We've just launched the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge for 2013!  If you have any questions or comments on the challenge this is the place to post them.  As always we love to get feedback from our members so let us know what you think!

In anticipation of a few questions I'll just mention 2 things here to supplemnet the info on the WoGF page.

- Yes.  We will be adding more women authors all year.  If we get enough requests for a particular author we'll add them in.  No self published authors please.  (Unless they're established authors who are self publishing their work now.)  This is a quality control issue and a practical limit to the amount of time we have to make updates.

- Yes.  We will be adding more books by the women authors we have in our database.  We aknowledge our shortcomings in this regard and are working feverishly to improve the available pool of books.  If we don't have a book that you intend to read for your challenge please let us know and we'll get them added as soon as we can.  There is a missing books thread for these requests.  Any fiction book by the authors in our database is fair game for the challenge.

Welcome to the challenge!

Well, WWEnd is all about genre fiction so we try to stick to those works.  For instance we don't have any of Isaac Asimov's hundreds of non-genre books.  We often end up with novels that stretch the traditional definitions of of SF, Fantasy and Horror, like many of the books on the Guardian list, but those are still the exceptions.  We'll have to determine on a case by case basis as we get requests.

That's more a general policy than something specific to the WoGF though and applies to all our authors.  We try to keep a pretty narrow focus.

Great question!

Glad you like the theme!  You can trace back to Ian Sales' list.  His effort to highlight the imballance caused me to look at my own reading more critically.  Well, that and the gallery of old white men staring back at me from my Authors I've Read list   His Mistressworks list was a great addition to the site then we did the Award Winning Books by Women Authors list drawn from our own data to expand on the issue a bit.  This is certainly a more direct attempt to make an impact on the discussion than just adding those lists though I think they work hand in hand.  Those are great guides to helping WoGF readers find books for the challenge!

I'm glad you're not going to be the one to make that comment

Tantara, it sounds like the WoGF challenge was tailor made for you!  You've got enough authors to do a double challenge if you're up for it.

A double challenge?  Oh my... I'm not sure if that's more exciting or intimidating.  I'll get through the first  one and see where I'm at.  

 I was not sure where to mention this, but as I'm already replying:  I noticed that the James Tiptree Jr. Award is not currently an awards list that WWE tracks.  As it is a sf/f award given to books that highlight gender issues (founded in 1991 by Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler, both of whom are on the site - and it seems to have a large number of female authors on its roster,) it would seem well-suited to this challenge.  (I discovered that it isn't a WWE-included list while looking up Molly Gloss's "Wild Life," which won the award in 2000.  When I found that author and book weren't on the site, I went on to see if the award in general was here.)  I also note that many of the award's winners and nominees are already in place here.

  Anyhow...  I don't know if this particular award has ever been considered for inclusion, but it seems a pertinent mention at this juncture.

 http://tiptree.org/

Hey Allie, glad you like the new theme!  Seems like folks are taking to it which is a big relief!  We thought it would be a good choice but you never know for sure.

I can't wait to see the first reviews rolling in!  That's going to be a big help for me picking my books.

Rhonda, congrats on finishing the GMRC!  I know you were scrambling at the end like a lot of us.  I hope we can match or even surpass the GMRC for participation.  This challenge is much more open than the GMRC that only had 24 authors and we aught to be getting a lot more modern books into the mix which I'm looking forward to.

I know what you mean about the planning part!  So many possibilities.  I've changed my list a dozen times already.  (There was a lot of testing over the last few weeks.)  I should warn you that we're going to try and make you rethink your list throughout the year by adding many new authors and books!

I'm looking into the Tiptree now and you're right.  It's going to be a problem fitting in the short stories.  That's not what we're geared for.  I suspect we'll have to list the book the short story appeared in and make a notation of the story title that was nominated from the collection or anthology.  We'll have to noodle on that one for awhile.

