Opinions. I have them.

I have a friend who sends me videos from Booktok or news stories she trips across she knows will somehow ruffle my feathers to get my opinions on them. A beautiful rant usually ensues and I think, Hey, I should blog about this, and then I don’t. Well, I’m done with my final papers and have some time on my hands, so I’m going to blog about things.

First up, a video from TikTok…

@ginad129 Replying to @internet cryptid #writingcommunity #writingtips #authors #publishing #authors #editorsoftiktok #yaauthors #yafiction #yabooks ♬ original sound – Gina Denny

I don’t know if I agree or disagree with the idea that YA fiction is being ruined by middle aged women. It probably is in the way she describes. There are some weird people out there. But, she says a lot I don’t agree with and for someone who is in publishing, she needs to do a little more research before throwing problematic fandoms under the bus. I mean, they probably do need thrown under a bus, but for different reasons. All of those people who think YA needs to be spicier, needs to touch grass. Just saying.

That brings me to what is being called, in this video, “the bastardization of YA.” Those fantasy and science fiction (only she doesn’t talk about science fiction) books where teenagers are making adult decisions and not acting like teenagers. Look, this troupe has been a thing in fantasy forever. FOREVER. It is because most fantasy is based on medieval times times when 16-year-olds were treated as adults who had to make adult decisions. I seriously have not heard anyone bitch about Padme Amidala in Star Wars being queen at 14. If you have a problem with how a book is written, it’s probably not for you. Return it (if you can), give it away, stuff it in a little free library, donate it to the library or a second hand store, sell it in on Pango, take it to a secondhand bookstore for credit toward something else. Just find something else to read and go on with your life. There are more than enough books out there. Something will resonate with you and be just what you are looking for. Quit expecting an entire industry to realign itself to meet your expectations. The world doesn’t work that way.

This YA vs New Adult genre thing has been a problem for a bit. I don’t even know why these are considered genres. They are age groups for books that house actual genres. It’s like “African” or “Translated” being genres. Makes my head hurt. Yes, I get why these things have their own sections in bookstores but that doesn’t make them genres. That is an entire rant on it’s own. Anyway, this YA/New Adult thing started because booksellers didn’t know where to shelve New Adult books and it all nearly ended in tears when Barnes and Noble shelved Sarah J Maas in the YA section. That was reason for a busybody lawmaker in Virginia to decide one of Maas’ books needed banned and proceeded to sue Barnes and Noble. Maas herself has said numerous times her books do not belong in the YA section of bookstores. Anyway, the lawsuit was dismissed and Barnes and Noble moved the books over to fantasy where they belong. I’m not sure what order those two things happened in, but they happened and that is what matters.

This lawsuit brought attention to what should and should not be considered YA. There was discourse over a New Adult section of stores being added or books being designated as New Adult or something to separate the two. For the ease of all those who read romance for the sex, maybe we just need a smut section in the bookstores. Seriously though, this would mean we would need people in the publishing – marking – selling line to read everything and determine where it belonged. Sort of like a ratings committee for books. This would open up a can of worms in itself. It’s a road none of us want to go down, especially with all the book banning zealots currently in the world.

Now, in her TikTok, Gina says New Adult books do not exist. They very much do exist. There is just no New Adult section in the bookstore to find them easily. They are shelved, where they belong, within their genre because there is no genre called New Adult.

People need to stop confusing age groups with genres and making up genres that don’t exist. In case anyone needs this clarified, here is the definition of genre:

a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

I know someone is thinking “But children’s books are their own genre.” No they aren’t. Stop it. Go look through the kids section. You are going to find fantasy and science fiction and mysteries and adventure books. Maybe children’s books need more simple genres, like talking animals or fairies or super heroes. Either way, there are genres there.

So, New Adult books are shelved within the appropriate genre where they belong. Obviously, this is going to be an inconvenience for some people because it means they may have to read the back of a book, or do a bit of research on the book and author, and not take book recommendations on social media blindly. It’s called being a responsible consumer.

