SO how can we bring in new readers to SFF? By telling adventures. By making stories. Likable protagonists. Stuff that captures the minds of young boys. Because a good amount of stuff is auto-tuned to women and girls already.
I feel like men are the lost reader base when it comes to Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Most kids find more in common with manga and light novels than western comics and fiction. Because those stories still remember to not subvert the wheel but rather build on it.
The rot in this one is very wide. And deep. Disturbing.
Not only does Delany have this content in Hogg, its in Dhalgren too. College forced me to read the latter but when I got to all the graphic sex. Esp involving a kid character, That thing got thrown out. Plus I dropped that class. Made up the credits in the summer.
Didn't
even donate it or anything, right into the trash it went. Maybe it
degraded enough over time to provide as useful compost. This is far too
fractured for prose.
Look at the opening. Doesn't interest me at all. It feels far too dream like and Stream of Consciousness.
My blunt opinion: He was put on a pedestal because he was a black gay man who also happened to write things. Horrid things in my POV. Considering how many people we label as classics in SFF, a disturbing number of them have pedo tendencies. I really hope they aren't making his books the standard in college. Please god no.
Love him or hate him, Vox was all over this rot from the start:
With all the skeletons coming out now, even from Scalzi:
Makes you wonder how much more rot is at the heart of this garbage pile.
I don't find Delany engaging at all. Even before all of this came out on my radar. His prose is disjointed and takes forever to go anywhere. No one is gonna be able to convince me otherwise. Delany is a pedo. 100%.
But Ill put up more links, even from those who disagree/hate, or at the very least don't support him. So you can get more POVs on this:
A hot, stinking,
dumpster fire. And most days I don’t know if the legionnaires are
putting out the flames, or fanning them into an inferno.
A
hostile force ambushes Victory Company during a reconnaissance-in-force
deep inside enemy territory. Stranded behind enemy lines, a sergeant
must lead a band of survivors against merciless insurgents on a deadly
alien world somewhere along the galaxy’s edge. With no room for error,
the Republic’s elite fighting force must struggle to survive under siege
while waiting on a rescue that might never come. Join
Victory Company as they fight for their lives. When you think you’ve
surrounded the Legion... you’ve just made your last mistake.
****
They are coming. Find the Goliath or be destroyed.
The
chilling words are the first thing Mitchell hears after an assassin's
bullet nearly ends his life. He tries to ignore them, convinced the
voice in his head is a side-effect of his injuries
****
Like, dont plop down exposition about what your book entails. That really doesn't get me to notice. Maybe "IN media Res" part of it. Who should I care about? What are the goals or whats on the line? What does the hero or protags have to strive for.....or even what kind of genre buzzwords will reel us fishes in. Kinda how Babylon 5 lays out its opening scroll stuff. You know the generalities without getting bogged down with exposition.
The first line should feed me somehow. Get my brain hooked from the get go.
I felt like I had to hide certain things, some political povs when I was on that site. Plus it felt like books I loved never got to see the spotlight much. Within goodreads that is. Still reading the Wild Magic series to my niece because it has all the well written talking animals but unlike 11yr old me, I can see the more blatant overarching author inserting ideas nowadays.So for simplicity's sake I usually skip those so my brother's kid doesn't have to worry about that stuff for now. She's 3. Plus the usual mainstays I had while little: The Boxcart Children. The originals that is. When my nephews are old enough, they are gonna get all sorts of Appendix N stuff. And if my niece shows the same interest, more books to pass around :D
Plus I noticed Goodreads staff pretty much only paid attention to Trad Publishing. With one lucky indie or two that might pop up. If you want to compete with the indie market, start giving us even more buffets. Some old mainstays are still golden, like: Baen and even Sun Eater, along with Alien. Thing is, Baen and others have learned to embrace the changing tides. It's not something to be feared. Just something that should be considered and maybe more trad sources will find audiences that will sustain anyone below Big Fish level akin to King, Sanderson, Rowling types ect. There's an audience for everyone but we can't forget that midlisters and even niche listers are vital to a growing book reading generation.
It doesn't help that a decent chunk of the aspiring writing crowd wants to be the next big movie hit. I think some forget how the greats....are enduring. The very tropes that the Rian Johnsons and others want to subvert are the very reason why stuff like LoTR still sell like hotcakes even today. Stop writing for a mythical hollow-wood deal that will most likely not come to pass. (Imho). Some readers, like myself, actively seek the things they love, or learn to. But not all are as self motivated. I enjoy unearthing new series or books because it gives me a wonderful feeling to bring a book to the light and show everyone how much fun it is.
