Same Sex Romance/Erotica

[CyranoJ]

Okay. It'd be interesting to see that documentary if you're ever able to recall the title, thanks.

I have seen it claimed that a large number of male writers in the romance genre use gender-neutral or female pen names just generally, or write in husband-wife teams. So it's certainly possible that some subset of those are gay men writing straight (or whatever) romances. (Male romance writers are more common than we tend to think, but when they're successful they tend so often to get categorized outside the genre as just Literature -- Cf. The English Patient, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Notebook -- that it skews the overall picture. So it's hard for me to tell how all of this balances out.) For Romance as a genre, the RWA still estimates that just over four-fifths of the readership is female, which lines up roughly with the OP's statistics. I suspect the overall authorship skews rather similarly, but I can't actually point to any stats that say that.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

For Romance as a genre, the RWA still estimates that just over four-fifths of the readership is female

that's one thing, yes. Romance readership is female. Write romance, and your efforts are wasted on men.
I suppose the opposite is also true.

 

[kitmarlowe]

I have a friend (who I won't name) who is very much a gay man who's spent the last decade writing books for Harlequin under a variety of names, if that data point helps at all.

 

[CyranoJ]

that's one thing, yes. Romance readership is female. Write romance, and your efforts are wasted on men.

I think it's more that men don't really have to go to this specific genre to read romance. (The whole thing with male-written romantic novels getting vaulted out of the genre and elevated to Literature apparently in large part because of the sex of their authors is maddening... but it is very much a thing. A Tale of Two Cities is essentially a romance novel, for instance... but you'll rarely hear it spoken of this way.)

 

[MillieDynamite]

A Tale of Two Cities is also a story about turmoil, revolution, and war. Of course, it has war. How would any revolution not have war? It involves sacrifice, redemption, and, yes, romance. It does not exactly have a happy ending, but it is at least one of hope.

I think it's more that men don't really have to go to this specific genre to read romance. (The whole thing with male-written romantic novels getting vaulted out of the genre and elevated to Literature apparently in large part because of the sex of their authors is maddening... but it is very much a thing. A Tale of Two Cities is essentially a romance novel, for instance... but you'll rarely hear it spoken of this way.)

 

[AG31]

I saw a documentary on it, HBO, Cinemax, or Showtime, maybe, when I was 17 or so. It interviewed 10 gay men writers who wrote hertrosexual romance stories under women's pen names. I'd venture to say that most men writing heterosexual romance stories would use a woman's pen name, whether they were gay or not. How many men sounding names have you seen in the Harlquen stable? But the ten men who were interviewed all said it was quite common (in the 80s through 2008) for gay men to write under women's names, especially in Romance. I am assuming they meant straight romance, though they didn't specify that.

Maybe they were just people with an authorial impulse, and like lots of authors they like to stretch their wings.

 

[MillieDynamite]

There were five American Gay writers and five British gay authors, and they were highly successful. They were older and had been writing for 20 years, and it was their coming-out party. A couple weren't gay-sounding or acting, but several were over the top, like Cam on Modern Family. No, I don't remember the name. I think it's an original production, but not for the movie channel, say it on. It probably played in art houses, not regular theaters.

Maybe they were just people with an authorial impulse, and like lots of authors they like to stretch their wings.