YABookgate

[Tragon Dirtle]

I believe she identified as a socialist. But in terms of feminism her concern was not with justice; she hated the idea of put-upon, suffering women, and implied that they had it coming, by being such weaklings. She did remark several times that she hated being identified as a feminist.

Her hatred of DH Lawrence and the Bloomsbury group was quite legendary.

I am glad she never got to see that Omegaverse shit that keeps showing up in fiction. Dare I ask if its in YA books now?

It's difficult to find articles that specifically quote her as being pro feminism rather than just saying she was feminist so I can believe that. But there is definitely a straight line via tumblr that goes from carter to dark fairytale retellings to stuff like the ancient greek retellings or the sarah j maas fairy porn.

It is in the Spicy Booktok side of things - it's called shifter romance now because it's not always wolves - and maggie stiefvater is probably the biggest name in that microgenre as far as I know, she's done a werewolf series but her famous series is about crow shifters.

 

[Drive-by Farts]

Thinking about the Royal Road discussion a while back, serial fiction is just a lot different than actual novels. It’s better if each chapter is like a TV sitcom episode in some ways… but with a cliffhanger at the end. It’s weirdly hard to write.

I am curious what the trends are in YA/publishing industry as a whole? I am more into Webtoons and you see a total Romantasy takeover, but I can’t help but wonder if anyone is getting tired of it. I’m curious what we think the actual young audience (male or female) currently wants. Seems like no one really knows, considering what sales are doing.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I am curious what the trends are in YA/publishing industry as a whole? I am more into Webtoons and you see a total Romantasy takeover, but I can’t help but wonder if anyone is getting tired of it. I’m curious what we think the actual young audience (male or female) currently wants. Seems like no one really knows, considering what sales are doing.

Nobody cares because booktok. It's whatever makes booktok gush, in more ways than one.

 

[Drive-by Farts]

Nobody cares because booktok. It's whatever makes booktok gush, in more ways than one.

So… from a practical viewpoint does it make sense to follow Booktok trends as an author? Does that translate into sales? Does it translate into sales if you’re indie or publishing?

Like there are so many problems with professional publishing and now with Kindle, Royal Road has a weirdly specific audience… how do authors even get their feet in the doors in 2025?

It’s hard to get into the mind of some of the younger online audience, it seems like they don’t understand nuance and want to be able to check what tropes and characters are in the book before they read it. I look at the Webtoons for boys as well as Royal Road and I see a bunch of stats and random screens popping up. Just pure autism. It’s just so alien and obscure to me.

 

[SphinxItOver]

I look at the Webtoons for boys as well as Royal Road and I see a bunch of stats and random screens popping up. Just pure autism.

It's very logical when you realize that all modern tech has "information windows." Since the early 00s kids have been raised on hand held tech that can answer their questions immediately. So by shoving that shit into a story you're appealing to that subconscious familiarity, comfort, and giving the reader a sense of being able to relate with the characters.

 

[Shaneequa]

I look at the Webtoons for boys as well as Royal Road and I see a bunch of stats and random screens popping up. Just pure autism.

I wanted to set up a sort of card-collecting aspect to serialized short stories where at the end of every section of an Amazon Villa (RIP) episode was a link to redeem that story's e-collectable. It was during the height of NFTs so that was sort of the idea but without any actual crypto, your "inventory" would probably just be a cookie file in your browser history.

Think of it like those reading competitions they used to do in elementary schools where reading a book gave you a certain amount of "points". You guys ever read enough books to get the pizza?

They would look kinda like this.

This guy would probably be from a sci-fi, story. Or maybe they should all be waifus for the Gachafags who knows.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

There was something recently...
A lawsuit between two omega wolf book authors or something. Sounded insane. There's a market for wolf related romance apparently.

 

[Shaneequa]

A lawsuit between two omega wolf book authors or something. Sounded insane. There's a market for wolf related romance apparently.

I'm like 90% sure this was covered by Lindsey Ellis like half a decade ago lmao

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

I'm like 90% sure this was covered by Lindsey Ellis like half a decade ago lmao

Know what? I may have mixed up the Addison Cain lawsuit with the Tracey Wolff one.

Tracey was sued because of her YA book Crave. Its this.

 

[California Newt]

her famous series is about crow shifters.

Not ravens? Crows—which are just gay ravens?

Edit: I kid. There are crows outside my window and I don't want to cast aspersions. Crows need to get their T levels checked, though.

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

Not ravens? Crows—which are just gay ravens?

I think you will find that a raven is just a fat, neckbearded crow.

Spoiler

The difference between a Chad and an incel is just a few inches of beak.

