Do we assume all women write YA fantasy; Or what’s in a name?

The first six months after Miserere was published, I felt that I made a mistake publishing under my real name. I am, after all, a woman—a woman who writes fantasy. I think a lot of genre fans made an automatic assumption that a woman who writes fantasy is either writing: a) young adult fantasy; or b) paranormal romance.

I say this for a couple of reasons. My first clue that assumptions were being made came from my initial reviewers. Many of the prominent genre fiction reviewers understood Miserere was an adult novel. However, there were several reviewers that obviously entered the novel fully expecting a Middle Grade or YA fantasy. I believe this little gem of a review encapsulates the confusion nicely:

“I had trouble relating too or liking any of them [the characters]. It left me a bit confused about what age group this book is aimed at. Lindsay is a pre-teen, yet there is too much torture, violence and sex for this to be a middle grade or YA book. Rachael and Lucian appear to be older, in their forties or fifties maybe? Their older age and frame of mind made it harder to relate with them as characters either.”

The question that nagged me after I read that review was simply this: Why did she automatically assume this was a Middle Grade or YA novel?

Although Lindsay does have a significant role in the novel, she isn’t a main character. She is not mentioned in the blurb, nor is she pictured in the cover art. That was Night Shade Books’ decision and I thought it a wise one. As a matter of fact, Night Shade Books did not market Miserere as a YA fantasy at all.

Nor did I. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I enjoy reading and writing fantasy for adults. Middle Grade and Young Adult fantasies are wonderful and I occasionally indulge, but not often. I enjoy the complexity of adult themes. So I remained baffled as to why some readers continued to assess Miserere as if it was a YA novel.

At some point in all this, I read one angsty review too many and snapped. Frankly, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often with debut authors. We’re under a tremendous amount of stress and every review influences the overall perception of our novels. Authors are told to say nothing. In some authors this “say nothing” rule creates a powder-keg effect, and mine erupted in the manifesto, “I write dark fantasy.”

Shortly after that blog post, people started taking me seriously as an adult fiction author. Suddenly, I noticed a 180 degree change in attitude regarding Miserere. People viewed the story differently.

Hmmmm, said my brain.

I became curious and looked at reviews for male authors such as George RR Martin, Joe Abercrombie, Doug Hulick, Mark Lawrence. No one mistook their novels for YA or Middle Grade. Stina Leicht took some heat because her urban fantasy Of Blood and Honey was very dark and didn’t meet the hunky urban fantasy romance prototype, but no one banged Alex Bledsoe for doing the same type of dark urban fantasy with The Hum and the Shiver.

Hmmmm, said my brain. (My brain says that a lot.)

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a strong possibility existed that people automatically equated Miserere as being a YA novel because I am a woman. The reason I infer a “strong possibility” is simply because I have no data with which to support this hypothesis; all I have is circumstantial evidence. However, the more I evaluate the situation across the board, the more I realize it’s entirely possible.

I’m also quite cognizant of the fact there is an overall assumption by non-genre readers that all fantasy novels are written for young adults. However, the reviews and confusion about Miserere came from people who read genre fiction on a regular basis.

So. The unanswered question, of course, is: If I had published under the name T. Frohock, would people still have made the YA assumption about Miserere? I don’t know. The thought has haunted me from time to time over the last year, and it has certainly made me more aware of my initial assumptions when I see an author’s name.

Me?

I’m going to publish under Teresa Frohock. I’ve had that name for quite some time and I’ve grown rather fond of it. I will change your mind about how you perceive my work. I love a challenge.

And please allow me to clarify once more, so there is no confusion:

I write dark fantasy.

For adults.

You know the drill. *winks*

Tell me if you make assumptions about an author’s work simply by looking at his or her name. I’m in interested in what you think.

