YABookgate

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

As a woman, I hate how all we write is shitty YA and romance. All the modern authors I see are all overly liberal, too. That means more political correctness and less risk-taking in favor of not offending others. I'm working on my own stories, but they're not YA or Romance or shitty fantasy nor some shitty greek myth retelling so I'm starting to think it's over. And by marketing smut and YA to women, it feels like some sort of misogynistic bullshit, telling women we shouldn't be reading classics or something more mature.

Sigh.... Allow me to use this post as an example of Survivorship Bias with everyone's favorite plane picture

I have written thirty books. Only three of them were politically correct YA Romance/Shitty Fantasy. The rest were Hard SF and MilSF with the occasional contemporary horror.

I spent years trying to get published.

You'll only need one guess as to which three books survived the submission process and were picked up by a publisher. Now I'm a woman who writes shitty YA and romance.

As much as I would love to do otherwise, if my current more MilSF book gets knocked back by my agent/publisher for being a genre they can't sell I'm gonna have to do shitty YA and romance #4.

I take you've never read Tom Clancy Red Storm Rising is a fucking gripping read.

Not relevant to the actual conversation (about fun books for guys) but it tipped off one of my memories about the difficulties of submitting a book for agent representation and publication.

Any book/author with an aim to be published worldwide and make any kind of cultural impact needs to approach the large publishers. Importantly part of the process is "comp" books - comparison titles published within the last 12-24 months that your hopeful book would fit next to on a bookshelf.

The problem is that a modern Red Storm Rising has no comparison book. There's nothing within 12-24 months published like it, and acquisitions meetings are notoriously bitchy. Smaller more niche publishers like Baen might, but they have really shitty distribution and come across as being very Small Time, and once you get caught in that ecosystem it can be hard to break out. Angry Robot "might" host it, but again as others have mentioned, publishing is so notoriously woke now, you can absolutely not have anything overtly political between the pages.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Any book/author with an aim to be published worldwide and make any kind of cultural impact needs to approach the large publishers. Importantly part of the process is "comp" books - comparison titles published within the last 12-24 months that your hopeful book would fit next to on a bookshelf.

That's fucking gay and retarded one would think that having a ton of "comp books" would be a bad thing you given a saturated marketplace, but it does explain more than a few things about publishing.

 

[Welf Welf]

The necessity of recent "comps" is what's keeping me from seriously considering traditional publishing. The effort of finding a recently-published book that isn't dogshit awful is so much greater than just looking 20-120 years in the past and finding a recommendation for something amazing I'd never heard of until that moment.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Any book/author with an aim to be published worldwide and make any kind of cultural impact needs to approach the large publishers.

I think we're kind of past the era where books as books, especially works of fiction, have much in the way of a cultural impact, personally. Certainly the days of an Uncle Tom's Cabin pushing public opinion in Europe to favor the Union in the US Civil War or Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther getting banned across Europe for setting off a moral panic seem in the past. Everything is niche, which I suppose can be both good and bad. Though I suppose a book made into a movie might work?

Smaller more niche publishers like Baen might, but they have really shitty distribution and come across as being very Small Time,

I agree with most of what you're saying, but Baen is actually distributed by Simon & Schuster. Baen even has a page on the S&S website.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/BAEN

Baen has certainly had some interesting covers through the years. Must admit that. Covers I doubt the Big 5 would allow.

Still...this is Clyde Caldwell, a pretty well known artist.

FWIW, Kensington is distributed by Random House, etc.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I think we're kind of past the era where books as books, especially works of fiction, have much in the way of a cultural impact, personally.

Isn't it a bit early to proclaim the era over? Harry Potter wasn't that long ago.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

I think we're kind of past the era where books as books, especially works of fiction, have much in the way of a cultural impact, personally.

Twilight
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Hunger Games

Weren't as big as Harry Potter, certainly weren't good, and had predominantly female fanbases, but all were household names in their heyday and it wasn't just because of their movies (at least any more than the first Harry Potter movie made the books more popular). They also launched a lot of especially bad knockoffs, especially Hunger Games with all the dumb YA dystopias and their horrific film adaptions (like Divergent). In a way, I kind of feel it says something about our culture and society that books like that are so influential in society.

 

[Bill Evans 45]

The Bronte sisters did shit like sport shooting in their free time.

They did not. Competitive shooting was for the landed gentry, the closest they got to guns was the fact that their father owned a couple of old flintlocks that he used to potshot rooks off the church roof. The Brontë sisters wrote under male pseudonyms because it was a way to get published and because it would have caused a scandal in society for women of their station to write anything outside hymns and religion texts.

 

[Generic Anime Girl]

'm gonna have to do shitty YA and romance #4.

publishing sounds like bullshit. I wish they focused on creativity like they say they do instead of whatever slop that sells.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

publishing sounds like bullshit. I wish they focused on creativity like they say they do instead of whatever slop that sells.

A Czech publisher in the early 90s that was notable mostly for publishing American crap for girls from the 80s that couldn't get published under socialism and new editions of trashy romances from the 20s and 30s summarized the situation pretty well: "You have to publish a dozen books of trash that sell a lot to have money to publish one worthwhile book that not many people would read."

