YABookgate

[Conspiracy Mawile]

The PR department of whatever publishing house is printing her nge/atla fanfiction must have a blast reading comments like these.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

The PR department of whatever publishing house is printing her nge/atla fanfiction must have a blast reading comments like these.

And they don't dare say a thing, since there's too many boxes checked.

Also, is she wearing a cow costume for some reason? Appropriate for this site, I guess.

In other news...

Missed Bookriots Read Harder 2024/ https://archive.ph/Ro32X "challenge" when it was announced in December 2023. So, I'm late to the party, but I think this is still worth noting. There's absolutely no agenda being pushed here, nosiree bobber.

This week's "Challenge:" Read a YA book by a trans author.

Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge

Gather ’round the interwebs, readers. It’s time to announce the 2024 Read Harder Challenge! This year will be our tenth hosting Read Harder, and we’ve got some special stuff in store this time around. If you’re a Read Harder regular, it’s great to see you again! If this is your first time joining us, welcome to the challenge.

Let’s first go over the basics: the challenge is made up of 24 tasks (an average of two per month) that invite readers to explore formats, genres, and perspectives that might go beyond their reading comfort zones. How you approach Read Harder is up to you: you can read one book per task or count one book for multiple tasks. The point of the challenge isn’t to do the thing one particular way but to push yourself to diversify your TBR. We hope you’ll hold yourself accountable, share your thoughts, and discover a whole bunch of wonderful books you might not have otherwise chosen for yourself. And as always: have fun with it!

Need suggestions for the tasks? Looking for a community to complete the challenge with? Sign up for the Read Harder newsletter! Throughout the year, we’ll provide guidance on each task. On alternating weeks, we’ll be recommending books for every task as well as sharing other interesting readathons and reading challenges from across the internet. Paid subscribers get access to more recommendations as well as community features (starting in January).

As Read Harder has grown and changed over the years, we’ve seen a community of passionate readers spring up around it, scattered across many different social media platforms. That’s why this year, we’re adding a community aspect to the newsletter, where we can share our progress and recommendations with like-minded readers all in one place. Click here to learn more, and get ready to Read Harder with us in the new year.

Click here for a downloadable and editable PDF of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge tasks. Now, let’s get to the tasks!
________________________________________
Read Harder 2024
1. Read a cozy fantasy book.
2. Read a YA book by a trans author.
3. Read a middle grade horror novel.
4. Read a history book by a BIPOC author.
5. Read a sci-fi novella.
6. Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character.
7. Read an indie published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author.
8. Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited.
9. Read a book recommended by a librarian.
10. Read a historical fiction book by an Indigenous author.
11. Read a picture book published in the last five years.
12. Read a genre book (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) by a disabled author.
13. Read a comic that has been banned.
14. Read a book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event.
15. Read a YA nonfiction book.
16. Read a book based solely on the title.
17. Read a book about media literacy.
18. Read a book about drag or queer artistry.
19. Read a romance with neurodivergent characters.
20. Read a book about books (fiction or nonfiction).
21. Read a book that went under the radar in 2023.
22. Read a manga or manhwa.
23. Read a “howdunit” or “whydunit” mystery.
24. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!

Remember, if you’re looking for recommendations or to connect with other people doing the Read Harder challenge, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter and become a paid subscriber for community features!

 

[JJLiautaud]

This week's "Challenge:" Read a YA book by a trans author.

If only it was read a book by a LGBT author then I would be stoked, I'd finally have an excuse to read Mishima. Actually this would be interesting to make a based list of books that fit the challenge criteria.

 

[BaskingBarracuda]

And they don't dare say a thing, since there's too many boxes checked.

I am baffled as to why publishers put up with these people. I'm not so much talking about Xiran since she has actually sold some books and therefore has the leverage to be tolerated, but there's loads of similarly abrasive lunatics in the genre who don't sell at all yet seemingly never get told to shut up or get dropped by their label for being cancerous. I get that the publishers are pretty captured as well but surely the people at the top who are in charge of the bottom line have the sense and the power to make executive decisions?

 

[trekkor]

If only it was read a book by a LGBT author then I would be stoked, I'd finally have an excuse to read Mishima. Actually this would be interesting to make a based list of books that fit the challenge criteria.

