Fascinating video with so many different views of a term that seems to defy definition. Everyone thinks of it differently. I went back and read your first blog. Loved the 17 and 18 year olds answers. :)

Really enjoyed the video! Interesting how people view it. I like your definition best!

Great drive by - I like your answer Barbara - anything women like to read.

Tell Andrew - if I had to define Men's fiction I'd say subjects dealing with war - however, I'm a big fan of those as well - so it would 'appear' that attaching labels to book genres may be too narrowing.

Excellent. I want to go to Lady Jane's Salon. What fun.
Not surprisingly, my definition of women's fiction has always been pretty much the same as yours. I read a wide variety of fiction, and I claim it all as "mine" (as a woman). But the readers interviewed here had excellent definitions as well; primarily, fiction that touches the heart or deals with women's issues. Thanks to everyone who shared her/his thoughts. Thanks, Barbara.

That was fun, Barbara!

I like your definition. I know men who read romance novels. I know women who won't. I say just read what makes you happy and don't worry about what it is classified as.

Great video, and I like your answer. Before watching this I would have said it was romance and more -- sort of the "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" sort of book. And as for "men's fiction" I'd have to say it's whatever men like to read. ::grin:: My younger son is the male reader in the family and he loves the Tolkien books and anything by Dan Brown.

This is great! I love all of the different vocabulary and viewpoints. And my love, Marcos, is right. I do like action movies more than him. :)

I thought it was interesting that so many people thought women's fiction should be written BY women. I think Nicholas Sparks writes great women's fiction ... he makes me cry, laugh, and feel like I've got a new friend when I close the book :)

When I think women's fiction I am usually looking for more of a family or group of women's journey. Debbie Macomber, Sherryl Woods, Nicholas Sparks, Mary Kay Andrews all come to mind.

Great drive by! Lady Jane's looks like an awesome place.
Nancy

Thanks Barb for the great video--it was fun to "revisit" this question you posed to us before!

Many years ago, I was one of the founding authors and first board members of NINC. Which was originally named Women's Fiction Writers. <p><br>The problem with that was, when a man wanted to join, suddenly we had to decide whether we meant women who write fiction. Or writers who wrote women's fiction. When we got too bogged down in definitions of what WAS women's fiction, Rebecca Brandewynne finally solved the problem and said, "Let's just call ourselves Novelists, Inc." <p><br>

It's been said that women readers are more eclectic than male readers, and I do believe that's true as a rule. Which is why if you use the definition "What women read," then you're going to have to say "Everything." <p><br>

Maybe 26 years in the business has me thinking too much like an editor, but I do tend to categorize books a bit more and have always viewed Women's Fiction as books where the protagonist's various relationships form the framework for the story, which, because of all those varying and layered relationships, does involve more interpersonal drama and a journey. A story that deals with emotional family issues every woman, from a woman living on Park Avenue to a single mom in a small town in Idaho struggling to make ends meet -- can identify with.<p><br> I like the person who used Virginia Woolf as an example, because, having loved those classics, I agree. But those writers evolved into books such as The Group, which, in turn are being written these days by Jodi Picoult, Luanne Rice, Susan Wiggs and Kristin Hannah. But the issues they're dealing with are much the same as Woolf and Kate Chopin were writing about. <p><br>

Personally I loved(!!!) writing those stories (then the market crashed for a time, as it always does with varying genres), and hope to return to them.

I agree with Missy Taylor in that people should read what makes them happy and not worry about what it's classified as. I read all kinds of genres and I've never worried what it was classified as. Same thing with music, TV shows and movies. Thank you Barbara for the interesting topic and video.

As a reader, I agree about their being no need to really classify a category for books, just read what you want to read and that's that.

However, as a writer, I know that publishers have to classify books when they publish them so they need to stick them into some sort of category/genre.

I've never really been sure what makes a book Mainstream or what makes a book Women's Fiction.

Thanks for the video, Barbara. :)

This was so much fun to watch Barbara. Crazy seeing myself though. I'm linking it on my blog tomorrow and telling folks to come by and tell you what they think is women's fiction. let's keep the talk going!

Women's Fiction is a lot of things.