Yeah, our site is heavily weighted towards male authors as a result of the awards and lists that form our core.  (I wonder if we covered short stories too if that would have made any difference?)  So here are some numbers to illustrate the disparity:

• Total authors in our database: 1,239
• Male authors: 907
• Female authors: 332

It's our goal to bring ballance to the force.  Er, uh, add more women authors to get the ratio a little better.  I hope we can get another 100 women added over this next year.  That would be a nice start.  It all depends on how much time we can put into it along with other site features and of course many many more books by the women we already have.

I'm looking forward to more forays for sure and those sound like great authors to me.  For anyone who has not read Scott's Forays into Fantasy blog series I suggest you go check those out.  Well worth your time!

@DrNefario: The SF Mistressworks list is a great place to search for your random pick!  It would not be inaccurate to say that the Mistressworks list was what inspired the WoGF challenge in the first place.  Take a look at the Award Winning Books by Women Authors list too.

@terrilynncoop: First, welcome to WWEnd!  Glad you found us and I hope you'll be joing in the WoGF.  It's going to be be fun if the initial reception is any indication!

As for adding new authors, we already have a list of authors we want to add and the list keeps growing.  We're going to focus on that list and try to get the most obvious gaps filled.  In another thread controuble pointed out that we don't have C. E. Murphy or Mercedes Lackey in our DB so you can see we've got some work to do already.  As long as your friends are not self published they're certainly eligible to be included though to be honest they're necessarily going to be down the list a ways.  It's all about need, demand and the limited time we have to fill those gaps.  Send me their names and info and I'll see about adding them to the list for later:  info@worldswithoutend.com.  Thanks!

@burninglove: Welcome to you as well!  Great to see some new folks joinging for the challenge.  You were right, Anne Rice was not on the list.  Her real name is, believe it or not, Howard Allen O'Brien, and when we went through the hundreds of authors in the DB to assign gender, a necessary step for coding purposes, we accidentally tagged her as male.  D'oh!  It's been fixed now and she's showing on the All Women Authors page.  In a quirk of programming she shows under the "O's" because the list is sorted by real name not her pen name, Anne Rice.  Pseudonyms continue to be the bane of my existence.  Thanks so much for pointing that out!

Hey Skynjay, It looks like we really need one!  Let's use this one for author requests specific to the WoGF:  Women of Genre Fiction.  I moved that thread from the suggestions forum since it's specific to the WoGF.

I've added your authors to the list.  Oh, and welcome to WWEnd!

Hey Gloria, I'm glad you like the new challenge and that you're getting in at the start!  Sounds like you've got a plan in place already to get your hands on some great reads.  Best of luck with the challenge and thanks for spreading the word!  So, how are you going to pick your random author?  Are you going to do that up front or later in the year?

Sorry y'all, I was out of town yesterday.  Let me catch up:

@gloker: You can use whatever method you want to come up with your random author.  Your friend should have an idea of what you might like so that sounds like a good option.

@burninglove: I find it interesting that Howard chose to write under a female pen name.  Male authors, or even authors not obviously female, sell easier apparently.  Howard has forgone the natural market advantage of her male given name yet it does not seem to have been a problem for her career.

@Engelbrecht: I knew we'd be seeing you in the challenge again this year.  Glad you like the theme.  Sounds like it fits your own goals like a glove.  Going half and half all year is a big personal challenge - good luck!

@Spindizzy: Thanks for pointing out the broken link.  Turns out there were 2 on that page and both have been corrected.  For the random author button we're going to put in a random picker but we've not coded it yet.  There's a space and an under construction notice at the top of the WoGF page for it.  Should be ready sometime next week.  In the mean time you can devise whatever method suits you to pick your random author.  As for indicating which is your random pick we hope you'll tell us in your review.  It's not a requirement or anything but it'll be interesting for everyone else to see how you fared.  Were you pleasantly surprised, utterly disappointed or just meh about the experience?

@DrNefario: Read more books than you buy?  I suspect that most folks who visit WWEnd can relate to that desire and we probably have as much chance of pulling it off as we do of winning the lottery!  eBooks have made it harder still.  One click purchase for Kindle has been brutal for my virtual book stacks.

