American women readers are the consumer backbone of the publishing industry. (By some
reports , women compose 80% of the market for novels.)
Publishers think they're catering to women by publishing chick-lit and women-friendly novels (the kinds with "sympathetic" female protagonists, dealing with issues familiar to readers).
Never mind the homogenizing impact this approach has on newly-published literature. Never mind the narrowness and condescension implicit in this publishing strategy. Never mind that some women - myself included - have no interest in these types of books.
Never mind that publishers might get better returns from their female consumers if they followed another strategy. My vote is for publishers to follow the lead of the Renaissance Venetians: put a naked man outside the door of every bookstore or library. I can't think of a better way to prime the ladies for furious book reading and thank them for their patronage.
(Photograph of the entrance to the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, off Piazza San Marcos in Venice, by Maya Alexandri)
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