Yatterings

Both Ariel at Genre Files and the estimable Paul Raven over at Velcro City Tourist Board have airing the genre as ghetto and to some extent questioning how non-fan readers get to know of new genre books.

They both point out that bookshops are partially to blame what with 3 for 2s at front of store and the lack of knowledge of booksellers. This is to some extent true (I’ve nearly given up bookshopping in Oxford, where I live, as the choice is often so poor at all three major chains(and not just genre either)).

I think another fair choice is the review pages of magazines. Experiences of reading and writing for a few have put me in a fairly negative frame of mind as they struggle to either get space for reviews at all (because, it appears, all we darn well want are movies  - er, sorry, not all the time) but also snippets of reviews about the latest book by somebody big to a) get review copies and b) eyes on pages (I’d be intrigued to know how they measure that one). Newera authors may or may not ga lok in but I suspect that it was always thus and thus shall be. No it’s not fair but its the way it is…

I don’t hold with the ghetto idea of genre - in the long run I find it dangerous and disingenuous. Parts of genre will touch other parts, some won’t, some will steal wholesale from outside and be stolen from. Literature is an economic affair. There are exchanges and trades to be done between books and authors. Some books will fall by the way side, some will use new tools to propogate themselves and their readers.

The mass market will, to some extent, ignore these developments. Think about: why do people stick to similar books? They appeal because they are similar, because the reader knows what they are getting. Its not new, its not exciting. Its frustrating to see as a fan but it will always happen and does so across various fields - Linux versus Microsoft versus Mac anybody?

Circling the wagons and leaving the city will only isolate the wagons and its darn cold on the plains in winter…