
Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name - Mz
http://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-what-i-learned-sending-my-novel-out-und-1720637627/
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pvaldes
In resume, the novel of a woman well known as author of books for children was
rejected, when send later more polished versions of the novel under a unknown
male name without traceable past the editors show finally interest.

A conclusion could be: "maybe the first version was plain bad", or "maybe I'm
typecast as writer", or even "Editors are intrigued by a new fresh face"; but
instead is a loud: "Editors (women and men) do not want novels writen by
women; but, girl, you can create an atractive male persona, and when you have
their interest, brag on internet under your real name about how clever you
were and how stupid and mysoginist are those editors, unable to recognise
feminine talent".

Not a very smart move, probably.

Yep, surely editors run away when see in the title "written by Joanna Rowling"
or "Patricia Highsmith". This later is in fact a nom de plume so... maybe the
problem could be in the name, not in the gender.

I think that this is a valuable history for HN. An interesting case of a
writer trying hard to be free of the typecast jail and then succesfully
boycotting herself in the last second.

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dawnbreez
Now here's the question: Who rejected her while accepting "him", and why?

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nn3
She explains it herself. I bet it's that.

>>> Third: with my name, maybe my novel was taken for “Women’s Fiction”—a
dislikable name for a respectable genre—but not what I was writing. If an
agent was expecting that, I’m not surprised he or she would turn away after
the first page or two. A George wasn’t expected to be writing Women’s Fiction,
so he was taken on his own terms. <<<

~~~
dawnbreez
She guesses that, but that's just one of many possibilities. Ideally, she'd
send a survey--which, in turn, would only be answered by a few people. We
still wouldn't know much, but we'd be closer to the truth.

