"Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name"

[PoliticAverse]

The plan made me feel dishonest and creepy, so it took me a long time to send my novel out under a man’s name. But each time I read a study about unconscious bias, I got a little closer to trying it.

I set up a new e-mail address under a name—let’s say it was George Leyer, though it wasn’t—and left it empty. Weeks went by without word from the agents who had my work. I read another study about how people rate job applicants they believe are female and how much better they like those they believe are male.

The thing I was thinking of doing was absolutely against the rules, the opposite of all the advice writers get, but I wasn’t feeling like a writer, and I hadn’t written in weeks. Until last winter, I had never faced a serious bout of writer’s block or any meaningful unwillingness to work. A blank page had always felt to me like the moment the lights go down in a theater—until the day it didn’t. I was spending more time crying on the phone than writing and I had no idea how to get back to work. Every paragraph was a negotiation—my instinct leading one way, and then a blast against it—don’t do that, you’ll confuse people. No one wants to read that kind of thing.

So, on a dim Saturday morning, I copy-pasted my cover letter and the opening pages of my novel from my regular e-mail into George’s account. I put in the address of one of the agents I’d intended to query under my own name. I didn’t expect to hear back for a few weeks, if at all. It would only be a few queries and then I’d close out my experiment. I began preparing another query, checking the submission requirements on the agency web site. When I clicked back, there was already a new message, the first one in the empty inbox. Mr. Leyer. Delighted. Excited. Please send the manuscript.

Read the rest at: http://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-what-i-learned-sending-my-novel-out-und-1720637627

[SheilaT]

1. It's why so many women publish uner their initials.

Although I always assume, until I learn otherwise, that such an author is a woman, because most of the time they are.

As a reader, I don't care very much if the author is male or female. As a woman I do sometimes notice that the male author gets something wrong about us women. Especially if they are writing in the first person. Likewise, women authors are going to get some things wrong about male characters.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Indeed.

A brief history of female authors with male pen names (or initials):
http://mashable.com/2015/03/01/female-authors-pen-names/

[SheilaT]

3. Yep.

I actually write, and attempt to publish, science fiction. Even though I'm very aware of the gender bias in that field, I love being a woman and I will always publish under my own name, unless there's a good reason for a pen name, and even then I'd take another female one.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Did you ever consider or have someone suggest you just use your initial(s)?

Best wishes to you with your work.

[SheilaT]

5. Haven't considered it, and no one has suggested it.

Not that my writing career is a big one at this point.

I happen to be the only person in this country with my particular first and last name, and I'm honestly quite proud of that.

[Binkie The Clown]

6. Back in the 1950s and 60s...

I seem to remember a lot of Sci Fi authors who only used their first two initials. Much later I found out many of them were secretly women because they apparently couldn't get published otherwise.