Image: “We have it rich.” Washing and panning gold, Rockerville, Dak., John C. H. Grabill [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Is anything ever truly original? Have we already explored every unique avenue, theme and possibility when it comes to creative content? In art? In writing?
I believe that someone who is inherently creative will always manage to show us something new. Will demand that we look at things in a different way or engage us in a manner we never expected. Which is why I think the self-publishing movement is so important: not only does it give writers permission to take risks – those that a traditional publishing house would deem unacceptable – it also allows them to explore themes that may not be in vogue or are ‘off brand’.
Self-publishing gives writers who would otherwise have been marginalised the opportunity to be noticed. To have a voice. To be heard. Often, it is those on the fringes who have the most important and interesting things to tell us.
However, all that said, I am beginning to notice a somewhat frustrating and interesting irony: the very vehicle responsible for giving us exciting and innovative reading material is also responsible for giving us a load of same old, same old. A plethora of stories that stay well within the tracks of those that have gone before them, break no new ground whatsoever, and look like they’ve been edited in crayon by my eight-year-old. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to call this phenomenon ‘theme flood’. (Aquatic references ahoy-hoy!)
So what do I mean by this, exactly?
Well, basically that there’s an increasing deluge of stories in the erotic romance genre based around the same themes, the same types of characters, the same plot structures. To the point that I’m finding it increasingly difficult to identify books that I want to write reviews for. Why would I want to push you all towards a story you’ve already read, albeit in a slightly different guise, a billion times before? One that’s poorly written and edited at that?
I read constantly, although I’d estimate that about five percent of the books I actually consume make it onto Chintz. Quite simply, I don’t tend to write reviews for novels I don’t like. At least, not unless they really (really) tick me off in some way and I can’t contain my angst. But even that five percent has been squeezed over the past year as I struggle to find variety and diversity. One of the negatives of self-publishing, I am discovering, is its ability to push onto the market a veritable tsunami of books that regurgitate, again and again, a raft of flavour-of-the-month themes. Something starts to sell well, garners a few five-star reviews and everyone’s on the proverbial bandwagon. I get that writing is a job just like any other and that people are publishing to make money. And that self-publishing means that anyone – anyone – can get their book out there. I do. But I really, really wish there was some way of better filtering content so that the gold can be extracted from the dross.
Am I being whiny? Yeah. But at the time of writing there seems to be absolutely no escaping erotic romance books that revolve around the following themes and it’s driving me nucking futts:
- Bikers (everyone wants a bit literary Jax Teller);
- Tattooists (buttoned-up businessmen, ala Christian Grey, are out; inked-up boys with street cred are in)
- Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters (can’t decide whether Warrior or Fighting is to blame)
- College girls going on holiday and getting kidnapped by a human trafficking ring (stories attempting – and badly – to emulate dark erotica fare such as Comfort Food and Captive in the Dark)
- Rock stars (especially those behaving like Guns ‘n’ Roses did back in the 90s)
- Angsty male leads who’re mindlessly screwing everything on two legs (of the female variety at least), have anger management problems, and are coping with some sort of personal tragedy. Enter saving grace female lead. (This theme pretty much accounts for everything in the load of bollocks ‘New Adult’ category that seems to be creepily infecting online bookstore after online bookstore. It’s the literary equivalent of a bloody chlamydia epidemic).
Whereas twelve months ago I would have taken a punt on a book based on its blurb and reviews, the ‘download sample’ and ‘excerpt’ functions have now become indispensible in relation to my eBook purchases. That one chapter – thank God – has been instrumental in preventing me from spending my cash on literary mediocrity. If you’re not using these features – and, thankfully, a number of eTailers offer them – you should be.
Romance novels and erotic stories are often described as formulaic by those who turn their noses up at such ‘low brow fare’: a love story is just a love story and sex is just sex; no real meat – boy meets girl, Part A slots into Part B, right? Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Authors writing in these categories break new ground and push boundaries in exactly the same way that writers in other genres do. And it is my sincere hope that as the self-publishing market matures, we’re better able to identify the writers and the stories that are doing so.
If you’re a writer reading this? I implore you: go where no man hath gone before. I – and a lot of other readers out there – will love you for it. (Just make sure you use a copy editor.)
I like your advice on the copy editor.