 

[Mellorine]

publishing sounds like bullshit. I wish they focused on creativity like they say they do instead of whatever slop that sells.

Publishing is a business. Why should they subsidize slop that doesn't sell?

 

[SphinxItOver]

The rest were Hard SF and MilSF

Would love to give them a read especially if they have a focus on social shit and politics. Any chance they're 100k+ word count? 'Cause that's the shit I'm always hunting for and can't find stuff worth a damn. My used book store is getting kinda tired of me devouring their stock of sci/fa pulp.

Any book/author with an aim to be published worldwide and make any kind of cultural impact needs to approach the large publishers. Importantly part of the process is "comp" books - comparison titles published within the last 12-24 months that your hopeful book would fit next to on a bookshelf.

This and word counts are why I look at the agent/book shopping process as being absolutely broken for consumers. When you chase off a portion of your market it's bad logic to blame the consumers you chased off. It's just as stupid to point at the currents sales trend as being the full scope of the market.

The biggest hurdle for publishers is winning back that alienated market from the other media that picked it up. Can it be done? Yes. Can it be done quickly and easily? No. What is a method that can be used to help win back that market? Taking back the control on how books are made and sold, especially in the digital market. That implies that publishers have to figure out how to beat Amazon at it's own game ASAP. I imagine that is nearly impossible with the contracts companies already have in place.

Litenovels, Wattpad, SubStack, Tumblr and RR are just dipping their toes into the possible methods of winning against that market strangle hold.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

I'm currently reading billionaire romances, which are surprisingly popular among the "billionaires are evil" crowd...

I ran across one yesterday, The Devil Wears Black.

As you can see, it's very popular, 4.1 stars, tens of thousands of reviews, even a Booktok Pic.

I noped out 1% in, because the writing was terribly overblown. Now, I like Stephen King so I have a high tolerance for overblown writing.

Here's a few screenshots with the worst highlighted.






This highlight is where I gave up. The rest is full of pop culture references, all of which date the story. There's at least two in these screenshots.

I rarely leave reviews, because I never know what to say. But I left a one star review, mostly for my own records so I wouldn't accidentally download this again.

I don't think I'll ever read anything Booktok recommends again. Clearly their idea of good is far different from mine.

 

[Gnillik Yot]

Do you guys reckon anyone is stupid enough to pay $5,000 to an AI-based vanity press, just so that press publishes their chatbot slop? I can't imagine anyone paying Spines for this. The whole argument for using AI to make your book (according to the AI writers, which I am not one of) is that it is more affordable to use AI art and editing rather than hiring a real artist and editor for a self-published book. But now Spines is charging more than most human artists and editors on Fiverr or Upwork charge. Why would any author want the hassle of being boycotted and criticized for using AI, and have to spend $5,000 for it? If you're an AI author, just use KDP and be done with it.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I'm currently reading billionaire romances, which are surprisingly popular among the "billionaires are evil" crowd...

I ran across one yesterday, The Devil Wears Black.
View attachment 6684972
As you can see, it's very popular, 4.1 stars, tens of thousands of reviews, even a Booktok Pic.

I noped out 1% in, because the writing was terribly overblown. Now, I like Stephen King so I have a high tolerance for overblown writing.

Here's a few screenshots with the worst highlighted.

View attachment 6684979
View attachment 6684978
View attachment 6684977

View attachment 6684984
This highlight is where I gave up. The rest is full of pop culture references, all of which date the story. There's at least two in these screenshots.

I rarely leave reviews, because I never know what to say. But I left a one star review, mostly for my own records so I wouldn't accidentally download this again.

I don't think I'll ever read anything Booktok recommends again. Clearly their idea of good is far different from mine.

"Slanted blue-gray eyes of a manga character."



The author should do a flip in Minecraft.

 

[Generic Anime Girl]

why do they all look like that. We need ugly bitches making books again

 

[Wodanaz]

I'm currently reading billionaire romances, which are surprisingly popular among the "billionaires are evil" crowd...

I ran across one yesterday, The Devil Wears Black.
View attachment 6684972
As you can see, it's very popular, 4.1 stars, tens of thousands of reviews, even a Booktok Pic.

I noped out 1% in, because the writing was terribly overblown. Now, I like Stephen King so I have a high tolerance for overblown writing.

Here's a few screenshots with the worst highlighted.

View attachment 6684979
This highlight is where I gave up. The rest is full of pop culture references, all of which date the story. There's at least two in these screenshots.

I rarely leave reviews, because I never know what to say. But I left a one star review, mostly for my own records so I wouldn't accidentally download this again.

I don't think I'll ever read anything Booktok recommends again. Clearly their idea of good is far different from mine.

that is some really purple prose. "whiskey-colored light" lol

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

that is some really purple prose. "whiskey-colored light" lol

The air floating around him got me, air surrounds everyone, he's not special.

 

[Shaneequa]

The air floating around him got me, air surrounds everyone, he's not special.

but it snaps, crackles and pops from his chad aura

 

[Generic Anime Girl]

Anyone now being able to write a book is both a blessing and a curse

 

[Jesse Nicholas Radin]

The writing community is sexist against men in general. Women run the show.

This comes from a wanna-be writer that went on sexist rants in 2018, though. Take it with a large popcorn from AMC of salt.