US and UK fantasy: Spot the Difference

My opinions are based mostly on my experiences on a forum for a British fantasy site (Fantasy faction) and a few other places.

1. British fans seem to be more about epic fantasy overall and fonder of grimdark-style fantasy. Abercrombie, Lawrence, Bakker and other writers of this type seem to be big favorites there, though the articles on the site that hosts the forum do cover a range of authors and styles of fantasy. Grimdark seems to be nearly an "all boys'" club, from what I can tell. There are women who do write dark, gritty fantasy with a high body count and dystopian flare (Kameron Hurley comes to mind), but they don't seem to be included in the subgenre, even when books I wouldn't call Grimdark myself (like Wexler's books) are included on such lists.

2. They seem to be more male-dominated than the US markets too. The FF membership is overwhelmingly male, for instance.

Other things that support this perception on my part is this article, which suggests that male submissions greatly outnumber female ones at TorUK.

Also, the yearly Strange Horizons count for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 (which combines SF and F together) suggests that British SF/F is more male dominated than US, at least with regards to titles subbed to Locus. sadly, the total percentage of US SF/F books by women dropped in 2014. Hard to say if this was just a glitch, or a sign of a larger trend. Interestingly, in Australia, women seem to hold a slight edge with fantasy in particular. No idea why different English-speaking countries would be different in this respect.

[edit]HA, just noted the date on the OP. Still an interesting topic. I think the new AWWC format, with its news feed makes it easier to get pulled into old and dead threads with recent replies, since I tend to skim it now and click directly on topics that look interesting, rather than accessing them through their forums the way I once did.

I've noticed that in general, UK fantasy covers are more likely to have stylized or abstract designs that resemble heraldry, compass roses, maps, swords, patterns, or highly abstract images, while US are more likely to show a character (and yes, these days, we're seeing more and more of the photographic modification with US covers, rather than an actual painted figure).

Compare the US and UK versions of Robin Hobb's latest books, for instance.

And here are the first UK and US editions of Abercrombie's Best Served Cold. Scroll down to get to the images. And this is the current version of the US edition.

As an aside, the frequent changes in cover design between initial hardcover, trade, and mass market releases and subsequent editions makes my head spin sometimes. When I was younger, they were more likely to have the same cover for both hardcover and paperback and to keep the same one for a while. I've even had ebooks on my nook or ipad change cover design on me, and it's very unsettling (for one thing, it makes it hard for me to find in my library all of a sudden).