I have written a YA fiction with a male protagonist/narrator. I don't intend to only write for boys forever but I have two teenage sons who I have homeschooled and it's been 18 years of working hard at taking a walk in young men's shoes, so it felt easy for me. When I research authors of teen boy fiction or when authors recommend teen boy fiction, it's primarily male writers. I do know my sons sort of side with the boy world quite unconsciously, but do agents/publishers also go along those lines. I want to use a pen name, anyhow. Should I consider an androgynous name since my first book is boy oriented? Or do you think I should begin querying without a pseudonym and bring it up if/when it goes that far? I've even wondered if I should specifically target male agents. I feel like getting boys to read, sometimes is harder than girls who read male writers pretty much as effortlessly as women's writers. I guess this is a strange question about gender.
It's a confusing question about gender because it's all over the place. First you're asking if readers think books with male protagonists/narrators have to be written by men. If you're seriously asking that question, you haven't read enough to query. Read enough in your category and read enough over all. In other words I'm telling you that your reading alone should tell you that it doesn't matter if you're a man, a woman, a shark or a nincompoop: the story is what counts. Get your story right and we're off to the races.
And if you're asking if male agents have a preference for male writers, or writers they think are male, well, no, they don't. They have a preference for (all together now) Good Stories!
And if you're asking if it's a truism that getting boys to read is harder than getting girls to read, well, that's not something you as a writer have any control over whatsoever and thus you should not worry about.
What do you have control over? Your story.
Make it fabulous and everyone will want to read it. Make the characters people we want to be, or hang out with, and you've got yourself a book.
I'm chastising you here because you've fallen into a trap that snares many writers at the start of their careers: you're worrying about things you can't control. All that fear keeps you from thinking about writing. Stop it. When your mind starts whirring with these thoughts, say to yourself "Stop worrying about this." You might need to say it out loud. (That will amuse your sons endlessly of course.) And you might need something to think about INSTEAD of these worrisome thoughts. Turn your mind to sitting down and writing. Or scotch. I've found one or the other always works.
Now, quit worrying about this. Back to work.
0 Comments on Query Question: crossing gender lines as of 9/22/2014 8:16:00 AM
Add a Comment