YABookgate

[Boston Brand]

The best and worst thing about Brandon Sanderson is he wants to be friends with everybody - and that he's cany enough to know just how far he can go without losing the audience or connections.

You don't get $40 million on Kickstarter by making enemies.

And you don't have a biweekly game night with Larry Correia if you aren't far more conservative than you publicly let on.

THAT is the difference if you care to look. Sanderson will do a stream with Mary Three Names. He's FRIENDS with Larry Correia.

What happened to card? Last time I checked he was still pumping out ender's game novels about the bug war or something. That was several years ago though.

I always admired him despite not really agreeing with him on much, because when people got nasty with him, he basically doubled down and told his detractors to eat shit and die. If infinitely more politely.

Card is one of the authors more or less being shown the door by Tor, in spite of his own back catalog more or less subsidizing a good chunk of Tor's charity cases/diversity hires.

He just wrote the final Ender novel. Once he turns in the last Alvin Maker novel, he's probably done at Tor.

He has a trilogy coming out from a small press, and is contributing to a couple anthologies from Baen, so Tor's loss is not necessarily Card's as well.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

And you don't have a biweekly game night with Larry Correia if you aren't far more conservative than you publicly let on.

I did not know this. Anyhoo, speaking of Larry Correia, Reddit has weighed in with a fair and reasonable opinion of his books...

Started Monster Hunter International due to some recommendations here. This has to be the most regressive, sexist, right wing fantasy book I have ever come across. What the hell.

https://archive.ph/vX6Rf

I'm honestly surprised the jannies locked the thread and didn't let the circle jerk continue. I guess Correia should be writing books about 118 pound teenage girls who have such mad ninja skills they can take down a whole company of soldiers, like Mark Lawrence does.

Edit: Correia tweeted about it. https://archive.ph/3pbrj

 

[Fortunato Brown]

The best and worst thing about Brandon Sanderson is he wants to be friends with everybody - and that he's cany enough to know just how far he can go without losing the audience or connections.

You don't get $40 million on Kickstarter by making enemies.

And you don't have a biweekly game night with Larry Correia if you aren't far more conservative than you publicly let on.

THAT is the difference if you care to look. Sanderson will do a stream with Mary Three Names. He's FRIENDS with Larry Correia.



Card is one of the authors more or less being shown the door by Tor, in spite of his own back catalog more or less subsidizing a good chunk of Tor's charity cases/diversity hires.

He just wrote the final Ender novel. Once he turns in the last Alvin Maker novel, he's probably done at Tor.

He has a trilogy coming out from a small press, and is contributing to a couple anthologies from Baen, so Tor's loss is not necessarily Card's as well.

What's the small press series Card is working on? His Wikipedia bibliography is a bit messy to get through.

Honestly, the image of Sanderson sitting there quietly while Larry does one of his amazing political rants in person is just too funny of an image. But yeah, what Sanderson does seem to work since until recently, almost nobody was really pried into his political beliefs.

So for you aspiring writers, it is possible to keep quiet about politics for a long time and still get published. Good news, everyone!

Boston Brand, do publishers when they get a manuscript they like just comb through the writer's social media or do they actively go "yo, this is great but you need a black character or make some statement about right wing populism here." If a manuscript is really good, will they skip all that?

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Wasn't Tolkien accused for being racist against the Asian for his depiction of the Orcs, and he regretted ever making that depictions because he didn't want people to make such comparisons? Doesn't sound like your typical racist to me, honestly

The anti-Asian racism was about the Easterlings which includes the Wainriders and Men of Khand, but they barely get any mention other than Gondor fighting them in the middle of the Third Age and their alliance to Sauron. They don't show up in the books since IIRC they mostly are fighting the people/towns/kingdoms visited in The Hobbit. Supposedly because of a description of their physical looks and because they're a few different groups lumped in as "Easterling" it's a "Yellow Peril" sort of thing hence racist. It could also apply to the Orcs I guess in the "unthinking, uncreative, hyperviolent in the service of their leader" sense but I've never heard Tolkien's portrayal of Orcs described as anti-Asian. Now Tolkien did criticize himself at the end of his life for portraying the Orcs as seemingly always evil and incapable of salvation.

 

[Cryptojew]

Boston Brand, do publishers when they get a manuscript they like just comb through the writer's social media or do they actively go "yo, this is great but you need a black character or make some statement about right wing populism here." If a manuscript is really good, will they skip all that?

From what I've read/seen, some publishers will ask you to add certain things to your manuscrpit for the sake of marketability. It's very hard to get a YA book published without it having a romanticic subplot, for one. It would not surprise me if publishers were pushing authors to add diversity too- after all, having an author who gets cancelled by the woke mob could reflect poorly on them too.

