Conduit Books and the Illusion of Marginalized Men in Publishing
I told myself I wasn't going to write another article in April but then Jude Cook announced the launch of a new indie press, Conduit Books. This new small press is "initially focusing on male authors" because “There has never been an independent publisher that champions literary fiction by men” and boy howdy do I have some things to say about that.
In an interview, Cook cited a "shift in the publishing landscape" where male voices, he argued, are increasingly being overlooked in favor of women and marginalized writers. Conduit’s mission is to spotlight young, debut UK male authors and themes like masculinity, fatherhood, and working-class life.
For me it’s giving… tone deaf.
On the surface, Conduit Books claims to address a gap. But digging just a little (seriously like a simple internet search) reveals the uncomfortable history that the publishing industry, for centuries, has prioritized male voices at the expense of women, often erasing them entirely.
In the 300 years since “traditional” publishing’s birth, women have prevailed only in the last five years! That’s something like 0.02% of the lifetime of publishing.
If you’d like to argue… don’t. I recognize there is nuance. Women have prevailed in specific genres longer. People’s definition of when publishing began varies as it isn’t a hard line. etc. But you understand just as well without picking at the details.
A Tradition of Exclusion
For much of literary history, women were not seen as writers at all. They were muses, typists, assistants. If they wrote, it was often in secrecy or under the name of a man.
Mary Ann Evans became "George Eliot" to have her novels taken seriously. The Brontë sisters masked themselves as Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Even centuries later, publishers pushed Joanne Rowling to become "J.K." to ensure boys would read Harry Potter. And today is no different with female authors opting for initials to hide their feminine sounding names. The industry teaches women over and over that to succeed, they had to obscure their femininity.
The fear behind this was simple, that literary authority belonged to men.
Writing in His Name
In some cases women published under their husbands' names meaning their words were literally absorbed into male authorship.
Take Zelda Fitzgerald. The mythos around The Great Gatsby hails F. Scott Fitzgerald as a literary genius. Yet it’s well-documented that Zelda’s diaries, letters, and even personal experiences were heavily mined for material at the very least. Some scholars argue Zelda deserved a co-author credit (or even full authorship) for key passages Scott published under his own name. When Zelda dared to write her own novel, Save Me the Waltz, Scott furiously suppressed it, fearful that her work would undermine his own.
Zelda is not an isolated case. Across literary history, women’s intellectual labor has been rendered invisible. For generations, women have had to fight to have their name printed.
Indie Publishing and the Power Shift
It wasn't until the rise of indie publishing in the 2000s that the scales began to tip. Self-publishing platforms allowed women to bypass the traditional gatekeepers who long preferred male-centered narratives and authors. Genres like romance, fantasy, and mystery, often dismissed by the literary elite, exploded with female voices.
Today, in the indie space, women dominate entire sectors. They are bestselling authors without needing male validation. They have created entire ecosystems of readers, communities, and careers that traditional publishing once deemed impossible.
Yet prestige still lags. Awards and critical acclaim remain skewed male. The shadow of historical erasure is long.
Male Fragility in the Face of Progress
Against this shift, Conduit Books feels less like a brave correction and more like a retreat into familiar, fragile territory. The idea that men, historically the arbiters of literary worth, now require special protection. They want to label it as marginalization because…
“When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
And to Conduit, I say, there are many great examples of, genuine, marginalized groups handling equity. Efforts like the Year of Publishing Women, initiated by Kamila Shamsie, sought to address centuries of imbalance. They were about correction, not exclusion. They acknowledged a history where women had been shut out, silenced, or stolen from.
Conduit Books, by contrast, treats the slow leveling of the playing field as a crisis.
Let’s Remember
Today, when male authors claim marginalization, we must ask: marginalized compared to who? In whose history? On whose foundation was this industry built?
The book world should be confronting its past not erasing it. At the very least acknowledging that the publishing world is not neutral. It was curated by gatekeepers who decided which voices mattered. Every day is a new day to change that.
Always do your best to cite your sources!
British Library. (n.d.). The Brontë sisters: How three Victorian sisters became literary legends. Retrieved April 28, 2025, from https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-bront-sisters
Cline, S. (2002). Zelda Fitzgerald: Her voice in paradise. Arcade Publishing.
Taylor, K. (2001). Sometimes madness is wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A marriage. Ballantine Books.
Dockterman, E. (2017, June 26). How J.K. Rowling’s publisher convinced her to use initials. Time. https://time.com/4825797/jk-rowling-harry-potter-name/
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. (n.d.). Women writers and the publishing industry. Retrieved April 28, 2025, from https://oxfordre.com/literature/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-335
Flood, A. (2019, October 5). Self-publishing boom lifts number of UK books to more than 180m. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/05/self-publishing-boom-women-writers
The Bookseller. (2025, April 24). New indie press Conduit Books launches with initial focus on male authors. https://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-indie-press-conduit-books-launches-with-initial-focus-on-male-authors
Bowker. (2018). Self-publishing in the United States, 2010–2017. Bowker Market Research.