Women in the Horror Small Press 2013

[cinriter]

Three years ago, I looked at how female authors were faring in the world of small press horror ( click here for that original entry). The results were, to put it mildly, dismal, with an average of 7.07% of the authors being female.

Since I'm about to participate in an HWA Roundtable on Sexism in Horror (and since - if anything - it seems to be an

Comments

[las]

Thanks for doing this.

[marlowe1]

And it's so ridiculous from a reader perspective too. These are the top small press places and they can't diversify. There are so many small and micro presses that don't even try that hard.

And considering how much horror in the world is Douchebag Horror (dumb guy is the hero, women exist solely to get killed or raped) one would think that the editors would get sick of it.

It also doesn't take that much to get women writers - I got more women writers in my last two anthologies (She Nailed a Stake Through His Head and King David & the Spiders from Mars) by just stating that I wanted "strong women characters" in the submission guidelines. I also rejected Douchebag Horror.

[micheleis]

^ What they both said.

[cinriter]

Thanks, all.

"Douchebag Horror" - hahahaha! I call it "FTS" (the second two words are "the Stumps" - you can figure out what the "F" stands for).

[ext_2353901]

Lisa - I've been a staunch proponent of the feminine perspective in horror -- which is why I edited and published SINS OF THE SIRENS.

That said, honestly, the survey of acceptances you present is meaningless unless you have statistics on the ratio of rejections based on gender. The survey "looks" bad on the face of it, but only if you assume that an equal number of women are vying for those publication slots as men. By suggesting that women are faring "dismally" in the world of small press horror (or really, horror period... there basically ISN'T a "large press" horror these days), you make the assumption that women are writing and submitting horror but being unfairly discriminated against and their stories being passed over in favor of stories by men. That may be the case, but the survey does not demonstrate that. In fact, the very opposite may be true. It may be that 10 women are published 75% of the time they submit, a much higher percentage than their male counterparts, and that no other women are particularly interested in

[cinriter]

I am somewhat astonished that anyone would look at the rate of women being published and not see a problem. If only 9% of those applying to a few medical schools to become doctors were women, would you assume that women didn't want to be doctors? Or would you not think there might be a problem at those schools?

I believe an equally good comparison would be how many female horror writers are published by the major houses, and how many are self-published. I'm guessing the percentages would be higher for the first, and probably about 50/50 on the latter...which would again point to a problem in the small press.

And no, I don't think it's some sort of sexist cabal, but there's obviously something going on.

I agree 100% that it merits a deeper study, and I hope to prod HWA to start one.

[ext_2353901]

I think the HWA would be the PERFECT vehicle for this. Great idea. I've often wondered myself about how the #'s all stack up. They should go further and look into ethnic diversity as well.

[cinriter]

I agree on all counts. Thanks.

[anonymous]

Thank you for the input. It's good to know what we female horror writers can strive towards in the New Year - getting noticed more!

[cinriter]

Let's hope so.

[ext_2355241]

Well, in my own small way I hope to increase that average a smidgeon as I've recently signed with Samhain and have (to date) two new titles coming out in 2014. That'll be 4 of us then!

[cinriter]

That's the way to do it, Catherine! Congrats.