 

[ShitLurker]

Bit of a random post, but just saw a random superchat in MATI talking about how the 5th book in the Stormlight archives is incredibly gay. Any sort of discussion about it that I can be directed to or anybody willing to give me a summary? Last one I read was the 3rd, but I liked what was there and was looking forward to continue reading it once the whole saga was published.

 

[SaidTheSpider]

Bit of a random post, but just saw a random superchat in MATI talking about how the 5th book in the Stormlight archives is incredibly gay. Any sort of discussion about it that I can be directed to or anybody willing to give me a summary? Last one I read was the 3rd, but I liked what was there and was looking forward to continue reading it once the whole saga was published.

I don't know if there's a full thread on it, but people have been discussing it off and on in What are you reading right now? since it came out.

 

[FuckMeGentlyWithAChainsaw]

Bit of a random post, but just saw a random superchat in MATI talking about how the 5th book in the Stormlight archives is incredibly gay. Any sort of discussion about it that I can be directed to or anybody willing to give me a summary? Last one I read was the 3rd, but I liked what was there and was looking forward to continue reading it once the whole saga was published.

 

[Booger1488]

View attachment 6870023

And to think this is the man that broke the record for the most sponsored literature-related Kickstarter.

 

[ShitLurker]

I don't know if there's a full thread on it, but people have been discussing it off and on in What are you reading right now? since it came out.

Thanks for the link, wasn't aware that the 4th book was also considered kind of crap

View attachment 6870023

I hate the antichrist...

Guess the moral of the story is that in current year never look forward to anything, even if it's from someone "based". Seeing Sanderson go full Christcuck when the fucker was gaining popularity for just doing his own thing is beyond depressing. Now I have 0 desire to keep reading the Stormlight Archives or anything else written by him, I'm fine with Mistborn being his best work and the wild west version was alright (read the first 3, sounds like there was a 4th as well?).

I also tried to read his sci fi series, it was Skyward I believe, but my GOD was the main character such an unlikeable bitch that I didn't get too far.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

And to think this is the man that broke the record for the most sponsored literature-related Kickstarter.

He was either going to get cancelled by his Noo Yawk overlords or bend the knee. Guess we know which choice was made. 'Course anyone who voluntarily spends time around Mary Robinette Kowal is immediately suspect in my book.

FWIW, I read two of the however many books were done through the kickstarter. I know it was at least four, but I somehow think there was other stuff. Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Not bad, very light fare and I would consider both YA. No degeneracy like the stuff above I can recall.

Started the Sunlit Man but for some reason wasn't feeling it, probably since that one seemed way more Cosmere inside baseball crap from page 1. Something about an escapee from Scadrial or Roshar or maybe the Warbreaker planet (I never figured that part out) being chased to another world, not one I think had been referenced before. I guess I'm getting too old for deep dives into lore like this any more, dunno. Seemed like it was written for people who are pretty hardcore into the Cosmere, at any rate.

 

[Bill Evans 45]

Doesn't come close to explaining why it's multiple times thicker.

Could it be that during and post WW2 there were huge paper shortages in Europe? Russia previously supplied a huge amount of pulp wood in Europe. After 1940, most books were printed on very thin paper that was akin to cheap newsprint or onionskin. Endpapers also disappeared. Some countries pulped part of their national archives during WW2 to obtain new paper. See also Mao era publications.
This segued into the rise of the cheap 'pulp' paperback from the 1940s onwards. A good example is post war comics - they suffer from 'chipping' because the paper has so little quality wood pulp and a higher water content in it that the edges of pages discolored and chipped away.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

Could it be that during and post WW2 there were huge paper shortages in Europe? Russia previously supplied a huge amount of pulp wood in Europe. After 1940, most books were printed on very thin paper that was akin to cheap newsprint or onionskin. Endpapers also disappeared. Some countries pulped part of their national archives during WW2 to obtain new paper. See also Mao era publications.
This segued into the rise of the cheap 'pulp' paperback from the 1940s onwards. A good example is post war comics - they suffer from 'chipping' because the paper has so little quality wood pulp and a higher water content in it that the edges of pages discolored and chipped away.

That's definitely part of it, pre-WW1 books and post-WW1 books have a big change in paper quality, same goes for pre-WW2 and post-WW2. Wartime books are a story of their own, with a 1940 book and 1944 book feeling extremely different. Though I actually have a few issues of May 1945 newspapers that have held up surprisingly well.

 

[Welf Welf]

I own a book printed in either the late 1860s or early 1870s that has remarkably good paper quality. This could be survivorship bias, though, as a book of subpar paper quality likely wouldn't have lasted 150 years... Still, almost all my pre-WWII printed books have thick paper.