Category Archives: writing

February 12, 2015 · 9:20 am

Writing Despite The Bills

A recent piece on Salon highlighted one of the murky secrets of the writing life: who is paying the bills?

The piece, provocatively titled “‘Sponsored’ by my husband” (and the response “The price I pay to write“) discusses one of the topics a Southerner just isn’t supposed to discuss: finances. The first discusses how hard it was to try to have a regular life while also writing; the author is only able to currently manage hers because she married someone whose salary is “hefty.” The second piece has an infatuation with the HBO show girls but at least is taking a crack at working 9-to-5 while also being a writer.

But the nitty-gritty is one of the cruxes of a writing career: you still need something to eat, somewhere to sleep, and probably (at least in America) health care of some kind. Where ya gonna get that?

In the first article, Ann Bauer points out that several authors recently published talk like they’ve done it all themselves but really benefited either from inherited money or deep familial connections.

I practically swooned with jealousy: undeniably, both would help me a great deal. Particularly the connections—since getting an agent/publisher/people with purse strings to pay attention to you is the first obstacle to publication.

But the “having enough money to live off of” is a huge component, too. I talked about this when Hugh Howey, of Wool fame, first hit the radar. Yes he worked hard, yes he is more workaday than a millionaire, but he also had a wife who was mostly able to support them while he took a low-paying part-time bookselling job to give himself time to write. That is a huge luxury (and, luckily for them, it paid off big time.).

At conferences and online, I see a lot more of the kind of writer I am: fitting writing around everything else. And that kind of juggling is trying, at times. I have a full-time job, a spouse with a job he finds rewarding but which won’t pay the bills alone, a part-time career as a freelance editor, AND I have written three books I’m working on getting published. I’ve said it before: how exactly am I supposed to do those things and actually have a life of any kind? It feels overwhelming.

(Side note: I think a bunch of people who cater to authors are taking advantage, selling “must-have” products that “guarantee” success. They disgust me; I hope the people buying those products are independently wealthy.)

However, I have made my choice in how to get money to live while also being a writer. While, sure, I’d love to win the lottery next month or something, I don’t think I’d ever feel comfortable being “sponsored” by my husband or another patron; we are partners, and it is my responsibility to carry my weight in our relationship, financially, in the household, and otherwise. One of the main reasons I have an editing side business is that I can feel confident using the resulting income to pay for resources in my own publishing dreams (also, it is SUCH a kick to see a book I’ve edited actually go on sale. Some have even won wards!).

For me, the juggling is worth it, even if it’s challenging at times. I need to feel like I’m helping my family forward, even if that means my books don’t churn out as quickly. That’s a choice I’ve made.

What about you? How do you manage your household while writing? Do you wish you could do it differently?

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February 3, 2015 · 9:35 am

Neil Gaiman on the Origin of Ideas

What would happen if a werewolf bit a goldfish?

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January 29, 2015 · 9:00 am

Taxes For Writers

It’s almost tax time–time for writers and editors to circle up and figure out what the heck they owe the government! Yay!

Seriously, I know it’s not the most fun part of being a creative individual, but it’s an obligation-to-society thing. I know a lot of beginning writers/editors/freelancers just try to dodge the taxman entirely, but this is a) not doing your social obligation and b) likely to bite you in the butt later on if you do strike it rich…they’ll find ya.

So it’s better to just be on top of it from the beginning, yes? Before we go any further, allow me to clarify that I am NOT a tax expert in any way, shape, or form–I’m just a regular Jane who has to pay these taxes, too. And I know I was completely overwhelmed (and did it wrong) when I started.

If you read this list and it applies to you, it would probably be a good idea to talk to a tax professional and/or to read a helpful DIY guide (I learned a lot from My So-Called Freelance Life).