--"I will lose these last 10lbs. by Christmas."
--"People will love me more if I lose these last 10lbs."
--"It's my fault he cheated."
--"What I believe about issues isn't important."
--"My voice will never be heard."
--"I am not worthy of holding out for the right partner."
--"It's okay to settle for second best."

Now as for what fiction is most appealing to women....I think it depends on the time, the life circumstance and the desires and experiences of each individual woman.

It's whatever makes us think, laugh and understand. It's whatever makes us feel better about the world and our place in it.

There is a lot of fiction out there. I think of Women's Fiction as that which, like women, nurtures and gives care. It can be sexy or funny or full of lusty descriptions of delicious foods. It can be about fashion--if you're into that, and I'm so hopelessly lost when it comes to that--or family.

Good Women's Fiction is like your best self on your best day. It's beautiful, confident, has good taste and is fun to be around.

I'm not big on labels. If I'm reading it, and I like it, what difference does it make where you pigeonhole it.

The internet zapped my last post so if it shows up later - oh well. :)

It's amazing how wide the difference is in defining women's fiction, but the industry created the term, not the readers so I'm not overly surprised by the mixed opinions.

As for men's fiction, I've always said I love "guy" books because I love action-adventure, but I think if there was a 'men's' fiction category it would be as diverse as the women's. At the end of the day, I love a good fiction read.

You always come up with great blogs, Barbara.

"The Hong Kong Connection" is a legal thriller about a gutsy female attorney who takes on high ranking International officials. It's a taut, rollercoaster of a ride from New York to Palm Beach to Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. The plot is expertly woven, the characters persuasive, and the dialogue snappy and spot on.
www.StrategicBookPublishing.com/TheHongKongConnection.html

Chiming in late as I "decamped" from town directly post-Salon...

Great drive-by video, Barbara. I'm sorry I missed adding my two cents' to the interview. I must have been sticking the ladies retiring room with TP at the time. But nay matter, the other interviewees said it all and then some.

Of course, as a Lady Jane co-founder, I must admit I particularly appreciated guest author Wendy Corsi Staub's comment that our Lady Jane's Salon encompasses women's fiction/romance. While "voice of romance" is a sobriquet already taken, we certainly like to think we embody the "spirit" of the genre in all its diversity. That we do so in the service of sharing the love (www.share-the-love.org) with yes, real life women coming back from hard times makes it all the more special. Since launching Lady Jane's in February, we've raised hundreds of dollars for the program as well as collected hundreds (soon to be thousands) of gently used ppb romance novels in at the door donations.

Dear Sirs/ladies,
Women's fiction is such a broad term, less a genre than an umbrella term encompassing a number of genres.
"Women's fiction" includeds romance, among these: contemporary, religious, Regency, Georgian, and fantasy romance, among those: paranormal. Celtic/paranormal, fantasy, futuristic, and medieval, to name of few of this burgeoning subgenre.
Other types of books for women--science fiction(some with issues dealing with women's rights like A HANDMAID'S TALE), fantasy like the AVALON books that deal with the feminine side of Celtic beliefs, and so on.
Novels such as A COLOR PURPLE speak to women who have been abused, and are growing out of this experience. Such books often help empower women to make choices to better their lives, and free them from abuse, whether personal or cultural.
IN short, "Women's fiction" speaks to the whole of womankind and every issue from puberty to the stresses of age, from cultural clzshes and cultural issues that denigrate women to issues leading a woman onward to becoming more than she ever thought she could dream to be.
That iswomen's fiction to me.
Peace!

Fantastic video, Barbara. So many views, so many versions, and clearly so broad a field, yet it's used as a narrow marketing slotting tool.

What a great video. I enjoyed hearing everyone's definition but I like yours the best.

Marilyn Baron

To call a book "women's midlist fiction" is like saying a girl has a nice personality. It's increasingly hard to get books about women's lives published - I wrote 3 of them in the 80's and all earned out their advances, but I'm fed up with the industry and am publishing SUGAR TIME, my new novel, on amazon's booksurge, a POD house. I think this is the wave of the future, especially since trade houses aren't interested unless it features vampires, detectives, or women under 30 obsessing about finding a man or having a baby. SUGAR TIME is about a 60'ish woman, and noone except those of us in that age group seem to be interestd!

I should notify u about this.