The Stella Count for 2012

The Stella Prize, in conjunction with Books+Publishing, has compiled Australian statistics for 2012 showing how many books by men and women were reviewed in most of our major newspapers and literary magazines.

The 2012 red and blue pie charts here – which are modelled on those produced by US-based organisation VIDA – reveal that a significantly higher proportion of books by male authors were reviewed than books by female authors, and that little has changed from 2011 (stats here) in terms of the underrepresentation of Australian women’s books on the review pages. In fact, in some cases the statistics are worse.

Notes on the data: anthologies and other books with both male and female authors were excluded from this Count; every effort has been made to ensure these statistics are accurate – and any publication for which we were unable to obtain sufficient or reliable data this year has been excluded from the Count – however, there is aways a risk of human error, and we welcome corrections or comment via info@thestellaprize.com.au

Thanks to all at Books+Publishing and our wonderful Stella Count coordinator, Kate Goldsworthy.