YABookgate

[Cryptojew]

There is also "Warriors" by Erin Hunter. All about wild cats, but they live in clans, four in the beginning of the series. Once more, zero sexualization, but also again, some heavy topics are thrown in. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I personally find enjoyment in all these series.

Warriors was my shit as a kid. I was blown away by how gory it could get- cats getting hit by cars, torn apart by dogs, the one who gets sliced open and dies nine times in a row, it could get really intense.

As a side note, if you decide to read it than steer clear of anything past the first series. It goes off the rails really quickly.

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

Hey publishers this:

View attachment 3959880
shows up in your slush what do you do?
H/T: @Mr Moonface

Right, first of all who the hell writes in single-space, unless he did this to show off his small-dick prowess and wanted to fit more lines in for people to ooh and ahh (and vomit) over.

I'd like to say it was shit (and it is) but there's a market out there for dumb shit like this. I just don't think it's a Big 5 publisher market though. Small press would proobably take it..

No its Fat Rick writing an "action packed" sequel to A Christmas Carol

He's been writing this for fucking years at this point.

Well, I did it. How the fuck can Sanderson do this output on a consistent basis?View attachment 3964860View attachment 3964857

If you don't have to work, and you're not entirely fussy about what you're writing, you could churn out about a thousand decent words per hour for say - a total of 8k on a day? (I know of writers who do 20K in a day regularly - Michael Crichton of the Jurassic Park novels and a squillion others was one, JD Robb/Nora Roberts put out a book a month.)

With weekends off and not including editing, you could have a standard 80K book in 2 weeks and a Fat Fantasy of 200K words in a month and a half?

Fucking coming up with the story is EXHAUSTING. I have it from the horses mouth that the first few books Sanderson turned into his agent were so shitty he would be regularly told to go back and fix them up.

Ooh, is it all non-sexualised violence?
I've got a teen girl who's grown out of kidfic and likes a bit of gore but (understandably) doesn't have any tolerance for rapey storylines...I tried giving her some Anne McCaffrey dragon books but she declared them to be 'the bad kind of gay'.
She really liked the Abercrombie Half a King series but I'm struggling with what to give her next

The Gideon the Ninth series seems to be popular with the young folk of today, someone wrote about it earlier in this thread. The Poppy War started good in a "magic school" sort of way, then descends into a bit of violence.

You could also try the Clan of the Cave Bear series - itwas fucking BELOVED by teens but beware there is one rapey Neanderthal scene that is in-context in the first book.

His Majesty's Dragon/Temeraire series by Naomi Novik was good, I enjoyed the first few.

Have you tried giving her Magician?

Sorry, I "horrified" this as I have PTSD from a friend who was desperately trying to get me to read this and The Belgariad. I have to say that I have struggled with these kinds of fantasy epics, which is a shame as in my heart I wish I could love them as much as fans do!!

Warriors was my shit as a kid. I was blown away by how gory it could get- cats getting hit by cars, torn apart by dogs, the one who gets sliced open and dies nine times in a row, it could get really intense.

As a side note, if you decide to read it than steer clear of anything past the first series. It goes off the rails really quickly.

It's great, I'm trying to get my non-reading kid into them.

 

[A Widdle Woach]

How does the Redwall series hold up? I never read them as a kid but I heard Netflix was making a series based on the books so I’m tempted to check them out.

 

[2525ABC]

You could also try the Clan of the Cave Bear series - itwas fucking BELOVED by teens

Hah my nerdy little pubescent femcel gang loved it purely for the prehistoric sexxxing. We were foul.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Hah my nerdy little pubescent femcel gang loved it purely for the prehistoric sexxxing. We were foul.

You mean people dont read it for the accurate recreation of late Ice-Age ecologies? I'm shocked, shocked I say.

How does the Redwall series hold up? I never read them as a kid but I heard Netflix was making a series based on the books so I’m tempted to check them out.

I really enjoyed them, cute things committing unspeakable acts of violence is a pretty good genre, however if you're an adult you'll get bored of them pretty quick, The Long Patrol is pure kino however.

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

If you don't have to work, and you're not entirely fussy about what you're writing, you could churn out about a thousand decent words per hour for say - a total of 8k on a day? (I know of writers who do 20K in a day regularly - Michael Crichton of the Jurassic Park novels and a squillion others was one, JD Robb/Nora Roberts put out a book a month.)

With weekends off and not including editing, you could have a standard 80K book in 2 weeks and a Fat Fantasy of 200K words in a month and a half?

20k words a day? Jesus christ that sounds like some Jap light novel output (with the same quality I bet.)

Sorry, I "horrified" this as I have PTSD from a friend who was desperately trying to get me to read this and The Belgariad. I have to say that I have struggled with these kinds of fantasy epics, which is a shame as in my heart I wish I could love them as much as fans do!!

They're definitely products of their time and I think you have to read them when you're younger.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

Holy crap, what a thread. I noticed this phenomenon a while ago when Hallmark-esque romances were all my mom read. I had no idea how much worse its gotten.

