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Hi!

I just want to say that I know that this may be a really stupid question, but I have to ask.

I'm writing a post-apocalyptic novel aimed towards both males and females. I write from three different perspectives: two female characters and one male. Does this novel automatically count as women's fiction, and is it something readers will pick up on and feel annoyed about?

(Christ, I'm probably going to get so much crap for this).
 
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Greene_Hesperide1990

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I'm in no way an expert but I believe women fiction is literature that focuses on the experiences of being a woman, so unless that is a prominent part of the story--and if there is, there is definitely nothing wrong with that--then I think it would count.

I would wait until someone with more knowledge on the matter stops through. I'm making an educated guess.
:Shrug:
 

Vhb_Rocketman

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As the cliche goes, there's no such thing as a stupid question.

Firstly, I've never read a woman's fiction book. That being said, just because you have more female POVs doesn't mean it's woman's fiction. Having more male POVs doesn't mean its men's fiction. It's the content and themes in the story that make that distinction. Though given I haven't read women's fiction I can't tell you what those themes are...but I’m sure post apocalyptic is not one of them.
 

Carrie in PA

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Soooo you're aiming the book towards... people?

No, a female POV (or two or ten) doesn't automatically mean a book is women's fiction.

Is your question actually: Will readers be annoyed when they discover female POVs??

I'd be more worried that the reader will pick up on the author's obvious disdain for such POVs, and perhaps you should get some crap for that, but I'm too busy this morning, what with ironing my menfolk's socks and all.
 

relletyrots

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Oh, boy.

You have a story to tell. This story involves having two female POVs, and one male POV. Does it automatically count as women's fiction? No, as those before me have specified.

But are you really asking about genre classification? Not really, it sounds like your novel leans much more toward other genres (dystopian fiction or speculative fiction, for example.) The real question here is: aren't sexist people going to be deterred from my novel simply due to the choices of gender? Maybe they will, maybe they won't. I personally wouldn't tailor my novel to that kind of an audience, and I don't think you should as well. There are enough non-sexist readers out there.

Write the story you want to tell.

EDIT: I apologize if it seemed as if I meant to criticize you or your concerns. The question is completely valid, and I can see why you'd worry about such a thing. But a good story trumps all, or at least, it should. I do not believe your readership would suffer from female POVs, nor do I think it should influence your artistic choice. Good luck!
 
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Atlantic12

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I thought women's fiction was about women's experiences of being a human being. :)

Anyway, no, the number of women POVs doesn't decide genre. Your premise, setting, core themes and style will have more to do with it.
 

Lakey

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I'm writing a post-apocalyptic novel aimed towards both males and females. I write from three different perspectives: two female characters and one male. Does this novel automatically count as women's fiction, and is it something readers will pick up on and feel annoyed about?

Can you expand on what is it that you fear would be annoying to readers?
 

Scythian

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EDIT: *Discussion started getting stinky; not liking being part of it; good writing to all:)*
 
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Sage

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Emphasis mine.

I'm writing a post-apocalyptic novel aimed towards both males and females. I write from three different perspectives: two female characters and one male. Does this novel automatically count as women's fiction, and is it something readers will pick up on and feel annoyed about?

Some questions for the questioner:

Which readers are you worried about annoying?

What do you think "women's fiction" is?
 

CathleenT

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I suggest Googling women's fiction and possibly chick lit to get a better idea of what these genres are. I started to post definitions and then decided you should probably research this anyway.

I think the question you're really asking is whether men will read a book with more female POVs than male. This question would be aimed at groups, not at what individual men might do. I couldn't find a definitive answer--something like a study--only anecdotal stuff to suggest that in general, men prefer male protags.

The only stuff I could find on gender split in post-apocalyptic merely stated that the SF market is 48% female, a nearly useless stat since sci-fi includes sci-fi romance, space opera, dystopia, and military SF as well.

So if your book is more aimed at a male audience, due to content (and this is not something I can intelligently comment on), having female protags may limit your audience.

OTOH, women read more fiction overall than men do.

I wouldn't try to market a straight spy thriller written from a woman's POV. Most women who write thrillers adopt male or gender-neutral pen names. Romance writers generally write from female POVs and use feminine pen names.

