This morning, doing research for my upcoming book, I went in search of books dealing with women’s empowerment. I didn’t find much. Next, I searched Amazon for best selling books on women’s issues. Again, the search engines returned bizarre results. When I searched body image, I found results. Unfortunately, they were all in the pathology or eating disorder categories.
Body image issues are often not tied to either of these (and the category itself is shaming) but try finding a book about them outside these hurtful categories.
I searched for Lean In and found it in memoir and business. I searched for Brene Brown and found her in mental health/emotions and motivation.
I want a new category — one in which all these books are easily found and work in tandem to help women feel empowered and gain traction not only in the book industry, but in their everyday lives. So I wrote the company and asked for it. Here’s what I said:
Hi,
I’ve been searching for best selling books on women’s issues. There is no category. I’ve looked for best selling books on body image and they are all either in eating disorders or pathology. Brene Brown is in mental health/emotions and motivation. “Lean In” is in business and memoirs.
Women are woefully under-represented in book publishing and, when they do come out with a book that might help women take their rightful place, the search functions and category placements seem to render them, again, less important.
I’m wondering if Amazon would radically increase sales of these kinds of books (and help the women who need them find them more easily) if Amazon created a new category of books for women’s empowerment. Just a thought. Thanks for considering it.
If you feel Amazon (and other book sellers) would benefit from this kind of category, maybe you’ll spread the word and join me in telling them that women need a room of their own.