@shanaqui: Welcome to WWEnd and the WoGF Reading Challenge!  I like that you found us through a group discussion elsewhere.  Can you hit us with a link?  If 12 books is not enough of a challenge we certainly encourage you to double up!  We figured 12 with the 12 reviews was a doable challnge for most folks and would not really force anyone to pass up on the many other challenges available.  If we get enough people wanting to go to 24 we'll consider updating the code to accomodate it.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to WWEnd and the WoGF Reading Challenge!

On the All Women Authors page you can select up to 12 authors total for the challenge.  Once you've picked 12 the checkboxes will be disabled so you can't go over.  If you want to change one you'll have to unselect an existing author in your list to activate the checkboxes for your new selection.  Refresh the page and your active authors will all rise up to the top so you can get to them easier.  You can change authors anytime you want but once you've tagged a book for an author you won't be able to change them unless you untag the book first.

Hope that helps!  Let me know if you have any problems or more questions.

Just post it on the novel page.  We read all the reviews and pick the best to feature in the blog.  At the end of the month we'll have a short list that will be posted in a forum poll for everyone to vote on.  We're expecting to have 10-20 reviews in the running each month.

Hey gloker, good deal on your first read for the challenge.  On the novel page you have to mark the book as read before you can check the box to count it for your challenge.  The checkbox is diabled until you select the radio for "Read".  Let me know if you have any trouble.

dustydigger - 2013-01-10 4:16 PM Dave,my old mate! What a fantastic response to the new challenge.WHERE have all these people been hiding? What an amazing variety of new authors too,many of whom I have never even heard of.We could extend this challenge for about three years,and still only scratch the surface! Thanks all you people posting for the first time,and I hope you will continue to participate in the group.The more the merrier. I am still finalizing my list,but I have chosen my random author.Closed my eyes and picked out....Angela Carter! Thats an intriguing choice.I think I will choose Nights at the Circus. We are going to have a fantastic year,with double the reviews.Cant wait!.And this should put the final cherry on the WWEnds site.Way to go,Dave and the team.Thank you for all the work you do.This site will go from strength to strength!

Hey DD, yeah, the response has been really great so far!  I think we've tapped into something really special here.  Imagine if we get 500 reviews from the challenge.  (A conservative estimate.)  That will be a really positive step towards promoting women authors that will last a long time.  These reviews can be that little thing that makes people look a little closer at women authors.  That's going to be a nice feather in our little community's cap.  You guys and gals are awesome.

Maybe we should all take a guess at where we'll end up in a year.  Like guessing how many jellybeans are in the jar.  Closest to the final total wins a prize?  We could guess number of particpants, books read and reviews submitted.

Hey gloker, that's a great question and it looks like we didn't really spell it out completely in the challenge rules so I better clarify.

- Only one review per member per month will be considered for the WWEnd blog.

If you submit 2 reviews in January and we pick your first one to feature in the WWEnd blog your second won't be picked.  This is to ensure that everyone has an equal shot at the prizes each month else folks that read fast or have more time to read will have an unfair advantage.

This is a departure from last year's challenge rules where we allowed multiple reviews per member to count each month because there was only one big prize (book and t-shirt). If you put in more than one you ran the risk of splitting your votes anyway. With 3 prizes we don't want to end up in a situation where one member wins multiple prizes in the same month. You can always win multiple prizes - just not in the same month.

- Only reviews submitted in the current month are eligible for selection for the WWEnd blog.

So again, if you post 2 reviews in January they only count for January.  If the first one does not get picked, which usually happens within a few days of the posting, the second review could still be picked but at the expense of another month down the line.  You can only post 12 reviews for the challenge total.  Come February, you'll have to submit another review to have a chance at the February prizes.

The best option, to maximize your chances if winning, is to submit one review per month and make it the best review you can write.  You can get up to 12 entries over the course of the year and each entry gives you 3 chances to win a prize.  You can, of course, submit as many reviews as you like each month and simply not count them for your challenge.  Our hunger for good reviews is insatiable and we won't turn any down, I promise!

