The Market Has a Feminine Feel

By Keith Fisher

I’ve heard it said that the LDS market is mostly female. At a workshop, I heard Willard Boyd Gardner say he discovered he was writing books for men to be purchased by women. I’ve also heard other male writers say they write for women.

I was told one of my books was written for women and I thought I wrote it for everyone. My editor suggested women want to see the feelings of my characters. Since then, I’ve been having a hard time wrapping my male mind around the idea of being motivated by feelings, but then again, I always thought I had a sensitive nature. (Don’t laugh guys, you should try it sometime).

Anyway I started doing a little research and discovered the people who buy and read fiction are predominately women. Not just LDS fiction, but national market too. I don’t actually have any numbers, but let me ask you, how many men do you know that read fiction?

While you think about that, let me remind you of another fact: There are more women on Planet Earth, than there are men. I heard the statistics came in around three to one.

With a market like that, perhaps we all should write stories for women to read. I’m not just talking about romance, but all genres. On the other hand if more men wrote for men in the LDS market perhaps we could persuade more men to read. (If you write it, they will read.)

I’m still going to try and write for universal audiences. Hopefully we can persuade more men to read, but I’m going to put on my analyst’s suit, get my characters on the couch and ask them how they feel.

By the way, I have written about 10,000 words in the BIAM challenge. I know others have larger numbers but I started late.