In fact, even reddit book groups don't really help me too much. Interestingly enough, the most effective thing I've see is on Amazon's "Readers also Liked" these writers sidebar.
Or blogs. Dear god, I have found so much interesting stuff via blog. So glad I was convinced to start one. Might be looking into Discord Book Groups at some point. See if there's something in that arena.
But as far as reddit goes, stuff gets buried, along with Goodreads. So many books are listed but for a reader like myself, with so much there, what do I focus on? Since the big things that get most of the screen time on those sites don't interest me much.
Maybe readers should start making more reading clubs. Filled with like minded genre enthusiasts. To help us network with more things we like. Its an idea. Maybe blogs can assist with that endeavor. For now its back to more writing and getting my superhero reviewing on.
You best believe I'm not gotta forget Mr. C.J. Hehehehe!
Ill get to some more indie blowouts once I get this superhero splash blowout done. Its nearly there. I just love to babble my 2 cents ever so often. Weeee!
If you like the gritty, understated superheroes in Netflix's Jessica
Jones and the raw urban fantasy of Veronica Roth, you'll get sucked
into USA Today Bestselling Author Emerald Dodge's Battlecry!
So if you love gritty reality, then this series will probably be right up your alleyway.
The Law Offices of Winters & Franklin, where the only thing more dangerous than a superhero is his attorney.
Yea, don't really know what to make of this series but I am putting it here mainly because my basic setup/criteria for actual superhero stuff involves classic capes and spandex. Usually.
Feels like adding blurbs about what your series is with much more very recognizable things is a good idea. Def. giving me ideas when my series launches. Plus I can see why the genre is as mixed up as it is currently on the selling lists.
I do appreciate when writers will put in certain descriptions for their series: It doesn't start out as Harem, but it eventually developed to harem.
WARNING: This
novel contains profanity, open relationships and ass-kicking superhero
action. If you’re looking for reasons to be offended by profanity, open
relationships or ass-kicking superhero action, this novel might not be
for you. (Book 4's addon) Every hero has a beginning.
So does every villain.
Titan,
the world’s greatest superhero, has been murdered by his longtime
archenemy Lord Borealis. And from the ashes rises a new generation.
Gifted
with powers on the night of Titan’s death, fifteen-year-old Hugo awakes
to the strange world of superheroes. A world he isn’t prepared for.
But with godlike powers and a history of tragedy, will Hugo become a guardian of justice…or agent of chaos?
Choose your side in Age of Heroes, the first book of The Pantheon Saga superhero series. Start reading today.
Fantasy! I have neglected you, time to rectify that. Ill see what kind of assortment I can pull up for reading fun.(Yea, there's a big hitter or two in here, IE not indie but I figured it would help people ID some indies doing some marvelous things in conjunction with the bigger fish.)
Fantasy with Bite:
Linked to the Past/Influenced By It/Progenitors:
I know there is more out there but one has to build up the bases. Esp. in Sword and Sorc. I've read many of the mainstays like LoTR, Green Rider, Princess Bride, Sword of Truth, but I know I should dig deeper. Find more of the First Ones of Fantasy. More excuses to dive into more books. A good day indeed.
Why is it that harem, rev. harem, urban fantasy and the anti-hero, villain PoV dominate Superhero Prose genre/tag on Amazon. Are people much more in love with those aspects then what I grew up with watching Superman: TAS or even Power Rangers.
The only superhero series that I enjoy that is breaking the top 100, filled with all the tropes I wish to see from is:
My main reason for loving Action Figures:
A Run Down of the Whole thing. The tone is generally lighter than a lot of YA books out there now.
While there is drama and conflict, and some later stories deal with
darker issues, I try to keep the series fun, upbeat, and optimistic.
A very simple statement but accurate to what I what nowadays.
As for the Amazon Tag Issue:
Urban Paranormal gets thrown in because Magic Powers
Harems get thrown in because the paint on the surface is Astro City meets Tenchi Muyo, with some of these books. Or the Anita setup of many guys vs one lady.
If fact, if there is a super soldier premise, it gets thrown into the Superhero tag by default, even if its more akin to military sci fi. OR a Ghost in the Shell type.
Cyberpunk books get thrown in because it can enhance the user to a superhero aspect.
Writing to market has flooded the underfed genre tags with things that don't directly reflect that genre. I get wanting to make writing full time. I do but its a double edged sword. We readers have a very hard time finding what we want because its buried under all the competition to get an orange tag.
