Relationship Fiction

W H Smith recently declared that from the middle of October it will no longer use "Women's Fiction" on promotional material in their stores. Evidently the company received complaints from two female shoppers who found the label condescending and offensive. Two things pop into mind - what are they going to use instead, and I had no idea just two complaints would change something in their store.

There is a rumour that "relationship fiction" is to be the new banner. People in the business of selling books say Women's Fiction and Chick Lit has always been about how women deal with relationships rather than the bigger issues dealt with in other types of fiction. In many ways I have to agree, but it isn't always simply getting a man that makes the story. There are complications that affect whole families, but I guess that still comes under the relationship banner. I suppose the smart thing would be to shelve the books as libraries used to do - a simple A-Z author sequence whch avoids all the cute headings.

People like the headings. They don't want to spend the time browsing through forty thousand books every time they want something to read.  And I suspect that most women like the heading Women's Fiction. And anyway, do you think a new banner is going to change the type of book that is taken off the shelves? I doubt it. But it will be interesting to watch the struggle.

Chick-lit under fire

There's a new journalistic attack on women writers, this time aimed at chick-lit - http://tinyurl.com/6eubzox - and it's annoying a lot of readers and writers. It isn't a genre I read, and nor do I write it, so I suppose I don't feel much pressure. But for those who do, it must be upsetting, so why do the journalists continue to put out these bitter little peices of journalistic crap?
Usually it's Romance that gets beaten with the sarcastic stick. Can it be that these journalists actually envy the writers who've made it to publishing a book? I expect they'll hide behind the 'my editor made me do it' line, and s/he'll say it's done because it sells newspapers.
It must be a desperate situation for many journalists these days. News is no longer confined to newspapers. Sometimes it isn't even part of newspapers. 24 hour rolling news on television, radio and all the other devices that impart information at the click of a button have made the old fashioned news journalist redundant. I suppose those who are left must feel the pressure to keep coming up with some gossip or pseudo news piece which they claim they claim the public ought to know about. Picking on women writers is easy. No one sues the journalist or the newspaper, and maybe it's time someone did.