There are 36 gift cards totaling $600! up for grabs in the WoGF and we want to spread the love around as much as possible.  If we had 36 different prize winners that would be just fine by us. The most any one member can win is $300 - that's if they won first place all 12 months.  An unlikely scenario but it could happen.

That's a lot of free books, or whatever it is people will buy with the cards!

I hope that explains everthing sufficiently. I'll post this on the challenge page too.  If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

Thanks, gloker, for the great question. I'm glad this came up before the first poll!

I sure like the idea of a double challenge for those that want to go for it but I don't know how to reconcile that with our desire to give everyone a fair shot at the prizes.  I suppose if you let me know your doppleganger's identity we could leave that account out of the review polls.  That doesn't really seem fair either though.  Anyone have any thoughts on the double?

4 books already?!  Oh my.  I'm 166 pages into The Silver Ship and the Sea, my first WoGF book, and I'm quite pleased with myself for being that far along.  So very jealous.  Glad you're having fun with the challenge and we're happy we got to introduce you to the rabbit hole we call WWEnd!  And thanks to you an everyone else for all the great reviews!

Well, I guess if I did make a second account and let you know about it, you could make sure that only one of my reviews got picked, if any.

Edited by shanaqui 2013-01-15 6:27 AM

Welcome to WWEnd, dihenydd!  Glad you found us and that you're taking part in the challenge.

That is an interesting question!  I honestly hadn't given that any thought but the answer is no, you can't.  In our system we only have one author record for each actual person so on the Seanan McGuire page we include her books written as Mira Grant.  Books under wither name will be recorded as being by Seanan.  The WoGF only sees the 1 real person record.

It has happened in the past that we created author records for pen names when we were not aware they were pen names but somebody usually points them out to us eventually - James S. A. Corey is one that comes to mind.  If we have any like that now, which is a real possibility, you could do it.  If we knew K. J. Parker was a woman, but we still didn't know her real name, we'd probably include her in the challenge so that's another case where it would be possible to read and tag 2 books by the same author.

No problem.  There will be more authors to choose from as the year goes on too.  We've already added 26 new authors since the first of the year along with a couple hundred new books.

Yes, audiobooks count as well.  As you said, it's the authors that matter not how you consume their work though I would say that movies or other adaptations don't count.

Welcome to WWEnd, Carla! I hope you're enjoying the site and our community. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm with you on this one - much prefer SF over fantasy or horror - but I've not read many women at all so I don't have any selection limitations like you have.  I wouldn't let it dissuade you from joining in the challenge though.  You don't need to worry about finding 12 books up front, you just need 1 book to get started then you have the whole month to find one for next month and so on down the line.  We'll be adding more books all year and I'm on the lookout for SF in particular so I'll do what I can to get more in the list.  And remember, you're not limited to just the authors we have in our DB so if you find something outside what we've got we'll get it in there for you.

That's my 2 cents, anyway. 

Is that a question for me?  If so, Margaret Atwood is most definitely a genre fiction writer even if she does not own up to it.

Here's a link to a blog I wrote last year about Atwood and SF. I think she does write SF.

 http://blog.worldswithoutend.com/2012/01/outside-the-norm-margaret-atwoods-the-blind-assassin-and-oryx-and-crake/

carlajpatterson - 2013-04-06 11:40 PM So, I've been reading my books and added some of them to the bookshelf for this challenge but now I can't find it and I don't see my stats in the Jan, Feb, or March stats lists. What am I doing wrong? (Besides not being here very often!)

Hey Carla, in looking at the WoGF page I can see you've got 2 books tagged as read for your challenge and you have one book tagged as being read.  The rest of your slots are empty.  I'm not sure what you mean by you can't find it or what you mean by the stats lists.  Can you be more specific?  If you like, I'd be happy to do a Skype session with you and walk through it all.  We can clear up any confusion and it will give me some useful info on how we can improve our interface or instructions.  Just let me know via email at: dave @ worldswithoutend dot com.

carlajpatterson - 2013-04-08 1:21 PM Hi, Dave... it's that I can't find the WoGF page where it shows my authors and books tagged as read. I thought it would be easy to find again here in the forum but I don't see a link. That's why I haven't been able to update the slots in my list. I think I might have misunderstood the stats thing - I think what I took to be a list of books read (how many for each book), was actually a list of reviews only. I'll read through again and make sure. Thanks for the skype offer! I may still take you up on it if I can't figure this out by reading things more carefully!