  • Self-Employed: If you are earning money as a writer or editor, you need to list yourself as “self-employed” and pay self-employment tax. You can even do this on years you didn’t bring in any money; this can give you a discount for some things (but don’t do it too often; it’ll increase the chances you’ll be audited).
    • You must pay self-employment tax if you make more than $400 a year through your business. In other words, most people probably owe self-employment taxes.
    • Write down every time you get paid for your work. How much, who from, and when. I have a spreadsheet that I use both to keep track of my work-in-progress and who has paid me what.
    • Set aside 25-30% of the money you earn and tuck it away in a savings account. (Which figure you choose has to do with your income bracket…and whether you’d rather accidentally overpay–and get a rebate check–or underpay and pay in come April 15. Personally, the 30% figure gives me more peace of mind, so that’s what I do.)
    • As a self-employed person, you have to pay estimated taxes quarterly, or risk being fined (the interest). This seems really unfair and scary if you’re used to a regular desk job–hey, why I gotta pay FOUR times?–but the reason is that your accounting department is paying the company taxes every month, so, since you’re being considered a business of one, you’re also expected to pay in regularly. To do so, you need the form 1040-ES, a Social Security number, and a check. (Here’s the info from the IRS.) You’ll pay in April 15, June 16, Sept. 15, and January 15.
      • If you’ve planned ahead, this totally won’t matter: you’ll have those owed taxes tucked away in that savings account, earning interest on your behalf. It’s easy enough to just withdraw that amount owed four times a year.
  • Discounts: The good news is, if you’re listed as self-employed and paying in what you owe, you can also get some tax breaks! For example:
    • Home Office: if you work in a designated part of your home, you can take a tax write-off for your rent/mortgage cost. You’ll measure the square footage and that percentage of your house is for your work, so you’ll get a little break there. All you have to have are basic supplies: a desk, a computer, paper, whatever. But you really do have to have a office set up.
    • Supplies: Bought a new pen for book signings? That’s a write-off! Paper and envelopes to mail in manuscripts? Keep the receipts and that’s a write-off! You can list the business expenses during a year, just like a big business would, and get a tax break. This can even include things such as a new outfit for cons (I met one person who dressed up as a steampunk character for books signings. Yup, her costume was a write-off!).
    • Car Miles: This probably has less effect for the most home-bound of us, but if you drive around for your business (and keep very good records) you can count the miles driven and gas paid as business expenses, further lowering your tax burden! For example, you may drive a lot for meetings with book clubs as you promote your book: track all those miles and you’ll have a discount you can take!
    • Gifts: There are rules about gifts, but basically, if your business gifts a business contact a gift, you can write off the entire cost! Those chocolates at Christmas that you sent to your editor are now helping you!

Paying taxes as a writer or editor is a little more complicated than your typical desk-job paperwork, but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing! While writing those quarterly checks can sometimes seem painful, I’ve kept good records of my business work in general and I typically get a bigger rebate at the end of the year than I expected…which is money I can safely put right back into my business.

All it takes to be a law-abiding taxpaying writer is a bit of record-keeping and awareness. (Besides, everyone who pays you more than $600 is also required to put that on their taxes…so they’re reporting your earnings one way or another!) The best tax-defense is a good offense: perhaps it’s time you made an appointment with an accountant?

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Video

‘Do a Lot of Work’: Ira Glass on the Creative Process

You’ve probably seen this before, but if not, this is a great reminder: sometimes you have to work through crap in order to work toward greatness. Just keep going.

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January 27, 2015 · 9:57 am
January 15, 2015 · 9:25 am

Lifetime Movie: Unofficial Biography

Several months late, I just watched “Saving Mr. Banks,” the not-quite-biography of Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers, and it got me thinking: assuming I make it big, I don’t think I want to be movie-fied.
While it’s fun to think “who would play me in a movie of my life?” I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie biopic of an author that didn’t make them seem somewhat crazy.
Officially, of course, “Saving Mr. Banks” is about the making of the movie version of “Mary Poppins.” Really that is just an excuse, however, as the movie uses a lot of flashbacks to Travers’ childhood to explain her fears about the movie production.
(If you’re late to the movie, too, skip down until the line to avoid spoilers.)
The movie strongly implies–if doesn’t 100% outright say–that the whole reason Travers created Mary Poppins and the Banks family was to exorcize her childhood demons related to her loving, carefree, alcoholic mess of a father, who died when she was young and for whose death she has already blamed herself. This seems to embody her whole purpose of being, creating her into the rigid, unfriendly, unpleasant person she at first appears to be.
It isn’t until the magic of Mr. Walt Disney comes into her life and persuades her to let him try to make a movie that Travers is able to find some closure.
—-
Now I don’t know much about Ms. Travers’ personal life story, but I frankly find it hard to believe that her whole life was fixated on this one thing. Surely it takes more than a tragic backstory to create an enduring childhood fixture?
But Beatrix Potter perhaps has a worse treatment in her author-biography movie, “Miss Potter.” This one is an outright biography, no pussyfooting around with it, and serves up a large dose of personal tragedy, and then dogpiles onto her by making it seem like she literally talks out loud to her characters…essentially making her into either a sweet creator or, more realistically, a benign crazy person.
I think all authors can commiserate with the idea that our characters “speak” to us in some way or another, but animating Peter Rabbit and the like and having her literally talk to them makes her seem nutty.
Check out the trailer for a hint:
Perhaps tragedy is a requirement for a biopic to be made of you. I love/hate to watch “Finding Neverland” because poor J.M. Barrie is positively tortured. Allen Ginsberg fares a little better in “Howl,” but I’m not really sure it doesn’t make him seem less like a rebel with a cause and more like a drug-fueled lazy addict.
In short, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a biopic where the author seems like someone you’d like to know. I don’t know what tragedy scriptwriters would concoct, dig up, or construct for my life, and I think I’d prefer it to stay that way.

