2015-01-06
Sherwood Smith's HOSTAGE preview release--Why We Chose to Self Publish Book Two
Italicized, blockquoted material is me quoting someone else.
This riff goes into why Rachel Manija Brown and I have decided to self-publish Hostage, the sequel to Stranger, which came out from Viking in November.
If you’re expecting a rant about the evils of big six publishing, put away the popcorn or head on over to your favorite internet rantiseum, because that’s not what this is about.
A request
I am thinking it's time someone review How To Suppress Women's Writing using examples gathered from contemporary reviews so if any of you notice a reviewer using one of these methods (from Wikipedia), please point the review in question out to me:
The book outlines eleven common methods that are used to ignore, condemn or belittle the work of female authors:
*Prohibitions
Prevent women from access to the basic tools for writing.
*Bad Faith
Unconsciously create social systems that ignore or devalue women's writing.
*Denial of Agency
Deny that a woman wrote it.
*Pollution of Agency
Show that their art is immodest, not actually art, or shouldn't have been written about.
*The Double Standard of Content
Claim that one set of experiences is considered more valuable than another.
*False Categorizing
Incorrectly categorize women artists as the wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, or lovers of male artists.
*Isolation
Create a myth of isolated achievement that claims that only one work or short series of poems is considered great.
*Anomalousness
Assert that the woman in question is eccentric or atypical.
*Lack of Models
Reinforce a male author dominance in literary canons in order to cut off women writers' inspiration and role models.
*Responses
Force women to deny their female identity in order to be taken seriously.
*Aesthetics
Popularize aesthetic works that contain demeaning roles and characterizations of women.