Author Dumps Publisher for Sexist Marketing

Successful authors dumping their publishers and going it alone isn’t a new story anymore. But British author Polly Courtney says she dumped HarperCollins UK for marketing her books in a manner which she found inappropriate to the material. From the Daily Mail:

She said: ‘They dressed up my book as something frivolous, light and racy, which is the complete opposite of what’s inside my books.

‘It is degrading to the writing and ultimately degrading to women. It’s sexist.

‘A lot of chick lit patronises women. There’s intelligent writing out there and I don’t know why it has to be sold in such a fluffy package.

Even if the timing of Courtney’s complaint is likely to sell a lot of books, it would still seem to carry some merit. In a review of Courtney’s newest book, It’s A Man’s World, out from HarperCollins UK today, the online book site, Chicklitreviews, gave the book three out of five possible stars, complaining that “where I was expecting a relatively lightish read, instead I get something more hard-hitting and something infinitely harder to take than I’d have liked.” From Chicklitreviews:

It’s A Man’s World is more hard-hitting than I expected, but it was also a little too preachy. I can see where Courtney was going with it – truly, I can – and I can believe that females in real life who do work at lads mags have a hard time, but honestly? I don’t want to read it in my fiction. I’m all for my characters overcoming obstacles, but I draw the line at having to put up with a character who’s protesting that lads mags are the worst thing ever.