 

[The Husbando Collector]

From what I've read/seen, some publishers will ask you to add certain things to your manuscrpit for the sake of marketability. It's very hard to get a YA book published without it having a romanticic subplot, for one. It would not surprise me if publishers were pushing authors to add diversity too- after all, having an author who gets cancelled by the woke mob could reflect poorly on them too.

And it's dumb shit like this that got them and the comics industry tanking in sales to begin with. You reap what you sow.

 

[Fortunato Brown]

From what I've read/seen, some publishers will ask you to add certain things to your manuscrpit for the sake of marketability. It's very hard to get a YA book published without it having a romanticic subplot, for one. It would not surprise me if publishers were pushing authors to add diversity too- after all, having an author who gets cancelled by the woke mob could reflect poorly on them too.

Which is weird since romantic subplot actually moves sales but "diversity" I'm convinced doesn't.

Maybe one can get away with it if it's an American Psycho style story where the main theme is to say these people are terrible. So have all the characters be terrible white people or something.

I know there's that stat about how 99% of published books never sell more than 5,000 copies or something, but I'm not sure how radically different that was from the past. It can't have been that much lower tbh considering how many flipping books get published.

 

[LurkNoMore]

But yeah, what Sanderson does seem to work since until recently, almost nobody was really pried into his political beliefs.

I think Tor understood who they had when he first started with them. Mormons don't and didn't come in that many political flavors back in 05. They haven't pried into his political beliefs because he makes them money. Once that ends, you can expect them to get real open about Sanderson's views are.

So for you aspiring writers, it is possible to keep quiet about politics for a long time and still get published. Good news, everyone!

I don't want to kill anyone's aspirations, but let's be honest here. They will want to know. They will go looking. They will expect you to say all the right things and support current thing on any social media you have. Especially if you are white, male or straight.

Boston Brand, do publishers when they get a manuscript they like just comb through the writer's social media...

I'm not boston and I don't want to answer for him. However I think its better to be cautious and go ahead and assume they do. Your social media, perhaps your relatives if they can find them. Expect them to look. My advice to get around this is to only sumbit work to people who won't have a problem with your views. In addition, don't do business with such types as well. The only modern work I buy from a major company is Christopher Ruocchio. If ain't Baen and I can't pirate it off some site; I don't buy.

If a manuscript is really good, will they skip all that?

I don't work in the industry, but given that they regularly reject people based on race. I'd say, no they won't.

 

[BoomerSperg1922]

The best and worst thing about Brandon Sanderson is he wants to be friends with everybody - and that he's cany enough to know just how far he can go without losing the audience or connections.

You don't get $40 million on Kickstarter by making enemies.

And you don't have a biweekly game night with Larry Correia if you aren't far more conservative than you publicly let on.

THAT is the difference if you care to look. Sanderson will do a stream with Mary Three Names. He's FRIENDS with Larry Correia.

You have to be right. No one that was composed of cringe would be able to sit in the same room as Correia.

 

[Mukhrani]

The anti-Asian racism was about the Easterlings which includes the Wainriders and Men of Khand, but they barely get any mention other than Gondor fighting them in the middle of the Third Age and their alliance to Sauron. They don't show up in the books since IIRC they mostly are fighting the people/towns/kingdoms visited in The Hobbit. Supposedly because of a description of their physical looks and because they're a few different groups lumped in as "Easterling" it's a "Yellow Peril" sort of thing hence racist. It could also apply to the Orcs I guess in the "unthinking, uncreative, hyperviolent in the service of their leader" sense but I've never heard Tolkien's portrayal of Orcs described as anti-Asian. Now Tolkien did criticize himself at the end of his life for portraying the Orcs as seemingly always evil and incapable of salvation.

I always found this take to be particularly retarded. The Easterlings were corrupted by Sauron because they were right next to Mordor. So were the Haradrim. The Numenoreans, the super-great white civilization, was so thoroughly compromised that they went to war against the Valar and got their whole island drowned. That's Asian, White, and Black. Elves, Dwarves, and Men were fooled and corrupted with the Rings of Power. Rohan was corrupted by Grima Wormtongue, Saruman was corrupted by this desire for power, even Gondor was corrupted by despair through Denethor. The ONLY people who were shown to be largely resistant to corruption in LOTR were hobbits, which was more a statement on Tolkien's belief that salt-of-the-earth humility was the only way to fortify yourself against it - Galadriel is the opposite case. 'White', powerful, wise, and ancient, but brought low by her stubborn pride, which she carried with her throughout the ages. Only when she dropped her pride could she pass into the West as a penitent. The only sensible argument that could be made about racism is if the white people in the series were shown to be immune to corruption but the opposite is shown - they are all on the verge of falling to it before being saved just in the nick of time. If the fellowship didn't exist, Rohan and Gondor BOTH would have fallen as Numenor and Arnor did.

