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Worth considering the wide variations among genres. The potential readership in (say) romance or mystery is huge, though of course the competition for readers is also significant given the number of writers working in those genres. On the other hand, the potential readership for alternate history as a genre is probably a couple of orders of magnitude lower.Her comment about the money involved always brings me back to my firsthand advice for commercial writers: Treat it as a sure financial liability instead of a possible asset.
Good to see someone who understands that "punk" doesn't mean "cranked up to eleven" as many people assume, but involves struggle against the established order. I'd be more fond of steampunk is it had more stories of marginalized individuals fighting back, instead of just Victoriana with weird tech.For me, a big part of steampunk goes back to the "punk" roots wherein oppressed peoples rise up against the status quo, so outsiders are quite often a part of the genre. And if you look at the Victorian era on the whole, there were plenty of people who were oppressed, who suffered under horrid conditions, and who had reason to want things to change.
Worth considering the wide variations among genres. The potential readership in (say) romance or mystery is huge, though of course the competition for readers is also significant given the number of writers working in those genres. On the other hand, the potential readership for alternate history as a genre is probably a couple of orders of magnitude lower.
(Literary fiction also apparently sells fine, which is not the way genre fandom think it goes)
Long form literary fiction sells fine to the right market. Short form probably does for big name authors as well (not sure). Though literary journals for short fiction have an annoying habit of expecting people to pay to submit stories, which ensures that I don't submit any of my short fiction to literary journals except for the rarer ones who don't charge.Doesn't surprise me. This is all speculation, but I think literary fiction works a "luxury product" that can't be as easily replaced by visual media as genre fiction can. Less sympathetically, it's a lot easier to hype, and therefore sell to people with deeper pockets.
For a certain subset of the educated elite, literary fiction is a form of conspicuous consumption, sometimes to the point they don't actually read it.Doesn't surprise me. This is all speculation, but I think literary fiction works a "luxury product" that can't be as easily replaced by visual media as genre fiction can. Less sympathetically, it's a lot easier to hype, and therefore sell to people with deeper pockets.
It's not conspicuous consumption because of the price, but because of the perceived status is gives. All the smart people read literary fiction, and so by owning works of literary fiction you're demonstrating that you're smart and cultured.Literary fiction books don't cost more than genre though and can get sold in the same stores, are the upper-middle-class really going to go "wow, you bought Milkman from Waterstones"?
It's not conspicuous consumption because of the price, but because of the perceived status is gives. All the smart people read literary fiction, and so by owning works of literary fiction you're demonstrating that you're smart and cultured.
Sometimes books go on bookshelves just to Be Seen. Reading them is entirely optional.It's not conspicuous consumption because of the price, but because of the perceived status is gives. All the smart people read literary fiction, and so by owning works of literary fiction you're demonstrating that you're smart and cultured.
It's a fine art.Sometimes books go on bookshelves just to Be Seen. Reading them is entirely optional.