Impact of Gender in Publishing Success

Source: Wikipedia

Dana Weinberg and Adam Kapelner published their peer-reviewed study "Comparing gender discrimination and inequality in indie and traditional publishing" in April, 2018.  Shockingly, their results show that gender equality between men and women authors in price points of books, percentage of authors published, etc., remains vast in traditional publishing--even bigger than the current pay gap in the general work environment.  Indie publishing still has a built in advantage for male authors over female authors but the playing field is slightly more equitable than in traditional publishing. 

 Using data from 2002 to 2012 from Books in Print, researchers discovered that books by female authors were priced 45% below that of  male authors.  Books by authors with discernibly female names receive somewhat less investment by publishers.  "Relative to their overall representation in the catalog, titles by female authors are overrepresented among the largest publishers, namely the Big Five and other Large Publishers, and also among Audiobook Publishers. They are underrepresented relative to male authors among Academic and University Presses, Institutional Publishers, and other Traditional Publishers."

When examined by genre, the results are even more dramatic.  Comics, humor, history, and business books published are overwhelmingly written by men.  Male authors outnumber women authors by 2:1 in subjects such as antiques and collectables, biographies and autobiographies,  bibles, business, and computers.   Women authors significantly outnumber men in non-fiction areas such as crafts, and cooking.

In fiction, male authors dominate the genres of action and adventure, crime, legal, literary, science fiction.  Women dominate in the genres of romance, christian, erotica, christian, and contemporary women.   In fact, there tend to be significantly more male authors in the remaining genres. 

Of course what we don't know are how many women (or men) are writing under names of a different gender.  Note the researchers eliminated authors with gender neutral names.  Nor do we know what percentage of women submit works of science fiction and what are acceptance rates within each genre.  Nor do we know if there are differing investments by publishing houses in  such areas as editing services, publicity, etc.

Certainly an author may want to consider using a gender neutral name when submitting manuscripts for consideration in certain genres.  I have decided to use my initials when submitting works.  I also have to applaud the editors of on-line publications who ask for blind submissions so that gender or ethnic bias cannot impact the selection process.


You can read the entire article via the link below:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195298

Page & Spine Showcase to Publish My Article on Character Development

I am so excited.   Page & Spine Fiction Showcase is going to publish my article "Character Creation Is Not a Crystal Growing Kit."   In addition to great fiction, this online publication features articles about the craft of writing on its section The Writers' Table.

Anticipated publication date for my article is mid July 2018. I'll put up the link as soon as it is available.

Here's a link to the most recent articles on The Writers' Table.  You'll find lots of inspiration.
 http://pagespineficshowcase.com/the-writers-table.html

 In the meantime, you can view below a timelapse video of crystal growth of citric acid.

Gliderry Embranglement of Mephitic Weasels

1809 Plate from Zoological Lectures by George Shaw

I love words.  I have been known to spend an hour scrutinizing Roget's looking for the precise noun, verb, or adjective to convey exactly what I mean.  Mental Floss blogged about "25 Smart Synonyms You Should Be Using."

Some of my favorite are mephitic defined as "a noxious, foul-smelling fume emanating from inside the earth,.....Case in point, skunks were known as "mephitic weasels" is the 19th century."

Nipcheese is "a ship's purser (the steward in charge of the ship's accounts),..... a mean, penny-pinching person."

"A brangle is a squabble or a noisy argument, while to embrangle someone is to throw them into a quandary or to utterly perplex them. An
                                                                                    embranglement, likewise, is a tricky, confusing situation."




Enjoy the remaining 23 words at the link below:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/524699/25-smart-synonyms-you-should-be-using

Equus Will be Publishing my article on Equine Epistaxis

Poor Blessi!

Several years ago, Blessi experienced a nose bleed or equine epistaxis.  He was dripping gouts of blood from both nostrils.  Even though there was no swelling and Blessi seemed to be experiencing no discomfort, I called the veterinarian.  He discussed several conditions that could be causing the bleeding such as a foreign body in the nasal passage, Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage, Guttural Pouch Fungal Infection, etc.

Dr. Weeks ran an endoscope up Blessi's nasal passage to find that he was bleeding from the sigmoid area.  You should have seen the expression on his face when Dr. Weeks ran a 16 inch endoscope up the nasal passage.  Blessi was surprised for the first few seconds but then settled down to see if there was a carrot reward involved in the process.

Best diagnosis was that Blessi had had some sort of stupid pasture accident and was bleeding internally due to blunt force trauma (not a horse kick since there was no swelling around the head).  The vet was not too worried and the bleeding slowed down and stopped in a few days with no further treatment.

I wrote up what I learned about equine epistaxis in a Case Study to help other horse owners.  Equus magazine informed me yesterday that they will be publishing my article in some future edition.

Link to my Equus Article "Riding with Theodore Roosevelt"

Pressreader has selected my Equus article for international distribution.  You can read the entire article about Theodore Roosevelt (without most of the illustrations) via this link. Note there are a lot of typos in this version due to conversion from print to online.

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/equus/20180401/282510069074962

My article "Detecting Icelandic Horses Origins" Cited Again

My article "Dectecting Icelandic Horse Origins" was cited in another article "Spotted phenotypes in horses lost attractiveness in Middle Ages" by Wutke, S., et al.  in Scientific Reports 6:38548 · December 2016  .  Here's a link:

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311500236_Spotted_phenotypes_in_horses_lost_attractiveness_in_the_Middle_Ages

My "Riding with Theodore Roosevelt" article published in Equus April 2018

I am so excited.  My copy just arrived in the mail.  To quote myself:

"Many of Roosevelt’s writings are sprinkled with insights into his approach to training horses and his observations about the value of riding, and I was struck by how “modern” his methods seemed to be, even by current standards. The term “natural horsemanship” may not have become prominent until the 1980s, but some of the roots of the methodology extend all the way back to Xenophon in the fourth century B.C., and probably beyond. Here’s a selection of Roosevelt’s observations and insights---drawn, unless otherwise noted, from Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography ---that still have some resonance in modern times."

The editors of Equus are wonderful to work with and illustrated the article with lots of photos of Roosevelt and his horses.  I have subscribed to Equus for years to read about the latest in equine medical treatment, behavioral research, and historical studies.  I highly recommend this magazine.

And I would like to point out that this is the second time my horse Blessi has been mentioned in Equus in the past six months.