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

Some observations, but no links to comments, sorry!

IMHO Larry Correia is not a completely OUT THERE wingnut, most of his ideas are pretty centrist. I can't see him being a "kill all the Gays/RaHoWa" fruit loop, he certainly hasn't come across like that in any of his podcasts, and he is a Mormon now, so I can see why he has a lot in common with Brandon. Yes, Monster Hunter Nation is a bit of a Gary Stu self-insert but if we can't criticize teenage girls, we can't criticize middle aged men for fantasy inserts in a world where their hobby and occupation is super-special and Better Than All The Other Girls/Men/People).

Boston may have mentioned earlier that Larry was an example of telling the lefties to GTFO - I may have to disagree and assume he was always firm in his political stance from the very start, so his position was not as powerful as JKR coming out as a Champion Of Women when it was assumed she would be one of the rainbow parade.

On being asked to put The Message in books: Unfortunately the stochastic and incidental marketing that comes from having a "queer" angle in books has not been overlooked by the cold capitalistic eye of publishing. They know that between Book X and Book Y - where Y might have a friendship that can be marketed as "sapphic", will reach book lists and bloggers that Book X won't. Bloggers know that readers seek out not only entertainment, but the methodology by which they can increase their social status - and outside of call-outs, being seen to be holier-than-thou and reading all the IMPORTANT MESSAGE BOOKS is a very current social-status-increasing action.

Let me tell you this truth as a person who has many connections IRL. All the "Queer" and "Genderqueer" people are dangerhaired folk in heterosexual relationships.

Nobody who is actually Gay or Lesbian, or that one Transgender I know IRL ever talk about their queerness or announces their status in social media. I am now of the opinion "Queer" a completely fake marketing designation for heteros trying to get some of that sweet sweet victim credit.

In my publishing experience - powerlevel as it might be, I had 2 female characters who were good friends - most specifically due to counter this currently poisonous idea of the SPECIAL GIRL who is better than anyone else, (because other girls are all horrible sluts for the patriarchy who aren't feminist, like our hero). Interestingly, the marketing tried to push this as "sapphic". It didn't work too well.

90% of readers are still hetero, no matter how much pink hair colour they whack on and transgender flags they wave. An interesting personal observation I saw was between Book A with a vanilla M/F sex scene compared to Book B with it's crazy kinky lesbian love scene. Book A was considered HOT EROTICA whereas Book B was not. Because the marketing fuckers knew that despite all the queerness in the reading community, heterosexuality is Majority and King and over 9000% of women do not flick the bean to "queerness".

 

[LetterlandMafia]

I did not know this. Anyhoo, speaking of Larry Correia, Reddit has weighed in with a fair and reasonable opinion of his books...

Started Monster Hunter International due to some recommendations here. This has to be the most regressive, sexist, right wing fantasy book I have ever come across. What the hell.

https://archive.ph/vX6Rf

I'm honestly surprised the jannies locked the thread and didn't let the circle jerk continue. I guess Correia should be writing books about 118 pound teenage girls who have such mad ninja skills they can take down a whole company of soldiers, like Mark Lawrence does.

Edit: Correia tweeted about it. https://archive.ph/3pbrj
View attachment 3513522

Being Yikes'd by the bugmen of rFantasy is as glowing an endorsement as you can get.

RE the Hugos, I always find it funny how people who bleat about unconscious bias and how you can be a Bad Person even if you don't think you are suddenly seem to believe the system is completely and totally fair and equitable whenever a right winger complains about a space being biased against them.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

I see this, I read this, but my brain still refuses to accept the actuality of this on some level.

 

[Tootsie Bear]

I see this, I read this, but my brain still refuses to accept the actuality of this on some level. View attachment 3520638

I feel sorry for children who want to read books written for them. On one hand you have the rabid fans like Harry Potter or SJW insanity. Pick your poison.

