Trade prepares for rush of feminist books

A wave of “empowering” books supporting current conversations around feminism are set to hit the market this year. The tranche both celebrates the centenary of women’s suffrage and meets growing demand for books discussing gender inequality following the Harvey Weinstein scandal which spawned the #MeToo movement last autumn.

It is nearly 100 years since women's suffrage in the UK, with next Tuesday (6th February) marking the centenary of the passing of The Representation of the People Act that gave women over 30 who met a property qualification the right to vote. The anniversary has coincided with an increased openness and scrutiny of sexual harassment after more than 50 women made allegations against Weinstein, a Hollywood producer, of sexual misconduct, first reported in the New York Times.

Conversations taking place on social media and in the national press around women’s rights started to impact on feminist book sales towards the end of last year, with the successes of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (Particular Books), a children’s title challenging gender stereotypes which has racked up 236,282 sales through Nielsen BookScan since March, and Mary Beard’s Women & Power (Profile), a manifesto exploring "cultural underpinnings of misogyny”, which put an impressive 82,893 copies through the tills since publishing in November. 

Frances Macmillan, senior editor at Vintage Classics, revealed sales of its Feminism Short Series increased by over 60% in 2017 to sell over 40,000 copies across its three titles. “It is heartening to see their relevance and sales increase as the current wave of feminism gathers momentum,” she said, adding that Vintage is planning to extend the series in June this year with texts from Emmeline Pankhust and Virginia Woolf.

Whilst most publishers bar two declined to take up Kamila Shamsie’s challenge to exclusively publish women writers in 2018, editors have told The Bookseller they are commissioning more books with feminist themes and paying closer attention to the gender balance of the authors on their lists.

Fay Evans, senior commissioning editor at Bonnier Publishing behind the forthcoming Anthology of Amazing Women (20 Watt), featuring "incredible" people such as Beyonce and Sheryl Sandberg, said women’s increased visibility was driving change. "I remember talking about doing a women’s book in 2013 and there wasn’t any interest at all," she said. “It was very much ‘yeah that’s a bit niche’, even though we make up half of the population. 

“But in the last couple of years I have started to feel an increase in female presence. Everything, not just in publishing, seems to have been running towards this. The increase in the visibility of women - their problems, their thoughts and their voices - have all come together to push this through ... The narrative has changed from ‘women don’t sell’ to ‘women are people; women buy books; women play video games’. It’s all coming to a head at the same time.”

Vintage editor Macmillan argued that, with debates around gender equality now “fiercer” and “more urgent than ever”, people were turning to books for “a framework and a tough language to articulate both the fury and the hopefulness of the present moment".

"I think that’s why the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, has helped define the current movement,” she said. "I think that’s why the words of Virginia Woolf, Emmeline Pankhurst, Simone de Beauvoir and Mary Wollstonecraft appeared on placards at the Women’s March last year. We want to make their books more accessible than ever in order to help and inspire readers and fuel their thinking.”

Rachel Williams, publisher at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, said this year’s centenary of women getting the vote had “definitely” represented an opportunity for publishers. The publisher is examining the lives of Emmeline Pankhurst and Rosa Parks in its Little People Big Dreams series this year. Titles from other publishers marking the anniversary include The Century Girls by historian, writer and broadcaster Tessa Dunlop (Simon & Schuster), charting how women’s lives have changed since the Representation of the People Act; David Robert’s Suffragette: The Battle for Equality (Two Hoots), bringing home how extraordinary the members of the women's suffrage movement really were; Nosy Crow’s Make More Noise! inspired by Emmeline Pankhurst's own words, with stories honouring the centenary; and, from Viking, the Penguin Women Writers series, a collection of four “forgotten classics” that series editors Shamsie and Man Booker winner Penelope Lively felt "deserve to be better known in the UK”. Orion is also spearheading an initiative in February around “100 years of women’s suffrage” promoting relevant titles from its backlist including I am Malala and Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy.

For HQ, which this month publishes Attack of the 50 Ft. Women by Women’s Equality Party founding member Catherine Mayer, feminism is “part of its DNA” and a core part of its non-fiction strategy. “It is not just about one day, an anniversary or a movement”, said executive publisher Lisa Milton. Likewise for Virago, whose mission has been explicitly feminist since 1973, Sarah Savitt said that although she was “excited by the recent surge of interest in feminism" - also reflected by its 2018 list to include Feminist Revolution, Feminist Saints, and Rebel Women - she hoped it wasn’t just a “trend”. 

“Feminism and gender are driving the news cycle right now. It’s wonderful to see this but of course I hope it’s not a ‘trend’, and that instead we’re in the midst of real change for women’s rights and visibility, in publishing and in the world more broadly,” said Savitt.

Claudia Connal, editorial director for non-fiction at Simon & Schuster, weighed in: "I think this is more than a publishing trend. This is part of a significant societal shift towards a greater desire for discourse on inequality."

Williams, of Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, said she thought the onus on women’s issues in publishing was “here to stay”. Asked what she thought was driving output, she said a generational shift had taken place and, acknowledging the dominance of male authors, said "publishers with daughters" had realised it was “time to create a more equal bookshelf”. 

Although many publishers have linked the recent surge in interest in feminist titles to the #MeToo movement, others, such as Picador’s Paul Baggaley, believe it is more the result of a “deeper debate" about better representation within publishing. 

"It feels to me that the movement towards better representation of women writers predates these specific social media discussions and is a response to the deeper debate about female empowerment and feminism, alongside a greater engagement with gender, sexuality, race and class,” he said.

"The starting point for real change was an increased awareness that a shockingly homogenous publishing industry needed to address the narrowness of both its own composition and its publishing output. As the demographics of the industry reflect more closely those of the wider world, women writers will be better represented on the bookshelves, as, I hope, will all the other sectors of society that have also been neglected for too long.”

He added that the company was "now publishing some of the most exciting fiction, non-fiction and poetry by women”. In 2018 this includes a poetry anthology about migration in England from Kate Clanchy, part of The Very Quiet Foreign Girls Poetry Group, and Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: Woman Artists at Work, delivering 100 profiles of female creators. 

According to Waterstones, sales of books in this space show no sign of waning. Non-fiction buyer Clement Knox said books on feminist topics had “swept the floor ... because they sell” and said he saw “no reason why this trend wouldn't continue long in to the future”.

 “The wonderful success of Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls shows that these themes work in children's publishing too," Knox said. “Essentially they have swept the floor - and that is because they sell. People want to read these books."