Comments

[Lindsay]

Wow. To me, a regular fantasy reader AND YA reader, I had no problems telling which camp MISERERE belonged to, but I think the long, long, long list of women fantasy writers who do the initials thing (N. K. Jemisin, L. S. Viehl, etc etc etc) speaks to the ongoing troubles women writers continue to face in the adult fantasy genre. I'm not sure if the problem is exclusively Woman Author = YA Book, though, but rather a whole complex lattice of stereotypes and assumptions. I'll definitely be scratching my head and having my brain go HMM about this for a while. :P

[Hannah]

I personally don't make assumptions regarding gender aside from I presume that YA fantasy doesn't tend to be written by men, but adult fantasy can be written by women.

[Mazarkis Williams]

Remember my post about book covers and the expectations they create? Well perhaps names create expectations, too. And many readers, it seems, want to know what to expect in a book before they even open it. The mistake I made attempting to market my own book was in telling people what the book was about--not why they would like it, or how to categorize it. I should have remembered from my time as a server that even in restaurants people don't want to use a lot of energy choosing. Are you in a meaty mood? Choose this. Something light? Choose that. It's all about making that choice easy. Could a name be a complication?

A number of people explained the now-famously disproportionate review numbers (male/female) by implying reviewers who prefer epic fantasy won't see as many books written by women. I don't have all the numbers and I wish I did, but that seems wrong to me. Robin Hobb, Kate Elliott, Carol Berg, J.V. Jones, C.S. Friedman, Lynn Flewelling, Martha Wells and Michelle West/Sagara all spring immediately to mind. Could it be that faulty assumptions skew perception? Quite possibly. Could I be wrong? Also, yes. But there are many female writers who use androgynous names--I assume, for a reason.

[AE Marling]

It's ever my goal to have the story speak for itself and not be overly tinted by reader expectation in regard to who I am as a person. Regretfully, the information age being what it is, it's not easy to hide one's gender as a writer anymore. Thankfully, the information age being what it is, I expect prejudices to wane. Paint me an optimist, if you must.

[Mary Bickers]

I'll be honest, I never look at who the author is when I pick out a book. The only time I ever notice it is I've already read books by them and I'm looking for more. I have found books in the YA area that were not YA and books in the adult area that were YA to me. I try not to let the categories completely blind me, but just enjoy whatever it is I'm reading. If it turns out to be a really good book, then I look at the author and look up other works by them.. That being said, I am sorry that you had to deal with this sexism.

[Mark Lawrence]

Actually I get a small but constant stream of readers who don't 'get' Prince of Thorns and accuse it of being YA ... possibly as an insult.

Additionally my Dutch publishers tried to market the book as YA! I guess it was as simple as ... two thirds of the book is about a 14 year old, a third about a 10 year old.. must be YA. It started appearing on YA sites and once even a mother & baby group!

[Teresa]

Lindsay, I agree. I think it's a lot like the male/female book reviewer issue that came up a while back: it's really too complex to attribute to any one thing, but when I contrast how Miserere was perceived prior to my jumping into the fray as to how it is perceived now, I see a real difference in attitudes. The whole subject is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while.

Hannah, there are a few men who write excellent YA fantasy; although you and I may have different views of YA. I get a little fuzzy on the YA definition from time to time.

Maz said, "A number of people explained the now-famously disproportionate review numbers (male/female) by implying reviewers who prefer epic fantasy won't see as many books written by women."

That was another thing that surprised me, Maz. I don't understand why they won't see as many books written by women unless they already have a preconceived notion that women don't write epic fantasy but restrict themselves to YA, Urban Fantasy, Romance, etc. It seems to be more of a "contempt prior to investigation" issue.

I remember Myke Cole talking about male romance writers having to use pseudonyms, because women wouldn't buy romance written by men.

A.E. said: "Paint me an optimist, if you must." / I like an optimist. ;-)

Mary, excellent point on following the story. I try to do that too, and as I said above, I get a little fuzzy on the YA category quite often. ;-)

Mark, I didn't use hard figures, just a random sampling, so I'm sure I missed a lot. I'm not sure how anyone could peg Prince of Thorns as a YA though ... unless those Dutch kids are a lot tougher than we think.

[Evie Manieri]

Anecdotal or not, I think you're on to something, and I applaud your decision not to abandon your name in the face of it. The only way these perceptions are going to change is if we keep chipping away at them. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this with my own debut.