Oh, I see.  Well, you can click any of the WoGF logos on the site like in the footer or in the main menu or in any of the blog articles about the challenge.  Let me know if you need any other help!

To complete the challenge you do have to write 12 reviews.  The challenge is only 12 books to make it relatively easy for anyone to finish.  If you're a slow reader or have limited time it's not a dealbreaker.  If you read a lot it should be easy to work 12 books into your usual reading.

You can read at your own pace of course so no biggie if you finish your 12 early or even double up like some folks have considered.  You can tag your books as you go or wait until the next month if you want a shot at the montly prizes.  To keep things fair for all we'll only post one review per person per month even if you write 3 bad ass reviews.  There are no prizes for finishing first.

Hi Cathy, and welcome to WWEnd!  I don't think a short story should disqualify an author from your challenge so you're good to go.  A collection of shorts would do it but that author is still essentially new to you so go for it.  Who is the author?

Hello rgatton, welcome to WWEnd!  Not to worry, we'll help you get it worked out.

The first step to joining the challenge is to select some authors from the All Women Authors list.  You don't have to select all 12 right away and you can change them anytime before you tag one of their books for the challenge.  Just check the box under the author's pic.  You don't have to submit.  When you refresh the page all your selected authors will rise to the top of the list so you won't have to hunt them down later.  Once you select an author, her books will be available to apply to your challenge.  To select a book by one you your authors just go to that novel page, tag it as read and check the Apply towards my WoGF.

Give it a go and let me know if you run into any trouble.

If you tag a book as "Reading", and it's written by one of your WoGF authors, it will show on the WoGF page in place of the author's pic.  The book cover will be faded out until you go back and change your tag to "Read" and check the WoGF box.  That's how you track the specific books you're going to read for the challenge.

Make your request over in the request thread and we'll put her on the list. Pretty simple   It's a long list though so don't expect it right away.  We'll get to it eventually.

bstittle - 2013-05-21 9:54 PM Thank you! That WAS easy

You are very welcome!

Nothing official but please do tell us in the reviews!  It's interesting to see how the random selections work out for people.  Pleasantly surprised?  We hope so.   Terribly disappointed?  Better luck next time.    That rule was to get people to read outside of the authors they recognize.  Let's get some more women's names into the conversation plus how cool would it be to roll the dice and maybe come out with a new favorite author?  It has worked for a couple reviewers so far.

Thank YOU for the fine review!  As for reading all 12 for the latecomers: we purposefully chose 12 as a doable number by most people with families and jobs etc. and we felt that with only 12 books the people finding the challenge later in the year could still have a chance to catch up if they read at a slightly faster pace.  2 books a month is a bit steep for some while there are those folks, whom the rest of us envy, that scoff at a 12 book challenge.  You coming to the party late just means you have to party a little harder than the first folks in if you want to reach the official tally of 12/12/12.

Having said that, reading is supposed to be a pleasure (if it's not you're doing it wrong) so if you don't think you can make it all the way no problem.  Jump in and read however many you want.  Use that 12 as a spur to read more if you like the added challenge of the short time frame (think of the bragging rights!) or just ignore the numbers and read some great books and tell us what you thought (no use in stressing over it).  Participation is it's own reward in this challenge.

On the review side, you can still submit 12 reviews and all of your reviews will be eligible for selection for the poll but only 1 review per member per month can be selected.  We put on the limit to try and keep the playing field level for everyone - pokey slow readers like me and Evelyn Wood graduates too.

I'm glad you like the challenge and you did start off very well - keep up the good work!  Nalo Hopkinson is a popular author in this challenge, I look forward to your next review.