Having read a few Mishima books, I can tell you he can fit in about eight categories, so that's a good chunk of the challenge done lmao

Spoiler: Mishima clears

If you're curious, they're:
5 (Beautiful Star; not very good imho, very weak ending. It also specifies "novella" and this is longer, but fuck that weak shit),
8 (granted, you might've visited Japan, but it's still a good option),
9 (very vague description. You can probably find some random librarian who has recommended his most known novels),
12 (they didn't specify "disabled" so I'll take it as "crazy enough to think his poorly thought out plan for a coup would work and then when it didn't committed seppuku" so again, he counts),
16 (The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea IS a very eye-catching title),
19 (pretty sure at least a few of his couples were fucking retarded; I can again point out Beautiful Star),
22 (there are adaptions of his books and also a biography of his life)
and 24 (I didn't look, but 100% you could find something from an earlier challenge)

 

[WelperHelper99]

Inkitt - a Watpad clone, has been given $35 million dollars in seed money to develop their "bestseller creation" business.

They've been around for a while, they are a little more adult that Wattpad but they are an easier platform to monetise via their Galatea app.

No surprises as to what gets monetised. Yep, erotica and romantasy.

How does science fiction fare on Inkitt? Like military science fiction?

 

[Three Gorillion Dollars]

How does science fiction fare on Inkitt? Like military science fiction?

Take a look! A lot of the more popular stories have two reviews, and many of the more recent releases have none. A lot of these platforms openly lie about their numbers and engagement, having boosted them with bots.

Online publishing is not the wonderland people think it is. It's basically two genres: romance (read: erotica) and anime slop (LitRPG, isekai, cultivation.) Military science fiction is more of an Amazon/Kindle Unlimited thing.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Take a look! A lot of the more popular stories have two reviews, and many of the more recent releases have none. A lot of these platforms openly lie about their numbers and engagement, having boosted them with bots.

Online publishing is not the wonderland people think it is. It's basically two genres: romance (read: erotica) and anime slop (LitRPG, isekai, cultivation.) Military science fiction is more of an Amazon/Kindle Unlimited thing.

I was greeted with fucking cancer

It's literally just porn. My gosh. And here i am writing a actual story.

 

[Three Gorillion Dollars]

If you're thinking about online publishing, my understanding is to avoid any of the online platforms that are associated with companies or corporations (Naver/Webtoon/Yonder, Webnovel, Inkitt/Galatea, Neovel, Dreame... This is not exhaustive, the list just goes on and on) because you can't trust their metrics, their contracts are filled with NDAs, and the terms they're making people sign are apparently quite predatory (if the non-disclosures weren't an indicator.) My guess is that "opportunities" like Galatea and Yonder are just ways for companies to harvest IP and they'll fuck over the authors who are stupid enough to sign on them, or are stupid enough to let their agents sign them on.

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

It's literally just porn. My gosh. And here i am writing a actual story.

Too much real life.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Too much real life.

Too much of that story and real aliens and plasma beams man. Apparently the market just wants to see a not-human (they're just painted green) and a human fuck.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Take a look! A lot of the more popular stories have two reviews, and many of the more recent releases have none. A lot of these platforms openly lie about their numbers and engagement, having boosted them with bots.

Online publishing is not the wonderland people think it is. It's basically two genres: romance (read: erotica) and anime slop (LitRPG, isekai, cultivation.) Military science fiction is more of an Amazon/Kindle Unlimited thing.

Jesus Christ

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

"Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character."

This shit really gives me the red flags.

The PURE EXPRESSION of LGB is sex - sexual desire, sexual intercourse, the yearning to be fucked by (x) preferred gender. And I just don't see how a narrative of premature sexualised experience of children, reconfiguring the ideal "friendships" to "potential fuckmates" works well in the 8-12 age bracket.

T is generally a path of medical mutilation.

Q is going to be handmaidens and enablers or even worse, victims gaslighted into rapey situations. Otr even WORSE andy gross paraphillia from zoo to pedo

I is really only an issue if you are trying to have kids yourself

A is like generally any kid who hasn't been molested or exposed to sick shit

Feels bad man.

How does science fiction fare on Inkitt? Like military science fiction?

