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On Gender, Numbers, & Submissions
Last week Vida, Women in the Literary Arts, released data showing gender inequalities in a variety of literary publications including the New Yorker, Atlantic, Granta, and Tin House. What many of us have been talking about and sensing was put in stark relief via raw numbers and pie charts. Meghan O’Rourke quickly weighed in at Slate, followed by Ruth Franklin’s sobering piece in the New Republic, which reported that literary book publishing numbers were equally unequal. These numbers were all the buzz at AWP.
At AWP, we spoke with members of Vida and all agreed that taking a magazine’s internal submission statistics into account would help put gender disparity numbers in perspective and provide context.
Let me start with our editorial board (those who vote during editorial meetings): 5 men, 5 women.
On average, we receive between 1,500 and 2,000 unsolicited submissions per month. The last 2,000 unsolicited submissions were nearly equally split between men and women. Factoring gender-neutral names, it is a statistical wash.
Of the last 100 agented submissions we received, 62 were by male authors and 38 were by female authors.
Of the last 50 agents who submitted to Tin House, 32 of those agents were women and 18 were men.
Of the last 100 authors to submit directly to me, 63 of those submissions came from men and 37 came from women. This includes submissions from agents, publishers (for first serial), past contributors, forwarded submissions from contributing editors (12 men, 8 women), and teachers recommending students.
A clarification of one Vida statistic:
There was a pie chart listing “book reviews.” We do not review current books. Tin House features a section called “Lost and Found” where authors champion their favorite underappreciated books and authors. In 2010 the majority of pieces pitched to us, and published, focused on work made between 1909-1963. Of those writing for the Lost & Found section, the 13 male writers and 10 female writers chose to champion 18 underappreciated male writers versus four underappreciated female writers.
Anecdotal observations:
Vida’s survey is an overview of 2010. Had they looked at the year 2007, our numbers would have been skewed heavily toward women because one of the four issues was called Fantastic Women and featured 28 female writers. This issue came out of what we saw as a trend among female writers like Kelly Link, Aimee Bender, and Stacy Richter who were (and still are) pushing the surreal form in a different direction than their male counterparts.
Of solicited writers, I see a distinct gender difference. When I solicit male authors, the only ones who do not submit are those contractually bound by other magazines. For female authors it is closer to 50% submit after being asked.
Male authors, in the face of rejection, are much more likely to submit more work, (and sooner) than their female peers. This is true even when the female author is explicitly requested to send more work.
Similarly, men whose work we accept are more likely to follow up publication with more submissions. Of the 28 female writers in Fantastic Women, 3 have voluntarily sent further submissions. In that same time period I have received at least 100 submissions from previously published male authors.
These numbers don’t account for subconscious or unacknowledged gender preferences in editors, but do I hope they put Vida’s findings in greater context.
The bottom line at Tin House is that we are aware of the gender disparity, we are concerned about these numbers, and we are committed to redoubling our efforts to solicit women writers. Personally, I am deeply tuned into the reality of gender inequality: I am married to a short story writer, and my fifteen year-old daughter is a drummer in a feminist punk rock band. Since the start of Tin House twelve years ago, I have been committed to publishing the best work I can find. Agents of female writers, publishers of female writers, and especially female writers, please send us your work. We really want your work.
–Rob Spillman
(15) Comments
(18) Trackbacks & Pingbacks
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[...] men, while a very few acknowledged the problem and spoke seriously about institutional bias, and their efforts to correct it. One thing the count doesn’t measure, however, is the masthead. There’s evidence there that [...]
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[...] just how to manage the interior life of a writer (not that this isn’t also important). As Tin House pointed out, men pitch. Men bang on the door. For my wee blog I find that men are constantly [...]
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[...] The issue of gender equality in the arts, and particularly in literature, is definitely a topic of discussion here in the US. VIDA has been posting gender-ratio numbers of various literary organisations, including Tin House. This prompted us to do a detailed breakdown of our submission and acceptance numbers, and what we found was surprising, especially about the numbers of submissions by women who have been asked to send work. My detailed response is here. [...]
