Title: New titles from Salt available now!
Description: Hot off the presses, just for you
Chris Hamilton-Emery - August 31, 2007 06:37 AM (GMT)
Angela - August 31, 2007 08:50 AM (GMT)
This list is noticeably male dominated - is it coincidence, or would you say that it's representative of your whole list?
Chris Hamilton-Emery - August 31, 2007 10:10 AM (GMT)
Hi Angela!
No, I'd say it was an accident of pub date, really. We've got Sascha Akhtar, Elizabeth Baines, Jo Colley, Carys Davies, Isobel Dixon, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Angela Reading, Sandra Tappenden, Padrika Tarrant and Ann Vickery all coming out in a month or two.
Only about 20% of poetry submissions are from women. We tend to commission women in the main, but it's much harder in my experience to draw women onto our list. We don't have quotas though, it's purely about whether we think we can sell a book and a writer.
Angela - August 31, 2007 10:26 AM (GMT)
Thanks Chris - I was just curious. I know that with (at least some) magazines, the editors say that they get fewer women submit yet more women subscribe. Do you know if there is any data on the male/female ratio in poetry book buying?
Chris Hamilton-Emery - August 31, 2007 10:53 AM (GMT)
There was some research done a few years back now, which Roddy worked on with John Hampson at the Arts Council England. That was I think originally suggested by Neil Astley at Bloodaxe, and it pointed to a large over 50s female audience for poetry. Neil interpreted this as a demand for more women writers, though I'm not sure that this is in fact true (i.e., that a female audience wants to read women). I don't really think many people read by or through gender, at least not in the same way they did in a politicised act in the 1970s when the male dominated publishing business was highlighted by say Virago (now part of Hachette Livre). Of course niche publishing is now common practice and chick lit, lad lit, and market segmentation are part of almost all major corporate publishing, so it's become more sophisticated. I don't know of any recent work in this area, but I do recall RandomHouse and some of the conglomerates arguing recently for more book consumer research to determine where publishing should develop. It would be intensely useful to know more right now, about arts publishing, to see where the market lies.
Angela - August 31, 2007 02:20 PM (GMT)
Well, I'm a woman over 50 :)
I read lots of different poetry, male and female - thinking about it, in the last two months I've bought three collections and a chapbook, all male - but it is true to say that I find that poetry by women more often resonates with me. My favourite anthology is the Linda France (no relation!) '60 Women Poets' and, faced with a shelf of collections I don't know, I would always pick out those by women to look at first just because I have a higher success rate in finding something I really like among women poets.
Jane Holland - August 31, 2007 04:42 PM (GMT)
We already did this thread before, on the Poem forum 'proper', and it led to some epic cyber battles and spitting of teeth. But for what it's worth, I tend to buy women poets' collections because I want to see what my rivals are up to and male poets' collections because their work more often resonates with me.
In the absence of an evil smile icon, this will have to do. :P
Chris Hamilton-Emery - September 1, 2007 11:52 AM (GMT)
I forgot two other books! So I've added those in above.