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Tin House magazine editor Rob Spillman tells Emily Temple why his publication did so well on VIDA’s recent byline count: “We found that women contributors and women we rejected with solicitations to resubmit were five times less likely to submit than their male counterparts,” he says.
So we basically stopped asking men, because we knew they were going to submit anyway, and at the same time made a concerted effort to re-ask women to contribute. We also adjusted our Lost & Found section, which featured short pieces on under-appreciated writers or books. We had been asking 50/50 writers, but the subjects were coming back 80/20 male to female, meaning that both men and women were writing about men versus women writers. We then started asking both male and female writers if there are any women writers they would like to champion.
VIDA’s first byline count three years ago was “a call to action,” Spillman says. The sound on that call can sometimes get a little garbled, alas:
dear male editors: maybe don’t explicitly tell me you’re getting in touch because of VIDA
— Emily Gould (@EmilyGould) March 15, 2013
Related: Women Are Social Media Influencers And Media Mavens, Study Finds (SocialNewsDaily)
Previously: Annual count of women’s bylines shows little progress | Report: New media no better than old media when it comes to women’s bylines
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