Are Novel Covers Alienating Male Readers?
I read as many novels as ever, but maybe there's something to this.
This week at the Chicago Tribune I offer some brief thoughts on what is apparently true, that men don’t read novels.
I mean, I’m a man, and I read novels all the time, maybe 75 of them a year, but I’m apparently something of an outlier.
The column was stoked by a piece by Georgina Elliot at Dazed online that asked “Why don’t straight men read novels?” Elliot’s answer to the question is that young men have been acculturated to make good use of their time, to be “productive” and whiling away the hours reading made up stuff doesn’t translate into tangible gains. There are “better things to do than read.”
To those of us who read novels, this sounds nutso, but the attitude is pretty pervasive. The tech bro culture disdains reading books that could be distilled down to bullet point lists. Disgraced crypto-scammer Sam Bankman-Fried once said to an interviewer:
There’s all kinds of benefits from reading in terms of developing empathy, practicing critical thinking skills, acquiring and applying knowledge, and so on, but the chief reason I read novels is because it is enjoyable. I suppose because I’ve managed to forge a career where reading novels can be viewed as part of my work productivity, I’m killing multiple birds with one stone, but every year I read many many more novels than I will ever write about because reading novels is one of my favorite things to do.
Elliot says that men often turn to self-help books over fiction, which, honestly is just sad. The vast majority of self-help books are terrible, endlessly recycled bromides that are unlikely to yield the changes one seeks. The difference between self-help and fiction is that self-help is instructive, while fiction is illustrative. My belief is that given the variety of human experience, and the fact that there is no one way to be happy or successful, we are better off experiencing lots of illustrations so we may begin to shape our own unique sensibilities.
Do I want to go so far as to claim that reading more novels will make men happier?
Sure, why not.
As Georgina Elliott’s original piece was making the rounds on social media, I saw some of my fellow novel-reading men suggest that one of the reasons that men aren’t reading novels is because of the way most novels are packaged and marketed to appeal to women. Because of this, men feel alienated and excluded from the category.
There’s a reason that books are marketed towards women. They buy something like 80% of all books, and I’m guessing that their percentage share of fiction is even higher.
That online chatter was significantly focused on book covers, whether or not they are man-repelling, and if so, if that matters.
We’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. On the other hand, book covers have always conveyed useful information to the reader about the nature and content of the book. You would never mistake this kind of classic romance novel for any other genre.
As tastes, evolved, so too did the standard romance cover, which looks more like this today.
Pictures are out, graphics are in, including cartoon-style renderings of characters.
I will admit, that as a reader of novels, but not a reader of romance novels - at least not often - if I see this style of cover, my view is that it is probably not a good fit for my taste.
As I previously wrote at the Chicago Tribune, Alison Espach’s new novel, The Wedding People is terrific, a moving and funny exploration of sadness and grief. As a fan of her two previous books, I was going to read The Wedding People sight unseen (which I did literally, getting an early e-galley), but I honestly wonder if I would have been drawn to the book had I not know the author, based on the style of the cover.
It’s a well-rendered illustration, and tone-wise does fit with the book, but I have to say that in terms of style, it looks closer to those romance books above than the category I would have ascribed to it, mainstream literary fiction.
Overall, marketing-wise, it’s working like gangbusters. The Wedding People is a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, and as I discovered when I downloaded that image, apparently a Read with Jenna selection as well. This is a cover that fits the buying profile of the vast majority of the people who will purchase and read it.
When Espach’s previous novel Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance was reissued in paperback following its original hardcover release, I noted a significant change in the style of cover.
The original hardcover pretty clearly signals mainstream literary fiction. The paperback is, to me, a clear move towards so-called “women’s fiction.”
It makes me bonkers to think that all novels are considered “women’s fiction.” Don’t get me wrong, I have no objection to “women’s fiction” and the lines we draw between genres are never clear, but I feel like the signaling of these covers is at least somewhat disconnected from the experience of the books themselves.
Here’s an another example. The cover for Rufi Thorpe’s fantastic new novel, Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Would men find this cover alienating? I didn’t, but I’ve also read all of Thorpe’s previous books and edited a column she did at McSweeney’s (Listicles for People Exactly Like You), so she’s one of those writers who is simply on my must-read list when she has a new book.
