Trends and Tropes and Trad, Oh My!
Trends and Tropes and Trad, Oh My!
Common traditionally published stories and the copy cats that echo them.
You've read it before... the tall, hunky hot dude... he's so tough and rugged, and only has eyes for her—the bland, empty shell heroine so adored because she’s "quirky" and SMOL! They ride dragons, or wait, they train dragons, or maybe they're friends with the dragons... maybe they marry dragons?
Or better yet, the hot-tempered Fae falls in love with a human, and he's hot because he's tall and dark and a moody Alpha who transforms into a billionaire mafia werewolf. Don't forget the wild, sweaty bedroom exercises that go into excruciating detail about burying hilts or something. Ahem, this stack is relatively family friendly, so adult imaginations are critical here…
“Lord Anderly, the ebony woodland creature, doth plunge thine manly sword to the hilteth within thy Lady’s ruby ring.” ~Shakespeare, maybe.
I'm only spitting out what I hear from other book tubers, as I personally have never read any of these things. Typically I read horror, and if any of these elements are in there, it's not your creepy mother's type of horror story. I do, however partake in the fantasy genre, but I've been staying away as of late due to the sheer amount of schlock being pumped out into bookstores by traditional publishers because they know it will sell.
Yes, Liz, tropes are tropes for a reason. Who am I to begrudge anyone of their fairy smut? Where I have a problem, is when legitimately good stories languish in the black shadow of these literary titans dominating bookshelves because traditional publishers are only interested in what *sells*. I understand this to a point, but here’s a message to the big five (and the smaller thousands): dedicated readers are getting bored.
Unfortunately their voices aren’t loud enough to counter BookTok.
I had an interesting experience not long ago. I just read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and I was gobsmacked when I found out she was only 18 when she wrote that. I’m in my… 30s… yeah, my 30s, and I would struggle to write like that. Are we dumbing down? Encouraging children and teens to read is great—reading is a style of devouring media as an intellectual pursuit, which should, in theory, be a good thing. I honestly don’t know where we went wrong. The current stories people gobble up don’t enrich the mind. In fact, they do the opposite.
During my pre-order campaigning for Reaper’s Gamble, I sent a petition to Facebook for advanced readers and I got hardly a response. However, if I were to say, advertise the aforementioned billionaire mafia werewolf erotica, all hands would shoot up in the air clamoring to get their nighttime fix, engaging literary finery so exquisite as to set the knees to trembling.
(family friendly).
It reminds me of an interesting clip that Asmongold from YoutTube shared recently that illustrates the slow poison festering upon the minds of the ladies:
Really, Barnes and Noble? Et tu, B&N? What a disappointment.
I have good news. You don’t have to shop there. You don’t have to read any of that. Choice was a God-given blessing and there are so many indie authors that write legitimately good stuff.
If you don't fit in this mold and would like unique takes on genres, I humbly raise my hand and request that we go riding off into the sunset together. If you’re not subscribed to my newsletter hosted here on Substack, I encourage you to sign up—I always have engaging stories by other indie authors highlighted in my PromoStack and AuthorStack sections. Most of the time, you can get these for free for signing up for their newsletter, so it’s a pretty good deal!
I’m decent at filtering who I feature in my newsletter, and usually request clean works. Although, I apologize in advance if Lord Anderly, the virile fairy elf, finds his way onto my carefully curated lists.
I just wanted to share this review, because I loved it. It was written by Beautiful Chaos Reviews, and you can see her Goodreads by clicking on her name.
If you’re interested in subscribing, I have a free tier and a very cheap paid tier where I share short stories in fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. I also plan on doing giveaways in the future, as well as offer advance copies to select subscribers. Don't get me wrong, my work isn't scrubbed and bleached clean. I do have realistic portrayals of the human condition that may involve some violence. I do promise you that my stories are a good time, and twisted fun reads not buried under layers of purple prose.
That sentence was hard for me to write. See my post on Impostor Syndrome.
That’s all for now! XOXO
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