Male authors hiding gender to appeal to women

FEMALE writers of the past such as George Eliot and the Bronte sisters had little choice but use a male pseudonym if they wanted their work published.

But modern male authors are now turning to gender neutral names in an attempt to appeal to female readers.

SK Tremayne went straight to the top of the bestsellers list with The Ice Twins, a thriller written from a mother’s perspective about the death of a daughter.

But in fact it had been written by the author Sean Thomas, who had previously produced a succession of thrillers which were aimed at men.

The writer, who lives in London, told The Times: ‘We didn’t want readers to think, “I’m not buying a book about a woman written by a man. He won’t be able to do it”.’

Speaking on the Radio 4 Today show yes- terday, author Allison Pearson said it is a ‘small moment of triumph’ that men now have to pretend to be female to sell more, and added that in the ‘great library in the sky’ Charlotte Bronte and Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) were ‘perhaps exchanging a wry glance of satisfaction’.

She added: ‘I remember as a university student thinking that Middlemarch, arguably the greatest novel in the language, the idea that she felt she had to take a man’s name to be taken seriously stuck in the craw. So now we’re seeing a marvellous role reversal.’

Tony Strong, who wrote the bestseller The Girl Before under the pseudonym JP Delaney, said fans often accused him of being an imposter when they met him. He added: ‘Someone had to Google me to prove that I really was the author.’

A survey of 40,000 men and women by the website Goodreads in 2014 found that 46 of the 50 most-read books among women were by women.