The Far Poorer Sex

- Lachmi Deb Roy

Would you read a book by M.V. Pant? Who’s M.V. Pant? She’s a well-known, critically acclaimed author. Wait, she? Alluding to the likes of J.K. Rowling and E.L. James—female authors who adopted masculine seeming initialisms to be taken seriously— Meghna Pant recalls, “I was told that if I had written under the name M.V. Pant, I would have sold more books.” It certainly has more than a ring of truth to it. Be it in India or the wider world, the story’s the same, as is the industry’s response. Books by woman authors are priced lower and, “male authors get much bigger advances and royalties, and are also assigned much bigger marketing budgets than female authors, ” says Pant.