Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name

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Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name

The plan made me feel dishonest and creepy, so it took me a long time to send my novel out under a man’s name. But each time I read a study about unconscious bias, I got a little closer to trying it.

I set up a
new e-mail address under a name—let’s say it was George Leyer, though it
wasn’t—and left it empty. Weeks went by without word from the agents
who had my work. I read another study about how people rate job applicants they believe are female and how much better they like those they believe are male.

The thing I
was thinking of doing was absolutely against the rules, the opposite of
all the advice writers get, but I wasn’t feeling like a writer, and I hadn’t written in weeks. Until last winter,
I had never faced a serious bout of writer’s block or any meaningful
unwillingness to work. A blank page had always felt to me like the
moment the lights go down in a theater—until the day it didn’t. I was
spending more time crying on the phone than writing and I had no idea
how to get back to work. Every paragraph was a negotiation—my instinct
leading one way, and then a blast against it—don’t do that, you’ll
confuse people. No one wants to read that kind of thing.

So, on a
dim Saturday morning, I copy-pasted my cover letter and the opening
pages of my novel from my regular e-mail into George’s account. I put in
the address of one of the agents I’d intended to query under my own
name. I didn’t expect to hear back for a few weeks, if at all. It would
only be a few queries and then I’d close out my experiment. I began
preparing another query, checking the submission requirements on the
agency web site. When I clicked back, there was already a new message,
the first one in the empty inbox. Mr. Leyer. Delighted. Excited. Please send the manuscript.

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