Is this the right cover for marketing the big to the maximum possible number of readers. Probably. Does it convey the full scope of what Thorpe is up to in the novel? I’m not so sure. Yes, it’s a story about a young woman who gets pregnant by accident during a brief affair with her college professor, decides to keep the baby, and goes about trying to cobble together a life via an unconventional family, but it’s also an amazing exploration of how we understand the stories of ourselves and convey those stories to others. It’s actually something of an experimental novel in how it switches points-of-view and utilizes metafictional conceits. It’s a philosophical novel in how it explores the online “cam-girl” industry and how consent and agency intersect in these spaces.
I loved it. I’d recommend it to any male reader. I might tell them that the central character becomes a cam-girl and that her father is an ex-professional wrestler when I do, but whatever, it’s an excellent read.
The top Amazon review shows how the image used in the cover packaging limits reader perceptions of what’s inside:
Now, maybe this is a good thing, books over performing based on what readers think they’re getting, but I wonder if there’s potential audience segments being left out because when they judge these books by their covers, they’re getting the wrong impression.
What do you guys think?
Links
I linked to this week’s Trib column at the top, but I was also busy elsewhere. At Inside Higher Ed, I argue that teaching AI skills isn’t really a thing. We should teach students to think and exercise judgment in all domains. If we can do that, using AI will be no problem.
At my
newsletter, I exercised my pique over that Google Gemini ad that suggests we should us AI to write fan letters to our sporting heroes.
The Booker Prize longlist was released this week, with the shortlist of finalists to come in September.
The New York Times has 15 new books coming in August.
The legendary editor, Lewis H. Lapham, most known for his imprint on Harper’s recently passed away.
offered his thoughts on the man who was his greatest influence.This one from
by Bobbie Armstrong got me chuckling, “If My Mom Wrote the Ads for Her Local NPR Station.”Recommendations
1. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
2. The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
3. The Fraud by Zadie Smith
4. Second Act by Henry Oliver
5. I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
Lacy M. - Midland, TX
I think the quiet, yet intense drama of Stewart O’Nan’s Last Night at the Lobster might be a good fit for Lacy.
1. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro
4. New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd
5. Team of Rivals by Dorris Kearns Goodwin
Stacey M. - New York, NY
This may be too much New York-centric fiction for Stacey, but if she doesn’t know of Jonathan Lee’s The Great Mistake, she should.1
As of Thursday, I will be done with my review of the page proofs of More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI, and the text of this edition will be forever fixed. Setting modesty aside, I’ve been very pleased with what I’m reading. This book says some things that I think need saying.
See you next week,
John
The Biblioracle
All books (with the occasional exception) linked throughout the newsletter go to The Biblioracle Recommends bookstore at Bookshop.org. Affiliate proceeds, plus a personal matching donation of my own, go to Chicago’s Open Books and an additional reading/writing/literacy nonprofit to be determined. Affiliate income for this year is dead frozen at $79.00.
I've never considered the question, but you might have a point: Many of those novel covers look straight up girly.
Granted, as an English teacher I love reading novels, but I'll explore a classic novel with a plain cover over newer novels with that particular style. The question of marketing may as well be an assumption.
And as a stray thought, I read a lot of science fiction and science fantasy. That section at Barnes and Nobles looks alien compared to the featured sections when you walk in. You'd never ask those questions about Tor Books.
I have so many thoughts/opinions. I work as a bookseller in an independent bookstore and speak with many people each week. Hands down, trying to put a good fiction book into the hands of a male reader is the hardest thing to do. Even when I try to hand sell terrific male-centered books, they just don't take the bait too often - books like Nothing To See Here, Valley of Shadows, The Hail Mary Project, etc. I love when I can introduce a new fiction author to a male reader. You emphasised covers, but I think it begins with the YA section. By the time a young man turns 13, there is almost nothing being written for him. There are great wide ranging books and series for middle grade but so little for the boy teen reader. Then they just get out of habit. Easier to play a video game or watch You Tube. There are other factors too of course, but this is definately something I think about a lot.