YABookgate

[AngryAboutInternets]

So like.... in this age how are western publishers not jumping on this?

Giving readers choices means you can't push a message as easily. It's not about money.

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

This randomly popped up in my videos. Apparently some publisher that also took in crowdfunding went tits up and the successor won't be paying the authors.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Giving readers choices means you can't push a message as easily. It's not about money.

what's funny is that they almost had everything they needed, all they needed to do was not fuck up the bread and circuses

 

[AngryAboutInternets]

>go to comments
>sort by new
>scroll a bit
>retards sperging about the AI cover art, some of whom are basically saying he deserves to be stolen from because of it

Hope he wins, but I doubt it'll happen. One more reason never to trust publishers of any kind unless you're already getting money upfront.

what's funny is that they almost had everything they needed, all they needed to do was not fuck up the bread and circuses

Yeah well, the ruling class is almost never smart in any time period. The current parasites infesting our otherwise workable governmental systems are some of the dumbest on record. In any other era they'd have already been disposed of. It speaks volumes to the efficacy of the modern bread and circuses that, even when utterly compromised and fucked up, they can still pacify the population to this degree.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Yeah well, the ruling class is almost never smart in any time period. The current parasites infesting our otherwise workable governmental systems are some of the dumbest on record. In any other era they'd have already been disposed of. It speaks volumes to the efficacy of the modern bread and circuses that, even when utterly compromised and fucked up, they can still pacify the population to this degree.

It'll give, I guess.

I do find it funny that they're so goddamn stupid. Half the things they do is this retarded censoring of the past for some "eternal present", but Big Brother decided to waste his time recruit 70 IQ niggers to do it instead of the jews and useful idiots from a generation or 3 ago.

 

[Flexo]

I do find it funny that they're so goddamn stupid. Half the things they do is this retarded censoring of the past for some "eternal present", but Big Brother decided to waste his time recruit 70 IQ niggers to do it instead of the jews and useful idiots from a generation or 3 ago.

It's one of the many reasons communism fails and can never work. Because when you first have a surplus of merit, it's easy to prioritize selecting for belief and conformity. But it doesn't take long for the lazy (who can often be crafty) to realize that they can use professed belief to get ahead of more meritous harder workers. At first it seems like things will still work out, but now that the system has shifted to prioritize slogans instead of output, it means there is no more training and proper mentorship of up and coming replacements. So soon there ARE no useful idiots any more, just the useless choir.

Or to simplify: The system itself will always end up producing 70 IQ idiots to man everything. The competent charlatans are always eventually replaced by incompetent true believers.

So IG reels showed me a YA series called Sky's End. Is it any good?

Mmmm, I'm going to say, no.

Literally sounds like hunger games mixed with Attack on Titan. Maybe a dash of One Piece.

 

[Shaneequa]

a completely dysfunction group of sociopaths.

that can be fun in an ironic way. If you have some charisma, there's an audience for reviewing those kinds of books.

 

[Illumithotty]

But it doesn't take long for the lazy (who can often be crafty) to realize that they can use professed belief to get ahead of more meritous harder workers

I think it's more elegantly stated by Pournelle's Iron Law (before he went and revised it to be wordier): "In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely."

Obviously referring to bureaucracies first and foremost, but it fits in neatly to lots of informal organizations as well.

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

So anyway, apart from Romantasy sinking the boot into YA (by nature of the genre, the hot and spicy stuff cant really go into the Children's Book area no matter how much they try to straddle it with 19/20 year old protags) it looks like the up and coming genre is.... horror?!?

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

What makes you say that? Horror in film and literature form has always seemed to be a reliable constant.

 

[Rezza]

So anyway, apart from Romantasy sinking the boot into YA (by nature of the genre, the hot and spicy stuff cant really go into the Children's Book area no matter how much they try to straddle it with 19/20 year old protags) it looks like the up and coming genre is.... horror?!?

I just came across threads and people talking about Romantasy on Twitter and Instagram. I think it's safe to say the majority of people are weirded out by them, at least those who learned of their existence. And it's growing by the day by the looks of it, so we're probably going to see quite a pushback against Romantasy from the mainstream audience

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

What makes you say that? Horror in film and literature form has always seemed to be a reliable constant.

I follow a lot of publishing and acquisitions forums, and sometimes there's early hints on what is being snapped up and what publishers are spending money on at the moment. People asking questions about timelines and agent relationships and taxes are increasingly saying that they have a horror aligned MS in the sausage factory.

The traditional pub pipeline is usually 1) Get agent and 2) Agent sells book to publisher, also known as "being On Sub". This is where an agent who loves a good manuscript meets the hard realities of a committee with a budget and a spreadsheet of sales projections. It's where 50% of all agented manuscripts go to die. So it's interesting to see what is being sold and what people are struggling to sell.

Romantasy is still big in the Trad world at the bookseller level, (Fourth Wing is still a serial pest in that regard) but it's such an overcrowded market now and people are reporting that there's not a lot of publisher acquisitions happening. A lot of manuscripts are dying On Sub. It takes about 2 years for a book to reach the market, so if my agent was to get my MS accepted TODAY by publisher X, it wouldn't be published until early-to-mid 2027.

Horror has been a constant with more established authors and in niche areas, but there are some real actual sales-with-money being reported from new authors. This means in late 2026 we may get the first of them hitting the shelves. Of course if these first few books bomb, then the ones afterwards will get their marketing money pulled and there wont be that "wave". It's also dependent on the very youth-oriented BookTok/BookTube/BookstaGram ecosystem if the genre will go viral or not. (And that's predicated on a couple of good books/movies coming out to make reviewers curious etc.) but something is making publishers buy horror. So there's a horror groundswell being pushed.

