In so much sci fi nowadays, with its heavy dystopia bent:
- We are all alone, no one else will save us so we have to save ourselves.
- Everyone is shitty so why are we worth saving
- Paranormal Erotica posing as Post Apoc/Sci fi/Space Opera, ect. The list is endless. Some are even Dystopia ROMANCE! Pass.
- Alpha vs Everyone Love Triangles
Its stupidly easy to trip over someone wanting to be the NEXT TWILIGHT! THE NEXT DIVERGENT! THE NEXT SO ON!!!!
I can out grim dark! Blah blah blah!
Its why even though I liked the music and some other elements of the reboot BSG, it still lost its soul, what made the Original shine to my eyes. With everyone trying to be the new "Grittiest thing evar!" the overall landscape has become diluted.
Its also why I am going for a more happy go lucky cornball maneuver with my series. Not in it for the money, if I was, Id be writing (THOTS!: A SUPERNATURAL PARANORMAL ROMANCE LIT RPG HAREM FEST!) Because that's all I see in the top 100, taking up a good solid 60-70 books within every genre.
Sometimes, if I just sit and clear my mind I think:
At the end of the day, is it worth it? Every time I answer: Yes, keep going. Just because its not on the overall "BIG KICK" menu on amazon doesn't mean people don't want it.
Like I was illustrating today on the twitters, readers are looking for things to read but the output and preferences are buried under shoddy coding and those who want to barf out whatever to make some sort of money on whatever is "trending" for the moment.
So it leads to over saturation. Which in turn buries things readers want to find in endless muck of Floating Ab books. For me, this whole cycle breeds contempt towards genres that avalanche other genres out of the way. Yes, romance and sex sells. Even shitty IKEA level Erotica. Since Anita Blake is still on the shelves it proves that even trash like that lingers.
I don't think the sponsored stuff helps much because amazon keeps recommending the same 200 or so books over and over to me. OH YOU LIKE EMBER WAR! (Same list of people stuck in the pigeon hole sponsor recommendations.)
They very rarely get this right. Following writers helps inform you of new releases but doesn't help as much with finding more new writers to enjoy. Maybe more indie press needs to band together like some of the comics indie people. For the programmers out there, would it be fairly straightforward for Amazon to add more genre categories to lighten the mess?
I think I'll start making more book banners for twitter. To cycle through series I've had fun with.
My mind is so closed off to 99% of the "romance" genre because the darn thing is carpet bombing everyone else into paste. You can't go anywhere without bumping into it. PulpRev is a good start.
Lingering Questions:
- Do people really love internal navel gazing that much? The mundane?
- Is grit really that much more interesting overall?
- Is the Harem genre the Harlequin Romances for men?
- Why more dystopias upon dystopias? Is that really more interesting overall?