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[...] and one of the marvelous things this did was start many many discussions in online worlds. Rob Spillman, the editor of Tin House wrote this: “Male authors, in the face of rejection, are much more likely to submit more work, [...]
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[...] the Internet, writers are compiling lists of articles about sexism, bloggers are commenting, and editors are coming forward to talk about their publishing [...]
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[...] the Internet, writers are compiling lists of articles about sexism, bloggers are commenting, and editors are coming forward to talk about their publishing [...]
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[...] House has an interesting blog post in which it breaks down its submission numbers. It receives between 1,500 and 2,000 unsolicited [...]
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[...] On Gender, Numbers, & Submissions — Rob @ Tin [...]
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[...] Rob Spillman Editor of Tin House says he does in fact care [...]
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[...] “On Gender, Numbers, & Submissions” by Rob (Tin [...]
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[...] Tin House has a refreshingly non-defensive response to their role in the gender disparity; read it here. This entry was posted in From TLR Books…, literary drama. Bookmark the permalink. ← [...]
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[...] Spillman, editor of Tin House, wrote on that magazine’s blog: Of solicited writers, I see a distinct gender difference. When I solicit male authors, the only [...]
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[...] balance and asking specifically for women to give them material to consider (someday, I will write Rob Spillman a personal love letter for [...]
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[...] also wanted to comment on the response Rob Spillman, the editor of Tin House, wrote to VIDA’s study. A friend of mine posted on her [...]
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[...] “On Gender, Numbers, & Submissions” a response from Tin House [...]
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[...] some of the responses from journals and other [...]
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[...] read full article… About This Site This is a subset of Reading Local: Portland, and features constantly updating links to the latest posts from Portland's many "book blogs." Think your blog should be included? Contact us, and we will check it out, and if we feel it's a good fit we will include it. [...]
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Edan Lepucki, sanjeev , Elisa Gabbert, reesekwon, Robin Black and others. Robin Black said: I think this is a terrific response. Stats are upsetting tho RT @Lvandenberg: @robspill on the Vida stats & Tin House: http://bit.ly/dEdOOx [...]
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Hi Rob,
Thanks for the great article, and for posting your journal stats. I wrote a similar article upon returning from AWP, thought you might want to check it out: http://beyondthemargins.com/2011/02/submitting-work-a-womans-problem/#comments
Best, Becky
THANK YOU for being specific. It definitely provides more context than the original graphs did.
Where is the facebook like button ?
Also, and sorry this is in a separate comment, you are implying that all the submissions are of equal quality, i.e., that similar percentages are accepted or rejected. Or do you think the women, e.g., those who are not responding even when solicited, are more self-critical than the men, who are more willing to give it a try, even if the work is not up to par?
I appreciate that your submission numbers are skewed and that this affects your publication ratio. Still, telling people to look at *one* year’s figures seems a rather weak rebuttal.
the attrition on women who resubmit (or fail to) after being rejected is a fascinating piece of the gender puzzle. i am curious, however, given the fact that the unsolicited pieces are roughly 50:50, what is it percentage of women vs. men that get published from this pile of unsolicited pieces? what i am wondering is where the “tipping point” is. in classical music, there are a lot more amateur women musicians than men, but in the top echelon the proportion is reversed. the same goes for chefs, and probably other professions that i am not aware of. this is all very interesting!
As a young female writer I find this incredibly encouraging. Thank you for sharing the greater context and for the initiative it took to put this together.
Many thanks for this, Rob — I suspected Tin House’s numbers would not be cause for alarm. I was saddened, but not surprised, to see your info re women and submitting. I’ve thought for awhile that fear of rejection can be a HUGE hurdle for women. Today I blogged a letter, from the Submit-It Nag, to those women who fear rejection: http://pamparker.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/rejections-cant-kill-you-fear-something-that-can/