superborb

chestnut_pod prompted: Thoughts/opinions/knowledge on The Publishing Industry. (/Industries.) Whatever that looks like -- ebook pricing? abominable translation practices? fact-checking in non-fic? changes in YA style over the last 20 years? Chinese specific as received in the Anglosphere? literally anything

I thought a bit, and I don't have any entire post length thoughts, but I DO have three bullet point thoughts.

1. Isn't the entire phenomenon of webnovels so interesting? (I'm only passingly familiar with the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese varieties.) You could argue they draw influence from the serial novel, but it's also a response to a niche for lighter fare (e.g. cell phone novels) opened up by the possibility of micro-transactions funding authors. English webnovels don't have the same market share; Kindle Vella does not seem to be super popular AFAICT. Is it the normalizing of sending small amounts of money? (But we do have ko-fis and Patreons?) Or is it something about how readers in English envision themselves? Less of a taste for a bazillion word length novels? The niche being filled with easily discoverable fanfic already?

2. I was never quite sure what the distinction between YA and MG (middle grade) was, and I kind of fell into a reflex of thinking that if I liked a book intended for a teen, it must be MG. Of course formally, MG is for a younger audience than YA, but the way that these categories have kind of solidified into particular tropes is so odd. Why did that happen? Is it because of the 'one book sells well, then everyone follows' phenomenon of a genre in WAY too close contact? Is it the genre-ification, where before books might be more nebulously for children or teens? (Or am I just too old now--)

3. I don't like that authors have to do all this marketing on twitter and can't help but feel that it's a result of not enough support from the publishers. (See also: not enough editorial support from publishers, especially for debut authors.) I honestly typically want a BIG separation between the author and the work, so I can evaluate the work on its strengths only. Exceptions exist, but mostly when there are other works to read in conversation with that work. Of course, I can find reading author blogs fun and interesting, and obviously, I have friends who are authors, but the overall balance has tilted too far into requiring authors to be influencers IMO.

Back to masterlist