Q&A: Is a writer’s work better received if those it is submitted to don’t know the writer is female? Is it advantageous to write under initials or an innocuous name that does not betray your gender?

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Is a writer’s work better received if those it is submitted to don’t know the writer is female? Is it advantageous to write under initials or an innocuous name that does not betray your gender?

Nov 25, 2011

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Temujin: Female agents or chief executives is not a good thing (ask any female)

at Nov 30, 2011 - 1:28 PM

Book agents are mostly female and there seems to be too many women in studios' hierarchy.

As a comic writer (and of psychological drama) my pissing me off subject(s) is/are:

'Hollywood' and everyone that talks about that 'town' avoid and deny the most important 'factor'. It is a Jewish town. That must have a bearing on the way it does business. Is it a good thing or not? Power in the hands of one source is called a monopoly and is generally thought to be anti-competitive.

(If Ricky Gervais is watching - please get in touch before your next Golden Gloves - I mean Globes.)

Is there a connection with the 'business model' of tv comedy in Hollywood' for instance? Why is it that the driver is to throw money at the problem (how do we get a show from existing known writers that will stay afloat till I get another job) and so many crap shows get aired and fail. It's not a good record. In UK the opposite applies. There, anal retention by 'luvvies' who all live in one area of London and drive little Saabs (the young girlie luvvies drive the little BMW sports) that unless you're a literary genius no one will take a risk.

I do remember the pre-accountant BBC where the head of comedy took enormous creative risks. Michael Grade as head of Channel 4 took big risks. And guess what? They mostly were successes!