Friday, April 28, 2017

Manview observations #9: Are American Romance Writers Better than Australian Romance Writers?

Welcome to another Manview observation. Mr Manview is talking about math and romance today. How is that even romantic you ask? I don't know either. And that title! Them's fighting words!! Read on.

I hope you enjoy this installment of Mr Manview's observations.

Man reading
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During the last year, I provided only two 5-star reviews, and both were to American writers; Juliette Cross for Forged in Fire and Gwen Hernandez for Blindsided. No Australian author has merited 5-stars in my opinion, even though I have handed out some 4-star and 4.5-star reviews. This made me wonder if American romance writers are better than Australian romance writers. It would seem that way, if you did not dig deeper into the numbers than the simple presentation of them above.

Calculator
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But I think it is a matter of mathematics and statistical probability instead of writing capability! I know you ladies wanted me to discuss topics such as  'her core' and 'his ivory tusk,' but hang with me for a while. After all, I need to find some new ways to use that damn Masters in Mathematics degree I received so long ago!

What I think is at play here is the matter of quantity, not quality.

I remember a discussion I had with the Chairman of Fairfax a long time ago and he compared the New York Times and Washington Post to the Sydney Morning Herald and other local Australian newspapers and said that the American newspapers were far better because every day, they had 1,000 writers providing copy and Fairfax only had 300. He said because of that, the top 100 articles the American papers had to choose from to fill the papers versus the top 100 articles the Australian papers had to choose from meant the 100 American articles were rated Great to Very Good while the 100 articles the Sydney Morning Herald could choose from were rated Very Good to Mediocre with a few great ones every now and then.  When you require 100 articles to fill the paper, and you have 1000 instead of 300 to choose from, you are going to have far better quality day-by-day in the American papers. But this did not mean that on an individual basis that the American journalists were better than the Australian journalists - only that on any given day, there were more outstanding articles by the larger group of American journalists than the Aussie ones.

Man reading newspaper
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Population-wise, America is 20 times the size of Australia, so there are far many more romance writers in the US than in Australia; one could assume it is 20 times. But in fact, my research shows that there are only approximately 10 times the amount of romance writers in the US as there are in Australia. Yet, I am only going to read 50 romance books per year. Yes, readers, I am now averaging a romance novel per week and am hooked on romance! I am in the 16% of romance readers who are male. (More statistics for you!) And because Australian romance novels are more accessible to me and better known to the people who are recommending what I read, of those 50 title, probably 2/3rds will be Australian and 1/3 American.

Therefore, I have 20 times more choice for each American read than I (10 times the choice and half the need = 20 times) do for each Australian read. And I am going to select what I consider to be among the best, so it is not really a fair contest. For the few select novels I read out of so many available, statistically my chances of providing a 5-star review to an American author is so much higher than it is for an Australian author. The Top 10 or Top 100 American romance novels are bound to better than what I can choose from the Top 10 or Top 100 Australian list. This is statistically valid.

Person holding globe
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But this does not mean American writer's are any better than Australian ones; only that at any point in time, I have so many more great American titles to choose from than I do Australian titles. So statistically, I am bound to provide more 5-star reviews to American writers than I am Australian ones.

So, are American romance writers better than Australian romance writers? No, there are just more of them. As you can see (and has been mathematically proven) - size does matter! But you ladies already knew that!

If you find math and statistics sexy, than you will have liked this Manview. If not, well, too bad! Math is sexy, or at least that is what us Math graduate students were led to believe!


What do you think? Do you think there is any validity to Mr Manview's maths?

Read all the other Manview observations here.


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13 comments:

  1. LOL. I like Australian and American romance for different reasons, but either way, I appreciate the 5-star review. ;-)

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    1. Steve's rave review of Blindsided has me putting the book in my to read list.

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    2. Don't let him set your expectations too high! I'll never live up to them. But I do hope you enjoy it. :-)

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  2. Oh, Steve. This had me laughing and scratching my math-challenged brain. Fabulous post. And I'm privileged to be in your 5-star category. ��

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    1. I'm trying to get him to read the next book.

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    2. Haha! But what if I drop to a 4-star? Or a 3-star? Let him be. Though to be honest, Sealed in Sin was my favorite one to write of the trilogy.

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    3. He needs to see how you handle the "pure of body" thing. It's a biggie!

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  3. What a great post Steve and I read more Aussie authors these days than American but love what I read :)

    Have Fun
    Helen

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    1. That's what I love about your reading. You bring a lot of Aussie flavor to the blog. :-)

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  4. Excuse me! You have yet to rate Heat. Then we'll talk.
    Cathleen

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    1. Very true. I keep asking him to review Heat and he keeps putting it off. I don't know what he is waiting for.

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  5. Actually do boner ratings count?
    Cathleen who is in Abu Dhabi who doesn't want to get arrested for this comment.

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    1. Hopefully the modesty police are not going through this blog so you won't get arrested! :-p

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