Publishing company And Other Stories, has accepted a challenge that means they only publish women’s fiction for a whole year in the wake of startling statistics that show an inequality in the publishing world between men and women’s fiction.
According to research, just under 40% of books submitted to the Booker prize over the past five years were by women and more prize-winning novels have male than female protagonists. As a hopeful novelist, this is disheartening, there are an abundance of incredible books written by female writers that aren’t being printed, or nominated for prestigious awards.
In response to this research, and a call for change from author Kamila Shamsie, And Other Stories is now only publishing women’s writing for a whole year!
The small publisher only releases 10 to 12 new titles a year and realised that they were publishing more men than women in general, this year they published 7 by men and 4 by women, despite the fact that they have female editors on board helping them to choose who makes the cut. Now, they’ve decided to celebrate women’s writing and underline the importance of equality in the publishing world by only publishing women’s writing for a whole year!
Read the full story on The Guardian.
This is so true and difficult to grasp in such a modern world! We just discussed it this past week in my creative writing class at uni. There’s still a long way to go for equality but it’s nice to see that awareness is being generated.