I'll stop going on about it soon ...

I was amused to notice that on Amazon US that customers who bought This Is Not Chick Lit also bought This Is Chick Lit and See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick Lit.

Perhaps the customers are buying This Is Not Chick Lit as a guide to What Not To Write.

Also This Is Not Chick Lit seems to be outselling This Is Chick Lit. Doesn't that disprove the Not-Chick-Litters argument (that chick lit is stealing readers from more worthy books)?

Or perhaps it just shows that sticking the words Chick Lit in your title (even if you have to stick the knife into a bunch of fellow women writers) will sell more books.

I'll stop going on about it soon ... - Comments

  • Keris, if you&#39re basing who&#39s doing better, NOT or IS, on Amazon numbers, it all depends when you look: this morning NOT was 86K, IS was 9K. :)

  • Oh absolutely, Dave. But, like all genre fiction, it&#39s the fact that they&#39re "entertaining and readable" that makes them less valuable in the eyes of the literary establishment.

    And you&#39ve hit on one of my pet peeves - Nick Hornby very quickly made the transition from "Lad lit" to "literary" even though his books have gone from "entertaining and readable" to, in my opinion, contrived and woolly (maybe I mean "because" rather than "even though") but this would NEVER happen to a female author.

    The only chick lit author I&#39ve ever seen get a broadsheet review (albeit a condescending one) is Marian Keyes and I cynically believe that&#39s only because her alcoholism gives her literary kudos. There. I&#39m off for my morning Margherita!

  • I wonder if writers like Sophie Kinsella and Lisa Jewell would get more recognition if it wasn&#39t for the chicklit label? Personally, I find them both a hell of a lot more entertaining and readable than some of the highly-regarded "literary fiction" that friends rave about. It&#39s just a shame that a book by a woman has to be in either one category or the other.

  • Got my copy today! :) xx

  • Great comment, Shanna - thank you!

    I don&#39t mean to take anything away from the Benbella anthology, they&#39ve (or rather, you&#39ve!) done brilliantly and no doubt the entire argument has increased sales for both books, but if the &#39literary&#39 collection had been entitled &#39America&#39s Best Women Writers&#39 it wouldn&#39t have sold half as many and there wouldn&#39t have been half as much interest, which comes back to my comment about bashing chick lit as a marketing ploy. Cynical. And infuriating.

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