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January 6, 2015 · 9:48 am

Authors, Stop Your Blogging

It’s that time of year where everything is fresh and cold and you think, “yes, this time I shall do it! Really!”
Well, authors, allow me to help you strike something off your list of intended resolutions: forget about blogging.
Maybe it seems disingenuous for me–who has had this blog for over two years, with two posts minimum a week–to say that. But I’m just trying to keep you from the treacherous path I was put on. (Save yourselves!)
When I started this blog, it was partially because I liked the habit of it and wanted a place to say things. But it was ALSO because everyone at the time, via other blogs, how-to-get-published books, authors on Twitter, and people I met at conferences, everyone said a blog was essential for a writer wanting to be published.
Why? To “gain a following” and “demonstrate your niche.”
Frankly, that honestly isn’t that good a reason to start a blog. So I’m going to talk you out of it.
Reasons You Should Not Blog
1. It’s hard. Particularly if you’re the kind of person who is frequently setting resolutions and then abandoning them. The number one thing about a blog is consistency: posting regularly, preferably about your niche subject matter. And that, honestly, is hard to do. Ostensibly this blog was supposed to be focused on finding the audience who would be into choose-your-own-adventure zombie novels for adults. I don’t know about you, but I have limited interest and motivation in spending all my time coming up with CYOA/zombie posts.
2. You can’t let up. You’ve got to write stuff all the time. Something big happening at work? You can’t stop blogging. Got married and left the country for more than a week? Better work extra hard so you have posts happen while you’re not there. Having a bad day? Suck it up, cupcake, and write another blog post.
It’s like resolving to go to the gym, every week. Ok, sure; you can probably do it for awhile, but eventually, it’s going to get hard…then what?
3. No one wants to read your stories. I know, I know; you want to disregard this because people WILL want to read your stories when they discover how BRILLIANT you are. Maybe so. It’s certainly happened before. But a lot more aspiring authors put out works that a) they’d rather sell for money rather than giving it away for free or b) aren’t really finished or polished yet. You just shoot yourself in the foot with the first and you can lose credibility with the second. By and large, people who are browsing stuff online are looking for something to help them–why should they want to help you?
4. You’d rather work on the stuff you want to get formally published. If you don’t want to blog…don’t blog! You’ll have more time and more creative energy for the stuff you really want to work on.
5. It won’t get you a platform/audience. Admittedly, it has happened sometimes. But from what I can see, the authors for whom blogging created a platform already had things published.* Rather than being a place to gather a prospective audience, the blog becomes a place for the existing audience to congregate. That’s a big difference. *Exception: Food blogs. Man, I’ve seen more food blogs become cookbooks than anything else. That seems to be a recipe for success (har har). However, that’s also a ridiculously crowded marketplace, so you have to really stand out.
Now, if you still want to blog after all that…go ahead. It can be fun. It can be nice to communicate with other authors, to push the boundaries of your abilities, to have physical proof that you’ve been doing something productive. Just don’t believe a lot of the notions put out there as “must dos.”
The worst thing you could do, really, is to start a blog… and then peter out, leaving it to die on the vine, forgotten but still ranking high on Google for your pen name. So if you start a blog and decide it’s not working as you wish, be sure to close it out, too.
Good luck in 2015.