Military science fiction is more of an Amazon/Kindle Unlimited thing.

Amazon is the better place to write and sell MilSF. The audience is generally older and can pay for books with a credit card (Wattpad/Inkitt and to a certain extent Galatea are free or "freemium" so they can be accessed by anyone). It's probably one of the top sellers.

YA has traditionally under-sold in eBooks, generally because to have an Amazon account usually means having access to money.

Most large publishers have painted themselves into a marketing corner now by using the stochastic marketing of BookTok etc, which are made by young women with limited reading range. They struggle to reach young men outside of the Brando Sando word-of-mouth recommendations on entirely unrelated forums.

I’m not as clued in on the modern literature community as people here are, so can you tell me if there’s still the regular blaming of huwyte male writers/audiences for problems in the genre as there was 5-10 years ago? I figure the genre becoming dominated by women both audience and creator renders that criticism irrelevant but idiots have never let reality get in the way of a favourable narrative.

Weirdly, I'm not seeing as much of it as there was back 10 years ago. There are so few debut writers who are male, many are choosing to self-publish or express themselves in different art forms. There's almost no overlap now. The ones who are big at the moment literally got their foot in the door 15 years ago.

You can be published, but its an entirely different thing to have the entire marketing force of a publisher behind you, and new male writers in the YA/Genre sphere aren't getting that.

A friend of mine said that she had a guest editor on a magazine who was a white male and said, "He's actually a diverse minority".

 

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

I am baffled as to why publishers put up with these people. I'm not so much talking about Xiran since she has actually sold some books and therefore has the leverage to be tolerated, but there's loads of similarly abrasive lunatics in the genre who don't sell at all yet seemingly never get told to shut up or get dropped by their label for being cancerous. I get that the publishers are pretty captured as well but surely the people at the top who are in charge of the bottom line have the sense and the power to make executive decisions?

The top is just as captured as the rank and file is. The only reason these publishers are able to engage in this "charity" work is because the continued sales of older white male authors. Tor still exists because of Brandon Sanderson. DAW had an up and coming cash cow by the name of Christopher Ruocchio before they decided personal politics was more important than money.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Amazon is the better place to write and sell MilSF. The audience is generally older and can pay for books with a credit card (Wattpad/Inkitt and to a certain extent Galatea are free or "freemium" so they can be accessed by anyone). It's probably one of the top sellers.

YA has traditionally under-sold in eBooks, generally because to have an Amazon account usually means having access to money.

Most large publishers have painted themselves into a marketing corner now by using the stochastic marketing of BookTok etc, which are made by young women with limited reading range. They struggle to reach young men outside of the Brando Sando word-of-mouth recommendations on entirely unrelated forums.

Very informative. I'll look into it.

 

[neverendingmidi]

If you're thinking about online publishing, my understanding is to avoid any of the online platforms that are associated with companies or corporations (Naver/Webtoon/Yonder, Webnovel, Inkitt/Galatea, Neovel, Dreame... This is not exhaustive, the list just goes on and on) because you can't trust their metrics, their contracts are filled with NDAs, and the terms they're making people sign are apparently quite predatory (if the non-disclosures weren't an indicator.) My guess is that "opportunities" like Galatea and Yonder are just ways for companies to harvest IP and they'll fuck over the authors who are stupid enough to sign on them, or are stupid enough to let their agents sign them on.

Webnovel bots spam AO3 comments to try and scam dumb writers, so I'd put them on a very, very low level of reliability.

 

[Conspiracy Mawile]

If you want to self-publish, go to amazon. For "traditional" publishing, you need a good literature agent and lector to see any money out of it, and both can be very hard to come by. And never pay anything in advance!

Tor still exists because of Brandon Sanderson.

Even the worst brando sando books are still better than booktok and most of YA. Dude knows how to write and sell the books his audience actually wants to read, the video of him revealing he has written like 5 new novels during pandemic is such a genius marketing move.

 

[Flexo]

Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character."

Ironic, I first read that as a statement of quality, not age. (High grade vs low grade) but now you've got me paranoid.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Also who the fuck reads middle grade as an adult? Its almost as bad as reading any children's book other than frog and toad as an adult.

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

Alcoholics, the unemployable, angry trannies.