Book Tour for Witchslayer’s Scion to take place April 25 – May 12. If you want to participate, go sign up. It can be a review, an article, or just feature the book. I’ll post again when the tour is live.
Giveaway ends March 25, 2022.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter Giveaway
Giveaway for Dreams of Mariposa is scheduled to run on Goodreads from March 11-25. It’s also Giveaways Month on Goodreads, so maybe check it out and see if there’s another giveaway you can enter.
Latest “scandal” going around in the Wonderful (?) World of Writing has people complaining that best-selling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has raised millions of dollars on a kickstarter. Despite being incredibly prolific and consistent, he’s somehow written another series and he wants to self-publish it. The money was raised in a very short amount of time, and somehow, this equates to White Privilege. I was sort of paying attention to it in real time, as I follow a bunch of Book Recommendation sites and book fan sites.
There’s lots to find online; here’s an article.
Imma be real with you; I’ve only read the first two books in his Stormlight Archives, and I wanted to familiarize myself with his style because Sanderson finished Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan passed away. Some of my friends said they couldn’t finish the series once Sanderson took over, and I get it. I’m actually fine with the change, but I knew Jordan died before he finished his series so I knew what I was signing up for.
I also understand the complaints, however I think it’s of the author not being diverse as opposed to the fiction itself ignores the author’s body of work. But let’s look at the real issue: Sanderson probably does quite well for himself financially, as opposed to the majority of writers who are not quite comfortable, even if they’re in what’s called the midlist. Even more are the people who are trying to break in, or who have had some success signing contracts, but are frustrated that they’ve never ‘made it’.
It’s frustrating when you see the same people flourish when you can only seem to get so far. You can call it what you want, and I too was kind of stupid in terms of believing that I ‘just had to get my work out there’. I’ll come across as jaded if I start grumbling about how unfair it is and that yes, people should read more books and not all the same ones all the time. As said, I belong to a few different book recommendation sites, and it’s frustrating when you see the same popular authors again and again and again. I don’t know about you, but unless I have a specific question about a hallmark work, I don’t need to be told that it exists. An example of this, would be suggesting The Lord of the Rings for fantasy. If you know anything about the genre, you likely have at least heard of this title. Asking a question – is it appropriate for say, a 12 year old to read, is a different question entirely.
The short answer, is that I’ll go to Bison General or The Daily Grind as opposed to Starbucks, I still like chain restaurants, watch common movies and I like to use references to books and movies the majority of people are aware of, as opposed to referring to more obscure titles and examples. I try to shop local and I begrudgingly use Amazon, but at the end of a book tour, I’ve yet to see anyone request a Kobo giftcard over an Amazon one after a book tour.
The last two years have been challenging because I haven’t really done shows with people, instead requesting books from the library (ebooks because the physical buildings are often closed). You know, like Wheel of Time and other authors who are best sellers, in spite of requesting books from smaller authors and presses. Even ones who aren’t as popular but still successful by any standard, I tend to want to go support them.
But instead of being mad that Sanderson is doing well, and boo hoo nobody cares about something I wrote, I’m stoked that he’s legitimizing self-publishing. It’s not the same way as getting excited about a title getting a poor adaptation and therefore getting people interested in reading the books. He’s not going through a publisher intentionally, and if anyone can probably do some commanding, it’s probably someone like him. The operational aspects of what he’s attempting is daunting, and he might be locked out by the gatekeepers in the system.
But if you disagree with me, that’s cool. Read and review and promote the smaller and indie authors and publishers. Believe me, we appreciate it, even if it’s not a fawning review.
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