But for stuff that seems to have no clear imbalance of male-to-female readers, you're pretty much in what I think of as that screwed place until you start publishing. You can guess, but you never really know how it will work out for you. I never thought my readership would be overwhelmingly female. My published work doesn't have particularly feminine themes. I write a lot of mythical creatures, and I do a lot of historical settings. But my email list is about 95% female.

Is it because I have an openly female pen name? Possibly. I'm not about to start another career as C Townsend to find out. It meant a lot to me that Connie Willis, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, and Diana Wynne Jones all wrote openly as women. I never considered doing otherwise.

Is my readership mostly women because I sometimes write female protags? Possibly.

Or is it because my reader magnet for joining my email list has a kelpie (the mythical creature, not the dog) on the cover? To sum up marketing wisdom overheard in a Starbucks--men like motorcycles and women like horses. And I've got something horse-ish on the cover of the book I'm currently giving away to sign up for my list. So is this the reason why? Possibly.

Or maybe my writer's voice is just more in sync with women's thoughts because I am one.

Do you see the problem here? There are just too many variables, IMO. About all you can really do before you have an audience is try to avoid an obvious mismatch, which is what I think you're attempting to do here.

Unfortunately, I think the answer is it all depends on how you write.

The good news is that it's possible to make a decent living with either a largely male or largely female audience.

I hope something in all that was helpful. :)
 
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Bufty

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OP- No, and no.

You're overthinking this. Just write the story.

If it's a good story it will be picked up and read by whoever wants to read it - because it's a good story.
 

novicewriter

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Hi. No, your question isn't bad; it's actually a good thing that you asked before querying an agent, because I've seen at least one agent express frustration on Twitter at reading queries that authors mislabeled as the wrong genre. They'd mention exactly what others already mentioned, that, just because a novel has female characters or sex scenes in it, doesn't make it women's fiction or erotica. They said they're genres and that that's why they recommend querying authors read others' work, so that they know which genre their own work will fit in.
 
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Harlequin

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No. Women's fiction usually can't be speculative fiction. Spec fic trumps most genres.

There are very few men in my current wip; the main four characters are all women. So far, more women readers have bailed on me than men, by a margin of 50%.
 

lizmonster

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Post-apocalyptic is going to be spec fic.

Write the book. Worry about the rest later.

(...How do you aim a book at a specific gender??)
 

mpack

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Does this novel automatically count as women's fiction, and is it something readers will pick up on and feel annoyed about?

What readers would be annoyed by this? Why?
 

Roxxsmom

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Hi!

I just want to say that I know that this may be a really stupid question, but I have to ask.

I'm writing a post-apocalyptic novel aimed towards both males and females. I write from three different perspectives: two female characters and one male. Does this novel automatically count as women's fiction, and is it something readers will pick up on and feel annoyed about?

No, it wouldn't be women's fiction unless it deals with the range of topics and settings that are the norm for women's fiction. There are plenty of noels written in different genres--mysteries, thrillers, post apocalyptic, SFF etc--written fully or in part from the viewpoint of female protagonists.

I've no idea why it should irritate anyone. If someone prefers reading novels that are entirely from the viewpoint of a MMC (or entirely from a FMC), it might not be for them, but I don't think that would be the majority of readers in speculative genres. No story will please everyone, of course.

(Christ, I'm probably going to get so much crap for this).
If you think this, why are you asking. It sounds like you already know the answer and are expecting people to think it's a silly question.
 
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CJMatthewson

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I'm quite confused by what you mean by 'women's fiction' in this context.

The Hunger Games was written by a woman about a girl growing into a woman, yet I wouldn't want to class it exclusively into the women's fiction genre as that would limit it in the minds of many.

We seem to have moved on from a world in which Joanne Rowling was asked to change her name to sound more androgynous, as I know just as many male fans of The Hunger Games as female, despite your worry that having female protagonists might limit your work to a genre that indirectly excludes them.
 

DanielSTJ

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Er, I would maybe suggest looking up "Women's Fiction" before asking a question like this. Although I'm a guy, this is borderline offensive. Like, what do you mean? Just because a story has a female P.O.V doesn't make it "Women's Fiction." That's just...what? Why would people be annoyed? HUH!?

I mean this with all niceness. Please research a tad before posting. :idea: