Has publishing abandoned teen boys?

Debate was sparked when Portuguese-English author JJ Arcanjo published his article ‘Has publishing abandoned Teen boys?’ in The Bookseller magazine last month. Since then, the book community has been discussing why the number of boys reading for pleasure has plummeted and whether this is because of publishers focusing their efforts elsewhere.

According to a study of over 76,000 young people aged 5-18 throughout 2024, the National Literacy Trust discovered that more girls are reading for fun than boys. In their findings, the National Literacy Trust claim that this is largely because of a greater drop in reading enjoyment in boys than in girls; the gender gap had nearly tripled compared to the previous year, increasing from a 4.8 per cent difference in 2023 to a 12.3 per cent difference in 2024. The National Literacy Trust claim that this is largely because of a greater drop in reading enjoyment in boys than in girls.

With such an alarming difference during just a year, it begs the question: why?

Arcanjo places significant onus on the publishing industry, claiming “there is nothing out there for teen boy readers” in his Twitter/X post. However, it could be argued that we face a ‘chicken and egg’ situation: are boys reading less because publishers do not produce material for them, or do publishers not market books for boys because they read less to begin with?

Due to women supplying more publishing revenue than their male counterparts, publishers have focused more on female readers – by all appearances they have “abandoned” teen boys.

Now there are fewer books marketed and produced with a male audience in mind, boy readers have decreased even further; they find it increasingly difficult to find books that suit their interests, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle.

At the end of the day, the publishing industry is a business. Female readers are the main source of income and therefore the industry has focused their efforts on marketing stories for girls and women. As such, novels targeted for boys have taken a hit in the past years and this may worsen exponentially.

But we can resolve this. ‘Romantasy’ and books with female protagonists are often blamed for taking up space in the publishing world, but arguably the main reason for this is book influencers are predominantly women. Female BookTokers vocalise what they want as consumers and publishers recognise this. If boys want more books geared towards them, they must follow the lead of their female peers.

Through social media, female influencers on BookTok and Bookstagram have created a resurgence in reading, and these platforms could be similarly used by male readers to garner the attention of publishers. By raising awareness that there is indeed a market for teen boy readers, we can encourage more books for this demographic and bring balance back to the reading trends between genders.

However, this does not fix the underlying issue of why boys are less inclined to read than girls.

Arcanjo complains that there are not enough male protagonists for boys to relate to within Young Adult Literature, however, a BBC study of 3,000 English language books found that male characters are four times more likely to appear than female characters. Boys claim they want more role models but statistically, there are plenty.

Furthermore, in the YA genre girls read plenty of novels with male main characters, most notably Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Boys’ aversion to reading about female main characters is a key object of discussion; practicing empathy when reading is a skill that young boys would struggle to develop if they refuse to read from the point of view of someone unlike themselves.

Part of the problem of boys’ decreasing enthusiasm for reading may well be linked to the stereotype that reading is a typically feminine hobby and is looked down upon as a result. The lack of male-centric literature may encourage male readers to explore the lives of women from a female perspective, which would benefit not only the gender reading gap, but also gender equality itself.