might be time better spent if I’m reading something non-fiction and aimed at learning something rather than reading for pleasure. The only fiction books I read like crazy were Louis L’Amour westerns and it has been probably 20 years since I’ve done that.
Then there is my son who is a voracious reader: fiction / non-fiction, it doesn’t matter; he’ll gobble up anything that even remotely interests him (not something he learned from me).
For me… Life gets in the way. Bad excuse, huh?
David, (hopefully, Mike won’t mind me responding to his commenters!)
I don’t think you need an “excuse.” It’s partly personality and lifestyle. My husband is a great guy- a fireman who run his own landscaping side-business on his days off from the firehouse. He works like crazy and when he gets a break he hangs out with our daughters, playing board games or playing in the back yard. He is not a reader. The man hasn’t read a book since I met him 13 years ago. He reads instruction manuals, training material on firehouse procedure, magazines about tractors. He reads his Bible on Sunday at church, and that’s it. Once in a while he’ll read something I wrote, but he has no desire to read a fiction book and I’m fairly certain he never will. He’s busy living life. And that’s okay.
my best friend has two sons – one in forth grade and one finishing pre-K. her forth grader reads all the time, but he’s run out of stuff to read. there’s lots of stuff … relatively … for girls to read. but the stuff for boys is very limited. i told her she needs to write fiction books for boys so they have something to read. i hope she does … she’s extremely intelligent, reads continuously, and has a good knowledge of what young boys will read.
perhaps, one big creator of such a gap is the lack of good books for boys to read as they grow up and grow out of The Magic Tree House books.
Well, if I was a guy, I might be lamenting my choices in CBA fiction as well. It’s clearly dominated by titles for women. And what that does is continue to keep women readers, but not attract males ones. Duh.
As far as the Visionary Christy–they’ve had that category for years. Even in years where there were fewer volumes of “visionary” novels published than last year. And it’s been won mainly by women (mainly by Hancock), but men have not been shut out. 🙂
I hope the category exists next year, because some very interesting novels have come or will com out this year that would qualify: SAVING ERASMUS, DEMON: A MEMOIR, THE RESTORER, THE LEGEND OF THE FIREFISH, THE RETURN OF THE GUARDIAN-KING, FEARLESS, and so on.
But clearly, if you want to write for the CBA, you’d be best off grooving on romance or Women’s Fiction, unless you can get Ted Dekker as a mentor for spiritual/horror/thrillers. 🙂
Mir
Oh, and this same conversation went on in secular SF fandom due to the male domination of the Hugo Awards.
Discussion included the possibility that women can value stuff written by men and women, whereas men want “guy stuff” and don’t read equally “girl stuff”. Women grew up reading men (those dead white guys) in school, so we can read “guy stuff” and “girl stuff”. Women can read hardcore horror, action SF, dark fantasy. Do men read Chick Lit and romance with equal gusto?
I can read a hard SF and a smoochy romance. How many guys reading hard SF ALSO regularly read Christian romances or Women’s Fiction?
Yeah, I’ll wait while you find the one guy over there in Timbuktu who does.
Mir
Oh, one more: Since the roster of male writers is at least as long as female writers–given how often both genders show up on bestselling lists–how can one say men don’t read? Those male writers came from male readers. When I was in line for Harry Potter a couple years ago, it was as many, if not slightly more, guys than gals.
And all those copies of THE DA VINCI CODE didn’t just go to the ladies. 🙂
If SF readers are primarily male (although if it’s all fantasy and sci-fi and horror mushed together, I dunno. Might be split), then, hey, men read.
So, since reading used to include plenty of men, why has that changed? Would they rather play video games or something?
Mir