In a recent newspaper article, novelist Ian Mc-Ewan proclaimed: ”When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.” He and his son had sorted through the McEwan bookshelves and found a number of duplicates of classic books. They gave away 30 novels to people lunching in a garden close to their home; only one was accepted by a man.
McEwan reminds us: ”Women not only made possible the development of this emerging literary form [the novel], but to some important degree, shaped its content.” McEwan doesn’t say how many of the classic novels he handed out were written by women. One assumes that when he says women shaped the novel, he means the demands of the female reader, not the efforts of women writers.
A recent survey by Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins, published in The Guardian, found that women’s favourite books had a range far outstripping men’s, and included titles from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Jane Eyre, Catch-22 to Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Of course, in non-fiction there is a demand for relevant content aimed squarely at women — such as parenting and ”mom”oir — that Oshun and other publishers aim to meet.
It is widely accepted in the publishing trade that women buy and read more books. Marketing campaigns target book clubs (comprised mainly of women) and publicity teams push for reviews in women’s magazines. In the United Kingdom, new cellphone book technology is being targeted at young girls. Imprints are geared to ”market segments” of women — such as Transita, which publishes fiction for women over 45, or ”grey lit”.
Women with disposable income are told to take reading ”me time” at every turn, but what is done to encourage women writers? In the UK, the Orange Prize was founded 10 years ago to recognise women writing novels in English. The award has been controversial, with some commentators saying it puts a deserved spotlight on women writers and others claiming that it ”ghettoises” women’s fiction and draws attention away from the fact that not many women win the ”big” literary prizes. Both camps have a point.
Do women writers in South Africa need special support? Bookstores have piled high the latest titles from Antjie Krog, Patricia Schonstein, Melinda Ferguson, Praba Moodley, Margie Orford, Zoe Wicomb, Marieta van der Vyver and others, but there is still a need to encourage South African women to write and to take their writing seriously. Women are being published, but they are still under-represented in the charts, and there is not enough diversity within the group.
Women readers drive the sales of books and their needs and demands inform publishing decisions. Women make up 70% of the British and local publishing industries. It is only the representation of women writers on the bestseller lists that lags behind.
Oshun, the Orange Prize and similar ventures encourage buyers (mainly women) to read books written by women. If we want more women writers on the book charts, women readers have the power to put them there.
Michelle Matthews is the publishing manager of Oshun Books