Some writers do pay for the extra sponsorship to get the extra airtime but its for the wrong genre. This makes it harder to find things you are really looking for. Could it also be mis-tagging on the writer's part? Sure. But its a hurdle nonetheless.
LIT RPG often gets thrown in there because you are taking on a different Identity. Or the game gives you Saints Row 4 level virtual Powers. But to me, Lit RPG should be its own genre onto itself.
What also might contribute, a fair amount of indies don't put the books into a series tab on amazon. Makes it harder to see if you have a sequel.
If it has demi-gods like the Percy Jackson series, it usually gets shoved in also. Even if that world has no traditional in spandex/capes setups.
When it comes to movies, Marvel style does dominate, The Boys type of shows are everywhere. Grim-dark seems to be the top contender. Are people really that enamored of the World going to Shit? We see all that crap on the news because that's what media wants us to latch onto. Get addicted to the drama of "HUMANITY SUCKS!"
Wonder if most of this can be tracked back to patient zero: Watchmen.At least on the superhero side.Things like Game of Thrones probably made grim status more popular then Black Company ever did. Even though I think Black Company is much muuuuuuuuuch better written.
While I was making this entry, I found a whole other series, what else can a writer do in order to pinpoint their reading base and hook them in?
Some of the basics I can think of:
Have a cover relevant to what your book is about. Not just a generic cover.I think that's why so many of these out of genre books are catching people's eyes too.
Don't take forever like GRRM to release books. Pre-write all that you can first. Then release your series in great swaths. So us readers can see you are dedicated to finishing the story before we die. Or you die. That's what's got people worried about Martin I think.
If you are doing writing as a job to get living expenses, try to balance passion with what you are interested in, It shows if you are phoning it in.
You are a specialist with a different genre all together and this series would have been much more interesting without the LIT RPG forced aspects:
Series Bloat:
Mr. Weber and Mr. Anderle are pretty guilty of this. GRRM too. IMHO.
Sometimes less is more. Eventually a story has to reach a natural stop point. By no means does this say, "OH! Don't make side stories." That's what anthologies or side series are for. But sometimes I feel when something hits it big, the temptation to milk it beyond its ability does shine through.
So far, I believe Galaxy's Edge and Aeon 14, have jumped away from this pitfall. Esp since they are open to co-writers to help develop other aspects of that universe. Plus, since people wanted to see where Honor Harrington ended up, the side series books kinda got in the way for a while.
So I've decided with my books, Ill finish the main sequence first then work on side stories. Because the setting I made is pretty robust. In my biased opinion. :P
A fair amount of the Harem stuff seems to have series bloat. Some go on for 7-12 books when they really only need 3-5 or so. Hmmm, what was patient zero for this, my best guess:
This series here:
What ends up making these books more popular? Is the reader base really that big or under fed? To the point that there's a very real over-saturation.
Yea, Harem and Lit RPG really do need their own Overall Encompassing Genre Tag. I guess it hasn't happened because the stuff is everywhere. In Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Mil Sci fi, Space Opera, Post Apoc, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, since you can basically make it "MC lost in a video-game and that game can have any of these settings."
Since so much genre blending is happening, maybe it would be better to state what the primary genre is for the book.
What also might play into harem stuff: (My opinion)
Bioware Syndrome. IE: Getting attached to more then one LI for a series. But this also occurs in shows, comics, books, other games.
Who will the Protag choose.
A way to make more drama happen.
Tension between characters is accentuated. Not only with the MC but with the whole cast.
What the reader is ultimately jonesing for.
So this is why he's not on amazon. Trademark wars. Oh boy. It's not like I'm gonna go in and say I own Superhero Space Opera. Its a term to describe the main themes. Jesus. He really went whole hog on his website too, plastering the book covers over everything.
I think Nick Cole and Anspach have a good idea going, to fund stuff while writing in-between seasons. But that requires consideration and knowing your core fan base.
Get started here. Join the Legion today!
So much to learn, I'm glad the silver lining of DMR books gave me the idea to start this blog. Its a good way to Marshall one's thoughts. But back to Superhero Prose for a bit. I guess part of it is the actual established fanbase for these kinds of books.
Most of us are probably:
In our late 20s or older. Most are likely 35+
Already a part of a smaller subset of fans that love comic books but also love books.
Most seem to prefer the grit of old style Marvel over old style DC when it comes to the prose format. So the pie is already sliced thin.