I am not self published so take what I say with a grain of salt. I like what you’re saying and the ‘go where no man hath gone before’. I think what becomes discouraging is when an author does that and finds no audience. It’s almost as though you have to be prepared for that and just keep writing with no guarantees – ever – and have your goal be the writing itself which is, I believe, why we all started this in the first place.
And – my 2 cents for mental health – stop comparing books and get off social media when it stops being fun.
Yep, new ground is always going to be risky – but sometimes our biggest gambles result in our biggest rewards. You’re totally on the money, by the way: you have to love what you write first and foremost. We live in a material world and for the majority of us a successful book is going to be measured in dollar signs and downloads. Wouldn’t it be nice if those things were the icing on, rather than the main ingredients for, the modern book cake?
I don’t know the answer. Except that I guess there are romance ‘tropes’ for a reason.
I would just say, it’s not only self-published books that you find with editing problems. I get so cross that big editing houses let sub-standard versions of books go out in e-format, too. I’m sure they take more effort with the print versions and it shouldn’t be that way.
Good luck. Often you’ll find you have bad runs with books, and then you hit a purple patch. I hope that happens for you. I’ve read a self-pubbed book this year that I loved, called White Balance by Ainslie Paton. There are some small typos etc in there (bah!) but they didn’t detract from what I found to be a beautiful story. But maybe not the type of book for behind your curtain, as such
I’m actually okay with romance tropes in and of themselves, e.g. opposites attracting, reformed bad boy, etc. You can’t redefine the core of love itself, I don’t think (or maybe you can and I am just being narrow minded!). But what you can do is alter the story ‘wrapping’ and presentation. I like t-shirts. They’re practical and comfortable. But I don’t want to wear a yellow one every day for the next six months :-).
I should clarify that I have read some excellent self-published work over the past two to three years (and you’re right on about the big houses getting a little sloppy with regard to e-content) – it’s just that that good stuff is increasingly difficult and time-consuming to locate.
(Lovely to have you here behind the curtain!)
I hear you and was thinking the same thing. There is so much same old same old. But there are some great self-published books out there that do explore romantic themes, but are well-written, edited, and really take you on a journey. I couldn’t help but comment on your wish for originality and have to mention that I’ve recently published a novella where one of the main characters is a talking vagina (Doris is her name). Needless to say, it’s humorous, and, I’m pretty sure, original. I can guarantee no traditional publisher would ever touch it with a ten foot pole but readers are loving it.
Dionne, I am thoroughly intrigued; Doris sounds bloody awesome. I am off to find out more about her!
Awesome! It’s called Close Call: A Doris & Jemma Vadgeventure written under a pen name, Eloise March :).
The joys of self-publishing is originality and stuff no one will touch with the ten-foot-pole, but as with any endeavor, there go the lemmings. I’m an author, and I can’t help but be original. My friends tell me that won’t sell. Who wants to read about a former nanny who’s a build engineer for a software startup, or a failed medical student waitressing at a Filipino restaurant, or a steamy story about a Biblical character? I can’t write plain vanilla if you put a gun to my head. Your best bet is to see if there is something standing out in the product description and surprisingly, read the low-star reviews. If something is original or different, somebody will be upset about it.
Exactly Rachelle. My story where I deliberately took a man, who wasn’t a Dom, and put him into a pressure cooker setting so I could let him evolve into a sadistic Dom, several reviews went, OMG, that’s so unrealistic. He should’ve been a Dom from the start! (Like a gazillion other stories)
Apparently an accountant is also not good Dom material, I had people laugh at that. And I went, DAMN, I meant to make him a bajillionaire vampire cowboy with his own private jet.
@Cari – as far as I’m concerned, Klaus is the most perfect sadistic ‘not-Dom’; he doesn’t fit into any box that I can think of. Would I want him to top me? HELL NO! Do I want to read about him? HELL YES!
Rachelle, sorry for the slow reply to your comment. Those three ideas you mention? I, for one, would love to read stories based around characters like that. We have far too many stories about people who bear no resemblance to ‘real’ people, whatsoever. Give me characters who actually reflect the world most of us live in over a billionaire MMA fighter any day.
As for the low-star reviews, I do find those incredibly useful. My current system is to look at the five stars, the three stars and the one stars before downloading a sample. Although if I see a raft of “OMG this is the bst bk EVA!” five star write-ups, the book pretty much becomes an immediate ‘pass’.