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December 30, 2014 · 9:30 am

Fisherman Jack

My grandfather recently passed away, quite suddenly and unexpectedly. I’ve had trouble expressing my feelings about it. But I did write this, in honor of him.

 

Fisherman Jack

There once was a man who liked to fish. He’d sit on the pier with a rod and a reel and coax silvery fish up out of the water. He’d stand hip-deep in frothy streams and fool whiskered, muddy fish with clever lures and intricate flicks of the wrist. By boat, he explored dark wallows and mysterious shadowed rivers. Jack was a man who liked to fish.

He took his sons out with him to the water and taught them the ways, the lines and the tricks. With his first son he traveled in a small dingy, the water rocking them along the river’s rocky bottom, so close beneath them. Jack taught his eldest son to sit quietly, to watch for the dark shadows. They baited hooks with writhing worms pulled from rich-smelling dirt and brought in crappie, bass, and brown trout. As they carried home their haul, Jack smiled and said, “That sure was a good day’s fishing, but I think there may be better.”

Later Jack took his second son out. Together they waded deep into chilly mountain waters. They arched their lines out overhead, landing lures lightly on the water’s shining surface. Jack showed his second son how to move the line, skipping like a fly. After a long day’s contest, they brought home their trout, walleye, and salmon, proud as could be. With a smile, Jack said, “That was a good day’s fishing, but I’ve heard there is better yet.”

With his third son, Jack took out the trawler loaded with gizmos, all the latest. He let the lad steer and showed him how the equipment found the fish in their shadowed depths. Together they drew the fish out of the murky dark and into the clear light of their shining, wonderful boat. Laden with fish, Jack smiled and said, “That was a good day’s catch, but I hear there’s one better. I’ll fish it, one day.”

The years wore on, and still Jack fished. He explored raging rivers and clear still waters; he plucked giants from backwood streams and sunk his line in ocean swells. He tried the great Mississippi and hiked through Yosemite. He stood under the big skies in Montana and on the muddy banks of Lake Pontchartrain. Everywhere he fished, he smiled and said, “There’s better yet to come.”

Jack’s visits to the water slowed as time ticked by. He taught his grandchildren how to bait his hooks and cast the reel; he was as pleased to scoop a minnow as a meal. He’d smile and say, “There’s yet one more I’ve yet to fish. The time is coming soon that I’ll try it.”

He hugged his dear wife and said goodbye to his sons as he packed his rod and reel. With a smile, Jack said, “I’m goin’ fishing, oh Lord. I know the way now.” He leaned back and let fly his hook, up up into that great big blue above. The hook caught, and Jack wound the reel. He fought as best he could, making it a fair challenge, pulling down against the upward tug, but knew this was his big catch. Up he went, caught by the Fisher of men, reeled just like those fish he’d caught through the years.

But Jack was not troubled. Elated, he grinned as he went up, pulled gently along. “Hallelujah,” he said, “I’m the best catch of all!”

 

