Sheila Heti – a woman who writes books!

OK, so one of the things I do as a part-living is review books for various papers and magazines. I am at the mercy of various editors, but I try to pitch to each of them as varied a list of books as possible – fiction and non-fiction, male and female authors, writers from around the world, etc.

BUT. Publishers sometimes don’t get it. The vast majority of books I get sent are novels written by men. I get it. I’m a man and I write novels. But that doesn’t mean that’s all I read, ferchrissakes.

A quick glance at the bookshelf of 2013 titles says it all. There are 45 books, 34 written by men, 11 by women. Similarly, 35 of the books are novels, the rest non-fiction. And even these ratios are slightly skewed because they include the books I have specifically requested for review for January, which had an even balance across both those spreads.

So. Please, publishers, try to alert me to a wider range of titles and authors, eh? Ta. Much appreciated.

Dx