Guest Blog: Susannah Sandlin: Battle of the Sexes, Author-Style

I realize this is a blog for readers and writers of romance, and most readers and writers of romance are women, but bear with me a moment.

I’m sort of astounded, you see. On my book blog, I recently came across an urban fantasy title by a debut author who respectfully requested, on behalf of her publisher, that her gender not be revealed. In other words, by remaining “gender-neutral,” she is in essence posing as a guy in order to appeal to a broader readership. I went along with her wishes, of course, but it really made me think.

On one hand, I understand the rationale. Survey after survey, blog discussion after blog discussion, male readers have said they are unlikely to read books written by women—or at least are more hesitant to do so. The reasoning? Books written by women are more likely to have that objectionable emotional stuff in them, they say. They can’t identify with the heroines, and the heroes are unbelievable. (I recently wrote a post for this on the Heroes and Heartbreakers blog if you’d like to check it out.)’

On the other hand, I’m kind of outraged, and the more I think about it, the more bothered I am. What does it say about our society, and our industry, if the only way a woman can publish a non-romance title and be accepted by a broad audience of both genders, at least in certain genres, is to pretend to be male or hide behind a “gender-neutral” pen name? By following this marketing rationale, is the publisher being smart, realistic, or perpetuating a cultural stereotype we should be well past?

George Eliot, anyone? George, aka Mary Anne Evans, was one of the most respected of Victorian novelists, who assumed a male pen name so her work would be taken seriously and not lumped in with the romance-driven (and thus not serious) work being written by women. Had she written Middlemarch or Silas Marner under the name Mary Anne Evans, would those books still be considered among the best novels of their time or would they have been dismissed and fallen into obscurity?

Seriously, have we not moved beyond the Victorian age?

(To be fair, this works both ways. The fabulous fantasy author Daniel Abraham writes urban fantasy under the gender-neutral MLN Hanover name, although he’s been open about it. But if you’re scanning book jackets and look at the covers of his Black Sun’s Daughter series, you’d assume the books were written by a woman because of the kickass heroine on the cover, a la urban fantasy.)

It’s a real issue. I’ve had guys—quite a few of them—admit somewhat sheepishly that they liked the first book in my urban fantasy series (under the Suzanne Johnson name), much to their surprise, although a couple wanted assurance that the light romantic element wouldn’t get out of hand in future books. If the series were being written by S.M. Johnson, would it have gotten a bigger male readership? Probably not, because the cover screams GIRL. Gender-neutral’s cover was very, um, gender-neutral, so this was a carefully designed marketing plan on her publisher’s part.

Would guys like the paranormal romance series I write under the Susannah Sandlin name if it were written by S.M. Sandlin? Would my readership double by tricking guys into reading a book written by a woman?

Conversely, am I more likely to read a book written by another women than by a male author? I honestly don’t care. Looking at my shelves of favorite series, it’s about a 60-40 female-to-male ratio.

Maybe instead of trickery I should just look at “gender-neutral” as savvy marketing.

I’ve spent more brain cells than it was probably worth, wondering if I would have gone along with my urban fantasy publisher had they asked me to keep all my blogs, email addresses, Twitter ID, Facebook profile, etc., “gender-neutral.” I don’t know. (I mean, what a pain in the bohonkus. I have enough trouble keeping track of myself without attempting to also create a “gender-neutral” identity!)

What are your thoughts on this? Am I being naïve to wish we’d gone beyond the marginalization of female authors? Would you (or do you) write as a “gender-neutral” author, and has it broadened your market? Are there guys writing romance under women’s pen names for the very same reason?

 BIO:

Susannah Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there are always things that go bump in the night! A journalist by day, Susannah grew up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of Susan Howatch, and always fancied herself living in Cornwall (although she’s never actually been there). Details, details. She also is a fan of Stephen King. The combination of Howatch and King probably explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and Louisiana. Her novel Redemption won the paranormal romance category in the 2011 Chicago North RWA Fire and Ice contest, and is the first of three in a series that debuts this year. Book two, Absolution, will be released September 18 and book three, Omega, on December 18.

BLURB: ABSOLUTION (The Penton Legacy, Book 2)

Release date: October 9, 2012 -Publisher: Montlake Romance

With the vampire world on the brink of civil war over the scarcity of untainted human blood, battle lines are being drawn between the once peaceful vampire and human enclave of Penton, Alabama, and the powerful Vampire Tribunal. When the descendant of a powerful shaman is sent to bring Penton's second-in-command back under Tribunal control, will Glory Cummings help Mirren Kincaid find absolution for his ruthless past, or will she turn him back into the Tribunal's killing machine?

 It’s a town under siege, a powerful warrior in a battle with his past, and the power of one woman who can make the earth move—literally—as the Penton Legacy continues.