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December 25, 2014 · 9:12 am

The Sound of the Season: Christmas Word Choices

The holiday season is rife with a particular vocabulary we don’t hear very often. Some of the words are “classic” (read: archaic) and evoke a reminiscence of a time that…well, maybe didn’t exist. The words we choose paint a particular picture of what Christmas means:
  • most wonderful
  • merry and bright
  • glistening
  • winter wonderland
  • babe in a manger
  • holy night
  • yon virgin
  • boughs of holly, gay apparel, Yuletide
  • newborn King
  • droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
“Jingle Bells” even features the delightful term “upsot.”
We use these terms mostly because it’s traditional and because we’re singing some of the same carols, reading the same stories, we’ve enjoyed for hundreds of years–or at least since Charles Dickens made Christmas fashionable again.
But the way we talk about something has a profound effect on how we feel, too. Winter is often a rather bleak time; to recast it as “glistening” and “wonderful” can help us actually make it wonderful…or at least make you feel less crappy that it’s been four days since you’ve seen the son.
—
I got to thinking about the words we use at Christmastime for two wildly different reasons.
The first: The Turtle Creek Chorale’s performance of their song “PC Christmas.”
The Turtle Creek Chorale is a really great men’s choir here in Dallas; my husband surprised me with tickets. They’re a group of about 150 men who put on a performance of great humor and good cheer–no, really. (Interesting: all the men in the choir are gay. They made some jokes in that direction in the show, too.)
But the song that most struck me was “PC Christmas”: a song/show about Mabel (a man in fantastic drag), the harried and well-meaning HR director of the imaginary “Pegasus Corporation.” Mabel just wants to put on a Christmas party, but at every turn she is met with complainers who want their celebration to be represented at the official party. Hapless Mabel assures, via monologued emails, employees that the party will feature “traditional”…and secular Christmas songs….and Hanukkah songs….and a song for Kwanzaa… and at least one song celebrating the Moon Goddess…. until the whole shebang collapses in on itself and Mabel gives up.
It’s funny because it’s true: while Christmas is far and away the main event in Dallas (Fun fact: the sad and revealing book “Tinsel” was written from Frisco, Texas, just outside of Dallas), the intense and loud celebration thereof can be exclusionary, annoying, snobby, and basically rude to those who don’t celebrate.
That’s how we get all this nastiness over the well-intended phrase “Happy Holidays.”
—-
Number two reason I’ve been thinking about words:
My church decided to “mix things up” this Christmas: in lieu of a weekly sermon, has decided to do monologues from different Biblical “characters.”
Now, before this rant goes any further, let me be clear: I think this is a great way to breathe new life into an old and familiar story, to get some more people involved.
Except it’s been awful. I missed Joseph and the shepherd while traveling, but I managed to catch Elizabeth (Mary’s cousin, mother of John the Baptist) and “Martha” (the utterly fictional, not-in-the-Bible wife of the innkeeper).
Both of these women’s “stories” had an intense focus on pregnancy. Elizabeth on the great difficulty of being infertile and how happy she was to finally be pregnant; Martha on meeting Mary while she was super-pregnant and assisting all night with the birth.
In general, we use a lot of euphemistic and positive terms for pregnancy: “bun in the oven”; “bundle of joy”; “special delivery”, etc. We take this even farther for the miraculous pregnancies in this part of the Bible–maybe because the details are practically nonexistent, maybe because being the mother of God probably oughta come with some perks like an easy delivery.
For whatever reason, the scriptwriter for this series, however, decided to through out all those comfortable euphemisms, opting instead of explicit medical terms.
I’ll spare you, but let it be known that I never again want to hear about how the midwife “felt between her legs to feel the baby’s head” or Mary’s “screams so loud she woke up all the inn’s guests” or have the sweet baby Jesus described as being “green and gray from mucus as he left the birth canal.” (Seriously, I’ve started watching “Call the Midwife”–a show about being a midwife–and it wasn’t so gruesome.)
—-
Anyway, whatever you are doing today, I hope you are enjoying yourself, whether you’re under celebrating the Christ child, singing to O Tenenbaum, dancing with Frosty the Snowman, or seeing Mommy kissing Santa Claus.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Feliz Cumpleanos, Seasons Greetings, Yuletide Joy, and to all a good night!

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December 16, 2014 · 9:03 am

What is the Point of a Thank-You?

While perusing the internet last week, I encountered a discussion about thank-you notes (on the inimitable Reddit). It was a suggestion that parents teach kids to write thank-you notes for their gifts, to foster a spirit of gratefulness when the kids are small.

It seemed pretty facile to me: write thank you notes, it’s polite. Easy enough, right?

And yet the responses to this suggestion were overwhelmingly “NOPE.”

Commenters went on and on about how it was just teaching kids to lie, how it was an out-of-date custom, how it’s just a form of parental extortion (write the note OR ELSE!), how nobody likes receiving those annoying formulaic notes anyhow, and can’t you just tell someone you liked their gift? Or, better yet, just keep sending presents and don’t you worry about whether or not I even liked it. Gimmie.

I was raised in a write-your-note-or-else house, and I’ve been pretty well indoctrinated. When I met my now-husband’s parents for the second time, they commented on how I’d written them thank-you notes…and how it made them feel guilty for not doing them. After writing the heap of notes for my wedding gifts, I’ve even developed a bit of a reputation as a writer of “great thank-you notes” (gee, exactly what I want to be known for).

So I fall pretty hard on the thank-you-note-writing side of the line.

