Do any of you pay $200 to go buy books? Is this failure really a surprise?
(www.newsweek.com)
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Judging from videos and pictures of the event, 90% of the authors appear to be women. That seems... a mildly unbalanced ratio, to say the least.
Men aren't writing books anymore, or at least not getting them published. The literary industry is deeply unhealthy from what little I've heard.
I can guarantee you its not that men aren't writing, its that publishing companies are giving them the same DEI blockade as every other industry.
Most of them aren't trying to buy a book to sell because its a good book. They are trying to buy an author to sell a story about you in which the book is just a secondary thought. Its why like every third book now is a memoir or biography.
This guy understands 21st century marketing
The drama even includes goodreads if you go back far enough.
Women and PoC. Then they get very confused by complete lack of book sales.
There's a huge amount of blatant sexism against straight white male authors, and they basically aren't allowed to exist if they didn't already get established at least a couple decades ago. They don't win awards, they rarely get published, they don't get scholarships, they don't get featured on lists that drive sales, and that all goes double if they dare to write a book about a straight white male. The ratios are worse than 10:1. Someone here linked this a while back and I saved it.
Which is why you're more likely to find worthwhile fiction on royal road and the like than published on paper.
Gonna go out on a limb and guess that this is another case of straight White men being the uncontested best at a thing and a subsequent social engineering campaign design to depose them from their rightfully earned throne.
There's a vicious cycle of men don't read as many fiction books, male authors don't write as many fiction books, demographic is female dominant, more women write books because of the larger female audience, fewer men read fiction...
At least if it was that ratio at a manga convention, I might just be able to get some REALLY TWISTED and sick but fun reads.
This is probably women writing with ZERO meritocracy so don't blame people bailing.
This post reminds me of a novel I tried a loooong time ago titled "Woman who Rides like a Man" and basically all the dialogue (in the short bit before I dropped it) was "OMG I can't believe you do these things that men do even though you are not a man!"
And by comparison in a meritocratic, competitive industry with no hand holding, one of my favourite works, Fullmetal Alchemist was written by female author Hiromu Arakawa.
It's almost like good writing is good writing regardless of who does it... But the west would rather push leftist slop
The only way to sell books as a male author is to self publish, it's been years since any major publisher actually picked up a white male author.
Who's brilliant idea was it to hold a book event in Baltimore, of all places?
Well, considering black people largely avoid books and learning, it's actually probably safer in there than it is on the street just outside
True, once they're inside. It's getting to and from the venue that's the trick.
Its not even the right time of year. Book fairs are usually free at schools. With discounted books.
If I were to assume all the politics and woke were a total non factor at whatever event, spending $200 to go to a black tie book fair is a huge hell no. Who the hell is their audience?
No one. Obviously. I love books, and I would have to have extra extra money to even think of paying to go pay for books.
I might would cough up $10 or $20 bucks to cover venue costs for a big book sale or something. I used to go to something like this as a teenager, it wasn't just books but there were tons of cheap used books of all kinds. I think it was $5 to get in or something. Something like that fancy book gala is a no-go.
I've gone to either big company or antique mall with my book buying anyway. Every little independent bookstore I've been in probably in the whole of America since 2020 would be the ones to prominently display something like a children's book called "Little Lisa plays with her Big Dick" I really can't recall a single one that wasn't beyond woke.
Yes, I agree that is a realistic price. I really thought everyone switched to the print to order method. I was watching a podcast, and they mentioned the book they were discussing was on gofundme, and maybe they would do a second run.
Well, I mean, Comiket....
But this sure as hell ain't Comiket.
These are new books that haven't been read. Not books I already love, and want to meet the author. This whole event sounds like it should have been done free at the library to me.
Comiket isn't for books you've already read either. It's for fan works that were in limited supply. I was just reading Genshiken and the chapter they have on Comiket is pretty good.
Ty
I love the part where the 5 landwhales posted a video of themselves lumbering down a hallway in cheap looking 2nd hand prom dresses, back to back with the empty warehouse footage at the event.
They were probably thinking the comparison looked like their classiness was let down by the event, not realising that their entire state of being just looks like an even bigger letdown to the human race.
At least it wasn't a crying video.
I may if GRRM was attending and I could tell his fat ass to finish his fucking books
Never gonna happen, but we may get a gay/tranny filled Brandon Sanderson authored Winds of Winter.
It's sad that we have to worry about Sanderson writing about that shit. What happened to our shy little Mormon
He's basically a redditor. He's spent way too much time interacting with that "community" over the years. It has to have colored his work.
Wind and Truth sucked.
But do you really want him to, at this point?
Yes, but at this point it might be more inertia than passion.
Yes, because I expect it will be bad and I want to laugh at how bad.
Here's more info.
https://www.distractify.com/p/million-lives-book-festival-controversy