I agree with both what has been said about what teenage boys enjoy reading, and that they tend to drop off around that time due to the modern book landscape. I read prodigiously as a kid and well into my teens, but stopped about halfway through high school because I found the more adult books to be a bit of a slog and I was too old for 39 Clues or Diary of a Wimpy Kid at that point. Nowadays I probably would have quit reading even sooner, seeing the complete tsunami of woke garbage that has washed over every genre of writing since the Obama admin.

 

[Local Degenerate]

I read prodigiously as a kid and well into my teens, but stopped about halfway through high school because I found the more adult books to be a bit of a slog

It's for this reason I'll tell anyone who shits on people for reading YA to kiss the fattest part of my ass.

I've tried getting into 'adult' books, and they generally either end up as softcore porn, hardcore porn, or just too bloated for their own good. To say nothing of the politicization, which has always been there, even as the pendulum swings. There are exceptions, of course, but I'd rather sit and read something for 16 year olds, and have it be concise and entertaining, rather than go through 400 pages of a book with 100 pages worth of story.

 

[JJLiautaud]

It's for this reason I'll tell anyone who shits on people for reading YA to kiss the fattest part of my ass.

I've tried getting into 'adult' books, and they generally either end up as softcore porn, hardcore porn, or just too bloated for their own good. To say nothing of the politicization, which has always been there, even as the pendulum swings. There are exceptions, of course, but I'd rather sit and read something for 16 year olds, and have it be concise and entertaining, rather than go through 400 pages of a book with 100 pages worth of story.

Thats why i read Mil SF a lot.

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

They're definitely products of their time and I think you have to read them when you're younger.

Yep, I noticed that! There's a sweet spot when moving out of simpler middle grade books and having your mind blown by reading an epic series.

I agree with both what has been said about what teenage boys enjoy reading, and that they tend to drop off around that time due to the modern book landscape. I read prodigiously as a kid and well into my teens, but stopped about halfway through high school because I found the more adult books to be a bit of a slog and I was too old for 39 Clues or Diary of a Wimpy Kid at that point. Nowadays I probably would have quit reading even sooner, seeing the complete tsunami of woke garbage that has washed over every genre of writing since the Obama admin.

Fortunately there IS stuff out there but it has to be curated by active librarians and parents who are more interested in seeing thier kid read rather than "read the right thing".

Annoyingly the good stuff boys like - high fantasy, mil-sf, space opera etc is all either self published or eBook only at the moment, and not a lot of kids have eReaders (if there's an iPad involved, forget about all the apps fighting for attention). It's harder for them to access or find, or even purchase.

Relatedly I was on a thread on another self-publishing forum (eBooks mostly) where the BIG genres were Military SF and Romance... guaranteed movers. Someone asked about selling YA or Middle grade, and were told that the chance of success was iffy in the case of anything with a large market consiting of kids... Amazon/Apple required a credit card holder to make purchases, limiting buyers to over 18.

Adult YA readers are plentiful but teens really drive the market - when else in your life do you have spare time to read??

Wattpad exploded for this very thing - teens could access "literature" without having to worry about paying for it. I remember about 10 years ago when publishers were trying to replicate the Wattpad serial successes by asking for serials themselves, forgetting the accessibility was really down to "who is paying for this".

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I've tried getting into 'adult' books, and they generally either end up as softcore porn, hardcore porn, or just too bloated for their own good. To say nothing of the politicization, which has always been there, even as the pendulum swings.

This is pretty much why my grandma stuck with mainly YA even though she had written adult books. Though I don't know if she had continued reading new YA books, think she had realized reading through those Mortal Instrument novels or whatever-the-hell they were getting trashier when she was avoiding adult books because they were trashy.

 

[Trianon]

It's for this reason I'll tell anyone who shits on people for reading YA to kiss the fattest part of my ass.

I've tried getting into 'adult' books, and they generally either end up as softcore porn, hardcore porn, or just too bloated for their own good. To say nothing of the politicization, which has always been there, even as the pendulum swings. There are exceptions, of course, but I'd rather sit and read something for 16 year olds, and have it be concise and entertaining, rather than go through 400 pages of a book with 100 pages worth of story.

This is true, it's a bit hard to find stories that are just normal. Middle grade is usually the best area to land if you really want to avoid any sex (some YA is tilting over the line now, and there are a few middle grade authors I love that read older without any focus on romance or sex; they characters/worlds are complex enough to matter but simple enough to be great adventure stories for kids). This is also the reason I preferred watching cartoons over adult live-action series, but that has also gotten much more political and less devoted to good storytelling in the past few years so I've mostly dropped new series.

