What's New?
You know that at some point Marvel Studios is going to bring back Hydra.
They have to. They keep running out of ideas. That’s why they keep bringing back Thanos. And turning back to “magic” instead of science and technology.
But… Who am I to complain? If you’ve been reading me I haven’t had a really new idea since 2015, right?
But who has? And why should they?
Has Nature had any new ideas lately? What is the point of “NEW”?
If you love genre fiction, as so many readers do, you don’t actually want anything NEW, do you? You’ve been trained to want the same thing over and over. And the market has been designed to deliver it to you. Authors have been taught—books are written; classes and workshops designed exclusively for the purpose—to specifically deliver what you want in the particular genre AND sub-genre you love to read...AND BUY. Formulas are created around classic “beats” so that you can consciously or unconsciously predict what is going to happen next and have those expectations met.
Success. Predictability. Everything falling into neatly predetermined boxes.
So be it. This is our system and it has worked this way, in essence, since the history of storytelling began.
Except… Until the birth of the modern marketplace.
Perhaps you love Cozy Mysteries. There’s a box for you. Or Historical Romance. There’s a box. Spy Thriller? You’ve got a box.
But what if a writer comes along who fills all those boxes at once? Is there a box for her?
No.
The market doesn’t care if her work is good or bad. Only if there’s a box for her. No box? No sale.
You will never get to see her book. Never know what’s there.
Is she doing something new? Perhaps. You’ll never know. The marketplace doesn’t particularly care for new.
The market likes to label something as “NEW” even when it isn’t really “NEW” just to drum up excitement for sales. Then they bury what might actually be NEW by keeping it from coming to the surface.
Not because they don’t want anyone to see it. Because they don’t think anyone wants to see it.
They don’t’ believe it will sell.
They truly believe that only the OLD will sell. Tried and true, as the saying goes. What sold well yesterday will sell well tomorrow. So they keep selling it.
Often they will sell something quite—sorry—bad as if it were still marketable simply because it fits in the right box. Success! Doing this while KNOWINGLY—acknowledging it in writing—turning down far better material simply because they don’t believe it to be marketable.
Fortunately, authors have self-publishing available.
But even the world of self-publishing is dominated by the BOX mentality of the market. So readers are still guided directly and indirectly towards what is deemed “marketable” in the end.
They have to. They keep running out of ideas. That’s why they keep bringing back Thanos. And turning back to “magic” instead of science and technology.
But… Who am I to complain? If you’ve been reading me I haven’t had a really new idea since 2015, right?
But who has? And why should they?
Has Nature had any new ideas lately? What is the point of “NEW”?
If you love genre fiction, as so many readers do, you don’t actually want anything NEW, do you? You’ve been trained to want the same thing over and over. And the market has been designed to deliver it to you. Authors have been taught—books are written; classes and workshops designed exclusively for the purpose—to specifically deliver what you want in the particular genre AND sub-genre you love to read...AND BUY. Formulas are created around classic “beats” so that you can consciously or unconsciously predict what is going to happen next and have those expectations met.
Success. Predictability. Everything falling into neatly predetermined boxes.
So be it. This is our system and it has worked this way, in essence, since the history of storytelling began.
Except… Until the birth of the modern marketplace.
Perhaps you love Cozy Mysteries. There’s a box for you. Or Historical Romance. There’s a box. Spy Thriller? You’ve got a box.
But what if a writer comes along who fills all those boxes at once? Is there a box for her?
No.
The market doesn’t care if her work is good or bad. Only if there’s a box for her. No box? No sale.
You will never get to see her book. Never know what’s there.
Is she doing something new? Perhaps. You’ll never know. The marketplace doesn’t particularly care for new.
The market likes to label something as “NEW” even when it isn’t really “NEW” just to drum up excitement for sales. Then they bury what might actually be NEW by keeping it from coming to the surface.
Not because they don’t want anyone to see it. Because they don’t think anyone wants to see it.
They don’t’ believe it will sell.
They truly believe that only the OLD will sell. Tried and true, as the saying goes. What sold well yesterday will sell well tomorrow. So they keep selling it.
Often they will sell something quite—sorry—bad as if it were still marketable simply because it fits in the right box. Success! Doing this while KNOWINGLY—acknowledging it in writing—turning down far better material simply because they don’t believe it to be marketable.
Fortunately, authors have self-publishing available.
But even the world of self-publishing is dominated by the BOX mentality of the market. So readers are still guided directly and indirectly towards what is deemed “marketable” in the end.
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