There seems to be a shortage of fiction/adventure for men nowdays. Everything seems geared to the bubble gum crowd. Am I wrong? Thanks
I have to disagree. There are plenty of action/adventure novels still being written for a traditionally adult male audience, as well as horror, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy aimed at men. But if you fell there is a void, why not write to fill it?
Not to mention I think that you need to define what you mean when you say man. In America we have plenty of different types of men.
Consider checking out publishers like Baen Books. They do mainly military SF, but other thigns that would be considered 'guy books' but that doesn't mean women don't enjoy them as well. Terry
So, what are men? Are they all cut from the same monolithic cloth? Thank God all women are fragile and all teens are emotionally unstable and all old people support Sarah Palin. Imagine how confusing life would be if stereotypes failed us. Sorry for the sarcasm, but the OP is loaded with stereotype...troll maybe?
Yeah, I was thinking his comments were meant to be incendiary on purpose. Anyway, if "fiction/adventure" includes thriller novels, there are a lot out there. I read Michael Connelly, Joseph Finder, some Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and others.
I don't know if Pete is a troll...but he must not be looking too hard for books geared towards the male population. As a female, I prefer to read books geared more towards the male audience. They are generally better, sorry to say. I do like a few chick/lit books, but they are few and far between and have to be written with a type of flare that appeals to me. I know I've found plenty of books that are great reads that are geared towards guys.
Or George Martin. There are a lot of books out there (understatement of the century). If you care to be more specific about your taste, I'm sure folks here can rattle off enough books/authors to keep you reading 'till the end of your days. My sisters feel the same way. One of my sisters has read nearly all the same books I have. . . and that's one hell of a list. But I think this is more often a case of target demographics than gender. I don't think there's a ton of chick-lit written for mature women. If anything, I would say that is where the market seems lacking. There's plenty for guys and young girls, but when it comes to writing geared towards women, my sisters have a hard time finding books at the right emotional and intellectual maturity level. But they're probably not looking hard enough either.
Yep. It's actually a lacking in that genre. Mystery novels, thrillers, horror, and well styled dramas tend to be lacking for women who aren't teenyboppers all into vampires and such. Most of the drama in the chick-lit genre are poor imitations of sex and the city, (which I did enjoy -- though there are some things that could have been better.) I know I haven't looked through every book, but when I stroll through the book store, I finger through enough books to know there is a load of crap out there, not just for women but in general. I just picked up Patient Zero for christmas (my present to myself) and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. But, it was written mostly for a male audience. I enjoy guy style humor and wittiness, with that touch of sarcastic guy style of a strong, confident male character. There isn't anything like that for women, because as it is sad to find out, women don't have much for a sense of humor. I know there are enough women out there like me, who have more of a guys type of sense of humor who enjoy the male orientated style of books for that reason. That's why I'm exploring writing in this unfounded genre. I haven't read the Dexter book series, but on the TV show, Deb (Dexter's sister) is my kind of woman. More like a guy, though to me the character lacks any sort of femininity thus makes her a stereotype of that kind of woman. I myself am a tom boy who is also really girly. Strange combination, but I'd like to see a female character in some sort of book that reflects my own type of personality, because I know there are others out there like me who would also read it. I find plenty of male style books out there, just not so many female style books for us tomboy girly girls.
I don’t know if I’m getting off thread-topic here, but what demographic is everyone aiming their current work at?
That's not exactly unique to America, and we don't know where the OP's from, anyway. But I don't see his point. There's simply no way that every book is written for a small minority of people, who aren't exactly that famous for the amount of books they buy.
I see books for just about everyone in the stores and libraries. And besides, in this day and age, though there are books that lean one way or the other, and men and women are more likely to lean one way or the other, gender should not define these things. I personally can't stand most "chick lit".
I was simply saying that from my point of view. I've never been to any other country with the exception of Mexico and that only lasted nine hours, seven of which I don't remember.
I personally think that their seems to be a large portion written for both men and women, but then again, I could be mistaken...
Not a troll I think my complaint is actually that there is not enough for men that I can get caught up in. Too predictable from many authors. I am from US.
I'm obviously a man (a stereotypic, Neanderthal-ish boor according to my kids) and I find lots of "good" books to read. I simply don't understand your complaint. Perhaps it is not your gender that is the problem.
It depends on what you are interested in, there are books out there for everyone, but I get the general meaning, after all, most big releases nowadays appear to be chick-lit vampire/supernatural being romances, to keep teenage girls happy and other genres seem to be stifled and pushed to the sidelines, but maybe thats where the gap needs to be filled, find the next big thing and exploit it. The big issue is however as what some people have already pointed out, there are many different types of “men” whilst some are happy to read teen lit like twilight, others are more geared to action stories of the tom clancy ilk, or pretentious crap like Dan Brown, others may never pick up a book unless about football (soccer for you American guys) or wrestling, there are gaps within genres however, with a couple of exceptions such as the alex rider series, most teen literature is now mainly geared towards women, (thanks to the success of Twilight) and even though guys do like romantic comedies, very few novels that come under this, are aimed towards men (nick Hornby being one of the only authors to cater for this)
I can sort of see where Pete is coming from. I'm a female and mostly drawn to female novels. Doesn't mean I never read a book with males in it. Its nice to read a book that relates to something that you are interested in. I'm not likely to read a novel about men fighting in the Vietnam war, I just won't find it interesting though I'm sure its good. Are you just having a hard time finding something that catches your interest? Sometimes I find it hard to find a book I really like, I'll go months without finding something.
It's interesting...I have three daughters (19,13, 8) and all of them love to read, as does my wife. So I read a ton of "chick lit' just because I get "hey dad this is good...read it!"
Me Too! Sometimes I don't like the "polished" feel of professional writers and actually prefer amatuers. I try to read novels outside of my general line of reading, just because I find they open my mind and help me think. Chris