The cosy fantasy seems to have dropped off somewhat.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

I follow a lot of publishing and acquisitions forums, and sometimes there's early hints on what is being snapped up and what publishers are spending money on at the moment. People asking questions about timelines and agent relationships and taxes are increasingly saying that they have a horror aligned MS in the sausage factory.

The traditional pub pipeline is usually 1) Get agent and 2) Agent sells book to publisher, also known as "being On Sub". This is where an agent who loves a good manuscript meets the hard realities of a committee with a budget and a spreadsheet of sales projections. It's where 50% of all agented manuscripts go to die. So it's interesting to see what is being sold and what people are struggling to sell.

Romantasy is still big in the Trad world at the bookseller level, (Fourth Wing is still a serial pest in that regard) but it's such an overcrowded market now and people are reporting that there's not a lot of publisher acquisitions happening. A lot of manuscripts are dying On Sub. It takes about 2 years for a book to reach the market, so if my agent was to get my MS accepted TODAY by publisher X, it wouldn't be published until early-to-mid 2027.

Horror has been a constant with more established authors and in niche areas, but there are some real actual sales-with-money being reported from new authors. This means in late 2026 we may get the first of them hitting the shelves. Of course if these first few books bomb, then the ones afterwards will get their marketing money pulled and there wont be that "wave". It's also dependent on the very youth-oriented BookTok/BookTube/BookstaGram ecosystem if the genre will go viral or not. (And that's predicated on a couple of good books/movies coming out to make reviewers curious etc.) but something is making publishers buy horror. So there's a horror groundswell being pushed.

The cosy fantasy seems to have dropped off somewhat.

I mean, cozy fantasy ran its course and will likely return. Horror seems to be quasi-consistent. I mean, King, Koontz, Straub, Rice, and Barker are all still alive and selling.

Five Nights At Freddies, as an IP, has been doing splendidly. I'd probably wager they think it's about time to take a look at horror again.

That's right. More horror romantasy.

 

[Mola Ram]

I mean, King, Koontz, Straub, Rice, and Barker are all still alive and selling.

Straub and Rice have been dead since '22 and '21 respectively. But they are still selling.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Straub and Rice have been dead since '22 and '21 respectively. But they are still selling.

Ah right. I don't follow mainstream modern horror so that's on me.

But I guess the point is, have we gotten any widely respected under-middle-age mainstream horror writers? I mean, it's the same issue with all genre fiction it seems. The mainstays are all getting old and the longhoused niggerfaggot girl's club that mainstream publishing's turning into seems to keep fixating on those with the right "labels" and not the ones with the right talent.

I mean my favorite horror writer's probably a toss between Richard Matheson or Robert E. Howard at this point. Manly Wade Wellman's great too. But I don't see anyone aping their styles. It feels like a lot of stuff's just some variation of romantasy or IDPOL people trying to mimic something notable while missing the point.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

That's right. More horror romantasy.

I won't lie, I kinda want to see horror-romance be a thing. And I mean actual horror; I'm trying to remember the name of this book that caught my eye weirdly enough in the romance section of Half-Price, think it was "The Bogeyman", but the horror premise was a home invasion/stalker and the wife needed to protect her family. I think it was put into the romance section because it was under a publishing label usually meant for that though there probably was also some sex scenes lol I dunno didn't get around to buying it.

But yeah, I'd love stuff like that.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

I won't lie, I kinda want to see horror-romance be a thing. And I mean actual horror; I'm trying to remember the name of this book that caught my eye weirdly enough in the romance section of Half-Price, think it was "The Bogeyman", but the horror premise was a home invasion/stalker and the wife needed to protect her family. I think it was put into the romance section because it was under a publishing label usually meant for that though there probably was also some sex scenes lol I dunno didn't get around to buying it.

But yeah, I'd love stuff like that.

I mean, there's always Twilight. . .

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I mean, there's always Twilight. . .

Twilight kickstarted the "paranormal romance", which isn't the same unless the paranormal creature in question is portrayed as old-school as possible.

 

[Trianon]

I never thought Hunger Games was really anything like Battle Royale as it wasn't like it thematically. It seemed like it lifted its premise off reality TV shows which are all over the TV dial. YA dystopia novels were around before then too.

This is it. Her inspiration was basically "what if you had to actually kill each other on Survivor?" and also how does our experience with reality TV mix with our ability to empathize with people going through war/violence/disasters on the news? There used to be a lot of people bringing up the idea that she plagiarized Battle Royale, but THG has always been primarily about propaganda/media in a way I don't think that book is. This is even more true as the books get more distant from the Games themselves and are more about the nature of humanity in all contexts. I love how, in the prequel, the Capitol citizens are introduced to forms of bluegrass that have survived for centuries without anyone recording them, and they're like "What the hell is this shit?" They can't conceive of stories that aren't mass-produced to enforce their values.

There's a lot of subtle roasting of the publishing industry there.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Good lord. "Dystomance." Such a painful on the eyes neologism. Can't wait to not read any of these titles.

The YA Dystopia Comeback is Served with a Healthy Dose of Romance

https://archive.is/wip/s8pjK

As an avid reader and writer of both genres, I couldn’t be more thrilled. My debut novel, Soulmatch, publishes with Simon & Schuster on July 29th. The inspiration for it came shortly after reading The Hunger Games in 2010, but the premise marinated and evolved as my reading preferences shifted between YA dystopian and adult romance titles. When I finally sat down to write Soulmatch ten years later, I combined my favorite parts of both genres–-savvy heroines dismantling corrupt governments and sizzling romantic tension.

Also, I realize self-promotion is mandatory these days, but do you have to come across like $20 ho strutting her stuff?