I found myself wondering: am I making everyone uncomfortable by sending these notes, these notes I have been writing because I was taught that it was just the done thing, that I was a rude and ungrateful brat if I didn’t?

I took a poll of some friends and got a mixed bag: definitely for some occasions a note is welcome, getting mail that isn’t a bill is a nice thing, and a few “oops, I totally should have written that one.”

I admit one of the prime reasons I write thank-you notes is because I love getting mail. Physical mail, I heart you. I’m always thrilled to get something interested, something unexpected. It’s like mini-Christmas, every day of the year. (I seriously have a Birchbox just because I like to get the mail…)

I guess I agree with some of the complaints in the no-thank-you side: I think it’s weird when I get hand-written, formulaic thank-you notes from my mom via post office when I see her every week. And I think writing thank-you notes after a funeral gift is ridiculous and unfairly burdensome on the mourning, who have enough going on. I hate getting the literal fill-in-the-blank notes from little kids–or worse, the really-you’re-too-old-for-this teens (“Dear M.E., Thank you for the _____ I really loved it! Signed, Annoying Teenager”).

But all in all, I’m in favor of the thank-you note. Particularly because I don’t have much opportunity to see many of my friends and family right now; we live pretty far apart and see each other maybe once a year. The note is a way of saying “hey, you’re sweet to remember me! I got your gift! Also, I miss you.”

If it makes me outdated to like that, I guess I’m just going to have to be a bit musty, I suppose.

Where do you fall on thank-you notes: lovely courtesy or forced false gratitude?

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December 11, 2014 · 9:38 am

Which Way to the Ladies’ Library? Turns Out Even Reading Is Gendered

Book-reading cataloguer Goodreads made some waves when they recently released a study about the gender of a reader compared to the gender of the authors they typically read.

Lots of good data to chew on there: men and women read about the same number of books, collectively rate their Goodreads books at an average of 3.94, women read a lot more new fiction, and men write a lot more really long fiction (500+ pages).

Here’s a stat I stumbled over, though: in the first year of publication, 80% of a female author’s audience will be women; 50% of a male author’s audience will be women. Interesting….

Women authors’ books were also rated, on average, a teensy bit higher than male authored books (just by 0.1, though).

But the 50 most-read books for each gender fall on starkly gendered lines: Of the 50 books published in 2014 that were most read by men, 45 are written by men. Of the 50 books published in 2014 that were most read by women, 45 (46 if you count stealth J.K. Rowling, which you should) were written by women.

That’s the odd one, to me.

A lot of commenters jumped in with “well I never pick a book based on the author.” Assuming that is true, what may be going on here? I’m guessing there are quite a few factors:

  • gendered genre: it’s pretty well-understood that certain genres traditionally tilt to one gender or the other–romance is heavily read and written by women, while “literary” fiction and science fiction both heavily favor men. It stands to reason that these topics would pull the average one way or another.
  • cover design: there’s been some funny/interesting looks lately at the way a book cover is gendered when it goes through a publisher. This is intentional; they’re trying to attract an audience, so they market the book–typically by old and stereotypical methods–to whomever they think it will appeal to. But that also means that a book that both genders really may enjoy equally could get shunted in one direction or the other just because of which photo someone decided to put on the cover. Lots to think about there.
  • the “Oprah effect”: book clubs. From what I can tell, book clubs are overwhelmingly female, tend to pick new authors, and follow recommendations from talk show hosts like Oprah in order to find their next “it” topic. This may be having a powerful effect. (Sue Monk Kidd has said book clubs were the driving force behind her book, The Secret Life of Bees, becoming a best-seller.) The downside may be that book clubs try to pick a certain kind of book…most authors may not be able to harvest the “Oprah effect.”
  • maybe people really do like reading someone of their own gender; maybe they are, even subconsciously, actively selecting for a gendered read.

Personally, I find this kind of breakdown fascinating…and a little scary. I want to read a variety of backgrounds, so sometimes I do actively try to mix up my reading list and get a different genre, gender of author, etc. But there are times I’ve noticed that I’ve read a lot of books written by, say, white males in the 1950s. That’s not a bad thing, but it probably is flavoring my tastes and my writing voice.

But it also worries me as a writer: I’m interested in sci-fi–the male-dominated genre unpopular with book clubs. Uh-oh.

What do you think about the “gendering” of books? Is it an issue at all? Is it surprising?

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