It doesn't help that most of the superhero prose writers only finish one book or two. Then they leave the readers hanging. I love to buy out 4-5 books in a series in one go if I can.
Most of the super hero prose books that hit over 40,000 copies or more have a very dystopic bent to them. Which seems to be the trend. Is there a way to change this trend? To go against the river.
Some only do anthologies. So they never get to have expansive world building.
This is why I try my hardest to unearth what series I can. The algorithm can only do so much.
Guess this kinda showcases while people will love to go see things like the Incredibles it wont nessessarily translate to more comic or book sales. A pity. I want more capes. Just like Honor said, "Let's be about it."
So from the looks of it, the current trend pretty much indicates that most desire the Punisher over Superman. Maybe even if its a little thing, with enough effort maybe Optimism can win out again. Because that's what Superman does. Hope is eternal.
Even if my series only sells say....300 copies, I'd still consider that a success. Because I love superheros and I want to share that with people. I might have to Clark Kent at my regular job for quite a while but I can always say without any hesitation, I am Superman levels of exited about writing this series.
More Links to things I love: (I will always promote New Olympus Saga, always!)
Why yes, some things can be defined by character interactions! World Building and Random Acts of Romance. :P Cause sometimes that does pull me in. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuun! I will also put up some important boy recommendations too. Filled with adventure and other things! And pointy sticks!
I really do think hormones do play a role in book habits. Along with environmental factors. And so, here be the Girly Side. Which does have more trad stuff in it. Hmmmmmm. Funny how that works. :P
Most of these have been ongoing since 2000 or even since the 90s. It's what I mostly picked on my own.
Then, as counter point, the stuff that dad either recommended or guy buddies did. Not to say these books can't go across gender lines but it kinda showcases what each person prioritizes.
Of course, this is all in good fun. *wink*
I really do believe men and women look for different things in books. We may cross pollinate on certain aspects but on some level, we connect with different things initially then soak in the rest of a book.
The Hero/Heroine goes through the Crucible and comes out wiser but fundamentally unchanged at the core of self. IE: A fundamentally good person who learns but doesn't change to suit the world but rather changes that world for the better.
Team/Side Characters to root for.
Looks like the Antagonist has all the Cards but the Heroes will get a big damned Captain Sheridan Moment.
Hardly any Recognizable "Current Year" politics. IE: R vs D, ect.
An Escape from the Mundane
If it has a Cosmic factor, all the better.
If its more realistic, more Astro City types please, rather then Watchmen and/or the Boys. Because that's far more Deconstruction.
What appears to be Popular or What People are writing more of:
Dystopia! THE WORLD SUCKS!
Marvel levels of Political Insertion (IE Civil War I and II) I hated this in Identity Crisis for DC too. Blarg.
Anti-Heroes
RPG Lit
Harems/Rev. Harems
Which Current Year + issues are you going to add to a series that's supposed to be about capes.
For me, these are the gold tier of superhero prose I am looking for:
I try to find things that ignore our world's politics because its everywhere. On all platforms. 24/hr news cycle. So, in the end, some series give escapism better then others. Even if its not up to my own personal preferences Ill still go through and try to find more Prose Series.
These series share something in common besides my own preferences, they are filled with characters you can root for.
Plus this gives me ideas on how I should promote my own series when it comes time to launch. Even in my own searching, when someone compares their books to Babylon 5 in a blurb, it makes me sit up and take notice.
I really need to put more in on the fantasy side of the house. Besides the usual suspects of LoTR and Black Company. So here we go.
A mix of trad and indies. Then again, of all trad pub I still get a fair amount from Baen Books.
Sometimes depending on my mood, I either gravitate towards "Overload of Magic" type fantasy, alt Earth fantasy, or what I call, "Hey this has some Conan types in it." Some low tech environments Rich backstory, a bit of bombastic action. Love Witchy Eye to bits. And the rest of these books caught my eye within the first few chapters. At this point I easily have 10-12 books in the immediate TBR bracket.
What else looks interesting? Besides the big dogs of Malazan ect. I do have to put the initial sword of truth novel in here. It can stand on its own well enough.
I have a fondness for sword and sorcery. Actually I would me remiss if I didn't also add this:
Half my dad's old army footlocker had most of the Appendix N stuff. SO why not?
And yes, I do follow and find writers to promote. I am biased. Full stop. Esp. when it comes to Superhero books. That genre is tiny enough as it is. Back to the book mines for me. And endless quest of fun.
