Friday, March 2, 2018

The Next Big Thing?

The publishing world is a crazy place. We're always chasing after the latest and greatest trend. And by "we", I mean indies are just as guilty as trad pubs. By chasing trends and tropes and the latest fashionable thing, we're not truly creating something new.

In fact, my friend Jo asked me a (primarily rhetorical) question yesterday, "What was the last BIG book that wasn't a sequel or part of a series?"

The Girl on the Train, but even then, I had to look up when it was published. 2015.

Yep, the last big new thing in books was in 2015. Even then, The Girl on the Train didn't start the domestic thriller trend. That honor(?) goes to Gillian Flynn's Gone, Girl (2012).

So now, everyone's jumping into the domestic thriller with unreliable narrator subgenre, even though that ship has sailed. It's no different than the people still pumping out adult coloring books (that's SO 2016) or urban fantasy which has been run into the freaking ground since Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air.

So if we're not retreading the tires in the search for the almighty dollar (light-hearted witch stories a la Charmed, anyone?), what the hell are we doing, fellow writers?

Do we continue to chase our past success? (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from 2016)

Do we chase the latest new trend? (The market saturation of BDSM after E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Gray went into orbit pretty much ruined the income for folks already there when all the newbs jumped in the pool. With some really bad stories and bad writing, by the way.)

Or do you try to find a quiet niche and carve your own path?

Being yourself is hard, whether it's in real life or as an author. But I'm watching too many people who find some initial success in one subgenre flit from genre to genre, chasing the short-term dollar. They won't take time to build their brand or build the trust of their readers. They write maybe one or two books in a promised series, then give up when they don't become instant millionaires.

In the meantime, the readers are losing faith in us. We promise them entertainment. A refuge from a tough world with characters they fall in love with, then we stab our readers in the back by not finishing the story. We don't give the readers any resolution. They get enough of that shit in real life. So why read us if our books, or lack thereof, are as disappointing as whatever hardship they may be going through right now?

Ironically, I got my first WTF! e-mail from a reader this morning over the ending of A Modicum of Truth, which yes, ends on a cliffhanger. But I also made a promise when I added the first chapter of A Matter of Death to the end. A promise the story WILL be finished. Maybe not right this second, but it will be finished.

And the good guys will win.

Because we all need the good guys to win once in a while even if it's only between the covers of a book.

4 comments:

  1. *Standing Ovation*

    Yes.

    Please.

    Bring back the good guys.

    And please... pleeeeease... let them win.

    Let us escape into something that marked our soul and leaved brilliant blue glitter sparkles of hope that carry us through into tomorrow with bright eyes...

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    Replies
    1. My Princess Diana doll in her blue dress and sword is standing over my computer. She'll make sure there's plenty of glitter and hope!

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    2. *Grins*

      I'm glad for that! (Though DO wish I had checked my post for errors before I clicked publish...lol)

      I do think that this (the abandonment issue) is why so may readers wait for a certain number of books to be published in a series. I know I do it. I do it with tv shows that look like I'll adore them, too. Even, Especially.
      I don't want to invest into anything that will be ripped away and leave me powerless with unanswered questions. With tv shows, its almost trope level that the shows I would love the best are cancelled within a season. There are arguments to be made, of course, that bu not watching live I'm part of the reason they were cancelled - but with the Netflix effect on media releases, this is less an issue.

      Books are the same, only more richly drawn. To be abandoned in the middle of the story the same way feels worse. At least with Hollywood, you have some nameless, faceless bureaucracy to blame. With books...now that there are so many Indie published and not wrestled towards death by Big Publishing... we've only got the writer left to look to. And not one of us wants to label the writer as the "bad guy".
      Writers are our Rockstars.
      I have a writer I have waited on for (And I just looked it up) twenty years. I know this writer is familiar with E-bub because the writer offers their books on their website this way, and has for several years. The writer has done so with their most popular series and all of its books including an additional short story and novella in the same universe - so it is highly likely that they have the legal right to work with their worlds.
      But they don't. Even now, people are on the site asking after stories promised that we've been waiting on for so very very long.
      And, as you see...I'm still waiting. STILL hoping that, someday, I'll finally have what was promised.

      But now, I also wait for several books in a series and check the last publish date = just in case.

      It doesn't suprise me at all when I see different websites and authors talk about a certain number in a series being the break-through number. Its an indication that the audience may have been watching you for awhile... waiting to see if you can be trusted with our hearts.
      So write what you love. Finish the story.We readers are here to join you on your adventure and we want to do so with eagerness and passion.
      So...don't abandon ship in the middle of the ride - and make sure the sights you promised, are seen.
      Because we're patient... willing to watch the line for a long time before joining the queue - then longer waiting for our turn.
      But waiting on the rocks in the river to see if you'll come back for us...
      Well...we're good at waiting...and surely...surely they'll come back?

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