 

[Wormy]

I always found this take to be particularly retarded. The Easterlings were corrupted by Sauron because they were right next to Mordor. So were the Haradrim. The Numenoreans, the super-great white civilization, was so thoroughly compromised that they went to war against the Valar and got their whole island drowned. That's Asian, White, and Black. Elves, Dwarves, and Men were fooled and corrupted with the Rings of Power. Rohan was corrupted by Grima Wormtongue, Saruman was corrupted by this desire for power, even Gondor was corrupted by despair through Denethor. The ONLY people who were shown to be largely resistant to corruption in LOTR were hobbits, which was more a statement on Tolkien's belief that salt-of-the-earth humility was the only way to fortify yourself against it - Galadriel is the opposite case. 'White', powerful, wise, and ancient, but brought low by her stubborn pride, which she carried with her throughout the ages. Only when she dropped her pride could she pass into the West as a penitent. The only sensible argument that could be made about racism is if the white people in the series were shown to be immune to corruption but the opposite is shown - they are all on the verge of falling to it before being saved just in the nick of time. If the fellowship didn't exist, Rohan and Gondor BOTH would have fallen as Numenor and Arnor did.

Up until recently I followed the take about "The War of the Ring was basically just "All the non whites beating up the poor virtuous whites" " mainly based on the portrayal of the Easterlings, the Rhun, the Haradrim, ect..", but even then I didn't hold it too harshely against Tolkien given the time he lived in and his WW2 vet status.

Oddly enough besides the Hobbits, you know who else was immune? Pygmies, aka the Men of the Woses. Ghan Buri Ghan sided with the good guys and the Woses got full sovereignty after the War of the Ring.

 

[LetterlandMafia]

I see this, I read this, but my brain still refuses to accept the actuality of this on some level. View attachment 3520638

Boy that's a whole lot of Words.

It's abundantly clear that a good chunk of current day children/young adult authors don't actually write for that audience. They just exist as a categorisation. The real purpose of these books is some form of self-therapy for the author themselves, and to appeal to their fellow authors on social media.

 

[Wych Elm]

I see this, I read this, but my brain still refuses to accept the actuality of this on some level. View attachment 3520638

Just think - some schlub out there is writing the 2020's version of Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, or Redwall, but the retarded publishing companies are pushing this shit.

Poor kids.

 

[Colonel Gaddafi]

A little off topic, so I apologize.

You know, one of the ways I got a firm grasp on English as a university student was using AR programs. Sure, I was an adult reading books aimed at middle grades, but I figured I should work my way up before tackling things like Great Expectations. Most of the books I remember selecting were pretty good, which made the tests a breeze. Then of course I read the ‘classics’ that I missed out on as a kid, like Huck Finn. Since then I’ve read YA only in regards to fad books that I get curious about (the Harry Potters and Twilights), though I’m usually disappointed with the output. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked through a YA section in the library, but I’ve been trying to build a more modern home library for my family. All I have to say is ‘holy shit’. I’m very glad I saved all of those AR books because the amount of wokeness being pushed on modern kids is unreal. I understand books can deal with serious topics, and kids will be exposed to shit, but there’s a difference between objectively examining a topic and encouraging it. Whatever happened to Goosebumps or the Warriors cat thing? Why do we need a black gay troon narrator talking about having AIDS?

Also the quality of these books seems abysmal. It’s almost as if when you can’t hack it as a general fiction author you turn to YA. Remember when YA was written by talented authors who wanted to tell kids good stories? I miss those days.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Up until recently I followed the take about "The War of the Ring was basically just "All the non whites beating up the poor virtuous whites" " mainly based on the portrayal of the Easterlings, the Rhun, the Haradrim, ect..", but even then I didn't hold it too harshely against Tolkien given the time he lived in and his WW2 vet status.

Oddly enough besides the Hobbits, you know who else was immune? Pygmies, aka the Men of the Woses. Ghan Buri Ghan sided with the good guys and the Woses got full sovereignty after the War of the Ring.

That one group of hill tribes (can't recall their name) who are at Helms Deep/raid Rohan a lot seem based on the Scottish Highlanders and are such hardcore fans of Saruman they give him their kids to make half-orc abominations, so there's technically evil "white" people in Middle Earth.

Just think - some schlub out there is writing the 2020's version of Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, or Redwall, but the retarded publishing companies are pushing this shit.

Poor kids.

They still write Nancy Drew books, but they're woke now, just like the Hardy Boys where one of them is gay now.

 

[Wormy]

That one group of hill tribes (can't recall their name) who are at Helms Deep/raid Rohan a lot seem based on the Scottish Highlanders and are such hardcore fans of Saruman they give him their kids to make half-orc abominations, so there's technically evil "white" people in Middle Earth.

Though if one wanted to, they could try the line that he was like Lovecraft; anyone not of the author's social caste/class are automatically degenerate and down the evolutionary slope (since Lovecraft was not just afraid of non whites, but even whites who weren't New England upper class).

Again, I don't buy it anymore, but one COULD try...