A new Development in Literature and Gay Fiction

Over the recent months Gay Fiction is on the brink of attracting an entirely new and formerly unexpected readership that no one would have associated with a genre highly geared towards men. For decades gay fiction was the exclusive literary field of a male readership. Authors have optimized their writing to meet gay male needs and interests. Addressing problems and challenges guys encounter on their path to a gay lifestyle and to liberation.

This change in readership is exceptionally interesting, simply because it is nothing that is easily to decipher on first glance. While in former years we have seen the release of books adressing the rainbow lifestyle latest publications focus on an entirely different trope.

Gay romance novels is what´s bought most these days and a growing number of talented authors present their work both as self published or contracted with renowned online publishers. Print versions are as easily available as e-reading formats for Kindle, iphone and such alike. No doubt, what we witness is a blooming and well deleoping new market segment in literature.

From an anthropological perspective this gives reason to ask: who are the people who show a deepened interest in the formerly exclusively male domain of gay fiction? And who are the authors catering to them? This question might be more easily answered than you expected. A simple visit of the leading online book seller Amazon provides answers. If we select "books" from their department selection tab and chose the sub menue "gay & lesbian" we find that there are 17,940 books presently available in "literature & fiction" alone.

When moving on to sub menues such as "drama", "fiction", "literary criticism" or "mysteries" we quickly come to find that after the usual classic novels such as "Sense and Sensibilities" already the new generation of authors has emerged. Deliciously dubious titles such as "Venus in Furs", "Silent Knights" or "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" meet the eye. The further we skim through the lists we realize that the books on offer are geared towards a female readership entirely.

Gay Romance especially has taken a fairly big share in MM/Fiction and has attracted a dedicated readership. This shift reflects a fresh development in a modern way of life.