Gina also makes the claim Chick Lit doesn’t exist anymore. For someone in publishing she needs to do some homework. Chick Lit does exist. We just don’t call it it Chick Lit anymore because “chick” is a pejorative sexist term. We now have a genre called Women’s Fiction. Other books are now simply called Romance, because that is what it is. Others are just shelved with general fiction. You know what this accomplished? It means the genre is no longer stereotyped and these books find their way to the best seller lists. That’s a win for the books and their authors. You can still go on Goodreads and find books shelved as Chick Lit. Just because there is nothing in the bookstore directing one to Chick Lit doesn’t mean it no longer exists. Much like those New Adult books, you have to look for them

Yeah, I know, this makes going into a bookstore and grabbing what you want difficult. Just think of how many more books you can discover while hunting down that book you went after.

Next up is this recent gem from Bloomberg: TikTok is Turning the Publishing World into Fast Fashion. Yes, the same friend sent it to me. The title had me intrigued and I wanted to know what they had to say. Unfortunately the article turned into shaming Rebecca Yarros for not speaking Gaelic.

I get it, appropriation is bad, and that is how people are viewing her borrowing a word from another language, essentially screwing it up both in how it’s used in the book and then pronouncing the word wrong at a reading.

A translation for the family of blue dragons in the book, “gormfaileas,” breaks down into “gorm” (blue) and “faileas” (shadow). But when combined properly, it should read “faileas gorm,” not the other way around.

Fantasy authors borrow words from all over the place because, guess what, they aren’t linguists. This is also fantasy, so “gornfailaes” as a name of a breed of dragons is just fine. It doesn’t have to be perfect Gaelic. The first rule of linguistics is language changes. This is what is called borrowing where features of a language or dialect are altered as a result of influence from another language or dialect. Only this is a fantasy book and should be considered a made up work. It is also not going to change how anyone speaks.

I swear, some people just want to be offended. There is plenty in the world to be offended about. This one is low stakes. This doesn’t mean I am not going to blame the intersection of celebrity culture and cancel culture where people are just waiting for someone famous to make a faux pax that gets them canceled because they either enjoy the drama or are invested for the entertainment value of Schadenfreude. Grow up.

Bloomberg spent most of the article on this and very loosely tied it books becoming fast fashion. When I do this kind of sloppy writing my professors call me out on and ask why I turned in a rough draft. I know better and I am just being lazy. Journalists are doing the same thing, being lazy when they know better. This could have been a much more interesting article, because book fashion is out of control.

I have lost count of how many times I have bought a book on release day only to have a collectors edition released sometime before it even comes out in paperback. Then there are the Barnes and Noble exclusives, the Target exclusives, and so forth. It’s like collecting Funko Pops. There are no less than 50 Iron Man Funko Pops. Seriously, who needs that much Iron Man in their life? There is that one person who has all of them despite some of them being very limited releases, being store exclusives (Walgreens, Target, Box Lunch, and Hot Topic have their own exclusives). There are people who do this with books, and not so much because they are collectors, but because of FOMO, fear of missing out.

Personally, I am annoyed by the rerelease of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. The new hardback edition has amazing artwork on it. My paperback edition is in perfect condition and is perfectly readable. Do I want the new pretty cover? Yes. Yes I do. Can I justify it. No. I have limited bookshelf space and that is money I could spend on another book I want. If someone wants to collect every reprint of Dune with new artwork, I’m not going to stop them. There are people on social media that show off their book collections with all the different editions of a book. I don’t understand the point.

I do get these “author’s preferred text” editions. This is what the author wanted to publish before an editor came along and marked up the manuscript making cuts. However, does Stephan Kings books need to be longer? Many of them have no business being published in paperback, especially mass market, because that is just asking too much of a book binding.

More than anything, it’s how publishing treats this that bothers me. I wish I could remember which book it was, but there was something I bought right after it was released, not more than 4 months later some sort of collectors limited edition store exclusive came out. It’s almost as if the publishing company is sitting back waiting for sales to wane to release these editions to boost sales again. They know damn well someone is going to go on TikTok and show off this new book edition and all the fans are going to flock to buy it. It’s maddening.

And yes, maybe this is somehow related to Rebecca Yarros. Fourth Wing and Iron Flame do have multiple copies. The first run of Fourth Wing has beautiful sprayed edges. When Iron Flame was released with the plain black edges, Fourth Wing was released with matching edges where books could match. Defiantly marking to boost book sales of a popular series and nothing more.

Why? Because people will buy them for the social media clout. It provides content for influencers.

Maybe we should be pointing fingers at the real problem here, influencers. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be throwing middle aged women who want spicy books about teenagers under a bus. We should.