I've also said before YA fulfills a wild west need to pick up a book with no stable genre expectations, which really narrow when you get into adult literature. YA can have a touch of everything, whereas various circles of adult lit will sneer if there's any sci-fi elements in a serious literary novel.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

This is true, it's a bit hard to find stories that are just normal. Middle grade is usually the best area to land if you really want to avoid any sex (some YA is tilting over the line now, and there are a few middle grade authors I love that read older without any focus on romance or sex; they characters/worlds are complex enough to matter but simple enough to be great adventure stories for kids). This is also the reason I preferred watching cartoons over adult live-action series, but that has also gotten much more political and less devoted to good storytelling in the past few years so I've mostly dropped new series.

I do like middle grade for the fact that it's mostly clean, but the flip side that kills it for me is that the writing is... simple.
Same with the themes. And vocabulary. It comes with the territory. But as much as I hate reading a book that has 600 pages of mostly purple prose, I find it equally pointless to read a book that doesn't challenge me, in terms of vocabulary or the questions raised by the theme.

 

[Trianon]

I do like middle grade for the fact that it's mostly clean, but the flip side that kills it for me is that the writing is... simple.
Same with the themes. And vocabulary. It comes with the territory. But as much as I hate reading a book that has 600 pages of mostly purple prose, I find it equally pointless to read a book that doesn't challenge me, in terms of vocabulary or the questions raised by the theme.

Yeah, it depends on the writer. There are some authors who just get marketed as middle grade because of the lack of sex, but the vocabulary and themes are pretty advanced.

The best bet would probably be to find someone who writes adult, YA, and middle grade. Their writing usually scales down well without being dumbed down for different audiences.

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

Relatedly I was on a thread on another self-publishing forum (eBooks mostly) where the BIG genres were Military SF and Romance... guaranteed movers. Someone asked about selling YA or Middle grade, and were told that the chance of success was iffy in the case of anything with a large market consiting of kids... Amazon/Apple required a credit card holder to make purchases, limiting buyers to over 18.

What forum is this? I would like to have a look.

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

What forum is this? I would like to have a look.

The Kindleboards Writer's Cafe: https://www.kboards.com/forums/writers-cafe.60/

It's been going for a while - a LOT of posts, but occasionally there's a decent discussion about genre if you're willing to search around. When I was fully on it (mid-2010s) they were still enjoying the tail end of the self-publishing boom, you would have big SP authors like Hugh Howey and others posting. It was interesting that back in those days - before Amazon startted a traditional publishing arm - the company would literally fly out their biggest self publishing authors out to their offices and have discussions on major changes they might make to the platform.

The earliest posts are a bit cringe - all these people crowing about "legacy media" and "dead tree publishing" as if traditional publishing was going to fall over in the eBook juggernaut. In the earliest days of Kindle, no major publisher was putting out eBook titles so authors with very middling books were able to sell A LOT. Absolutely an uncrowded market. However as soon as the scammers and traditional publishers moved in, it got very hard to find a toehold for new authors, unless there was a gap in the market they could exploit.

 

[Boston Brand]

For teen boys and young male adult readers, I usually refer them to the nearest book with a Baen logo on the spine, or at least a reliable technothriller author.

 

[Hirbowedge]

For teen boys and young male adult readers, I usually refer them to the nearest book with a Baen logo on the spine, or at least a reliable technothriller author.

I read a lot of the 1632 books because the premise was really interesting. They are published by Baen. I think they are the only Baen books I've read yet.
They books' world view is very present and it's very lib. Then I looked up the writer and the guy is a damn card carry commie. Eric Flint was a literal member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Now, no matter how excruciating getting through some parts were and how awful the majority of the characters are, the premise and technical detail certainly hold up. I wouldn't say they are bad books or I regret reading them.
But it certainly conflicts with my impression of Baen being the publisher of "based and redpilled" books I got from this thread.

 

[JJLiautaud]

I read a lot of the 1632 books because the premise was really interesting. They are published by Baen. I think they are the only Baen books I've read yet.
They books' world view is very present and it's very lib. Then I looked up the writer and the guy is a damn card carry commie. Eric Flint was a literal member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Now, no matter how excruciating getting through some parts were and how awful the majority of the characters are, the premise and technical detail certainly hold up. I wouldn't say they are bad books or I regret reading them.
But it certainly conflicts with my impression of Baen being the publisher of "based and redpilled" books I got from this thread.

They publish a lot of what spec fic used to publish good stories with interesting ideas and Eric Flint (RIP) was their one commie on staff.

 

[Bruce Springsteen]

I read a lot of the 1632 books because the premise was really interesting. They are published by Baen. I think they are the only Baen books I've read yet.
They books' world view is very present and it's very lib. Then I looked up the writer and the guy is a damn card carry commie. Eric Flint was a literal member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Now, no matter how excruciating getting through some parts were and how awful the majority of the characters are, the premise and technical detail certainly hold up. I wouldn't say they are bad books or I regret reading them.
But it certainly conflicts with my impression of Baen being the publisher of "based and redpilled" books I got from this thread.

A lot of their authors may be right wingers but Baen is truly based because they don't seem to care about their authors' politics. They have defended Mercedes Lackey from social media mobs before despite her shittalking Jim Baen ages ago, and she's a loopy leftie too