I also think there may be a perception issue regarding length. The fact that you're not presenting them with an 8 lb doorstop (and thank you for that!) may be a contributing factor.

[Teresa]

Hey, Evie! Congratulations on your debut.

Frankly, I just don't know. It's been in the back of my mind all year and I've just now found the right words to address the issue. I'm going to take a wait and see attitude and start watching what happens to other authors.

[Elspeth Cooper]

Before my debut launched last year, my publisher and I were noodling around what pseudonym I should use. I wanted a pen-name purely because my own name didn't balance well on a book cover, and we were both worried that there was a perception that fantasy + new female author couldn't possibly = epic. As a result, we looked at gender-neutral names, initials, the whole shebang, before deciding that female was the new black and going with my given first name.

I haven't experienced any reviewers assuming that 'Songs of the Earth' was YA - in fact, only one reviewer mentioned YA at all and that was in the context that he was surprised the book wasn't marketed as YA because the gently-raised protagonist didn't swear much, and the sex was not explicit (but the torture and violence was presumably okay...)

I haven't read 'Miserere' yet (too many books!), but even having only looked at the blurb I'm somewhat perplexed that anyone could suffer any confusion as to what age group it was targeted at.

[Teresa Frohock]

Oddly enough, Elspeth, I noticed that it was the women who made the YA assumption in the early reviews. I think maybe one or two male reviewers made the YA slip, but not enough to matter. Most of my male reviewers took the novel for dark fantasy.

I found that kind of surprising.

I don't believe I would have made the connection if I hadn't seen the change in attitude after the blog post.

Meanwhile, I'm glad you went with Elspeth in the end.

No sweat on Miserere, I know exactly what you mean. Writing time has eclipsed reading time for me lately, so I'm behind with everyone's books.

[Elspeth Cooper]

Thank you - having lived with my name in a state of armed truce for nearly 40 years, I am finally starting to warm to it.

I definitely think you have identified something re: reviewers and assumptions, but it boggles my mind. I can kinda-sorta understand how someone could see the protagonist's age in 'Prince of Thorns' and expect a rather different story than Mark's actually written, but for 'Miserere'? There isn't enough "Huh?" in the world.

[Matt Westwood]

As a lifelong (male, British) fan and writer manque (and it'e been quite a long life, I can tell you) of the F & SF genres, I've noticed (possibly erroneously) that the majority of FA fantasy *has* been written by women. Possibly this is because of the legacy of Andre Norton , and the ongoing work of Jane Yolen, both of whom are well-known for the YA. OTOH there are numerous writers (Cherryh, Lackey, Spedding, Brackett to mention just those whose books I can see on my shelves) which are not YA.

I can therefore understand that someone who has only ever really bothered with the currently popular "twilight" subgenre and all the rest of this sub-Buffy derivative (I don't bother with it much myself, being more of a Pratchett / Stephenson fan) would be sort of "expecting more of the same", believing that a cosy little niche "this is what fantasy is" is the way of all literature. Fail.

The mistake is always to stereotype a book before opening it. As for me, unless I have read something by an author before, I know I won't know what to expect, and I read with an open mind. And to assume that a book will be YA because it's fantasy written by a woman smacks to me of intellectual laziness. As a reviewer it is a shameful lack of attention: "Hey! This book didn't fit my preconceptions of what I glibly expected them to be! Terrible!" Seriously, I think it's outrageous.

[Teresa Frohock]

Matt, I didn't think of age as a factor, but you have struck an important point. When I look back over the reviews, they are from women in their late teens to late twenties (the Buffy-generation). This probably also leads to the "everyone-over-forty-is-a-fossil-and-deserving-only-of-death" mentality I've encountered as well.

Not all of them have ascribed to the "Hey! This book didn't fit my preconceptions of what I glibly expected them to be! Terrible!" philosophy; although, I think a couple of them succumbed to peer pressure when it came to the star-rating system.

I will say I am glad to see comments like yours and everyone else who has posted here this week. It's nice to know that more people keep an open mind when reading an author's debut.