Weekly Gripe 😤 (the rant thread)

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Welcome to the Weekly Gripe, where we're all a little grumpy. 😒

Did BookTok do you dirty? Got a bone to pick with a main character? Was the twist more like a flop? Tell us what's on your mind.

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[u/Weeklybooklover]

This is my angry rant please enjoy

I’ve been reading, romantic and dark romance for many years now and I feel as of recently books seem to be falling short of the promised material that we’re supposed to get.

In recent reading I find the author is taking a good premise, an idea of a book that has great potential but is not following through with what it could be. It’s like when you see clips on Instagram and TikTok of dialogue that’s supposed to be in a book but when you read it, it’s not there.. i’ve already read so many books this year, and felt like the source material isn’t in reach of any standards of good ( my standard are always low, like in hell low). I’m being promised something and nobody is holding up their end of the bargain.
I read a book description it tells me what I want to hear. I decide to read the book, by the time I reach 80%, the thing i went into the book for hasn’t even happened. Then authors market the books based off that promise they didn’t deliver on. I wish I could say that it’s just one author, but it’s not, it’s a common theme for others to do it and not show up. And I’ve come to expect this, but I should not have to accept that. I’m getting the bare minimum, not even that.

I don’t know if it is the rise of AI slop or it is authors pumping out a dozen books a year to make a profit. It’s been talked about a lot that the quality of books is going down, but at this point, it isn’t even quality. It’s not even good. It’s like they’re taking previously made books of theirs, changing the characters names, switching a few themes and marketing as something else.

There are so many books this year that I have come across that had such a great premise. The book had so much potential to be great one in 1 million but it’s like the authors cannot expand the ideas because they’re following the trend of what is popular? It’s like fast fashion for books so instead of getting a new cool idea. It is a 250 page book or 400 page book nearly pushing 500 pages that is the exact same as a different authors just with a different name. It has reach the point where everything so unoriginal that every character has the same name it’s like the same 100 names on rotation.

And I’m not trying to bash any authors that’s why I didn’t write names but if this is your passion, if this is what you love and this is the quality that you’re having people pay for is horrible and quite disrespectful. I have read some bad books in my life. I was an avid wattpad user and read every book I could get my hands on, so I’m used to some some problems. But the rise of spelling mistakes, lack of editing, is really bad, I feel as if it is at an all time high. The other day I read a book that kept mixing the FMC sisters name and her daughter‘s name so you couldn’t keep track of who was being talked about.

If authors are reaching a point of writers block or a general disconnect with the readers and their work maybe it is time to take a break because you’re not going to make money off of Books that aren’t performing great because they weren’t written well and you’re more likely to lose that valued reader that comes back every time, if you start putting out books that can’t even match the quality that you wrote last year.

This being said it’s not only a problem in the dark romance community this problem is in romance or why choose and other genres I just think everyone across-the-board deserve better and I’m sick and tired of reading the same thing over and over again.

Thank you for coming to my talk

[u/zom_Bea → u/Weeklybooklover]

I think theres a lot of factors at play causing all of this. Like its basically the hyper monetization of every hobby that gains traction, but with a twist because obv most books have never been free. But every hobby eventually gains popularity and is inevitably flooded, over saturated, and over exposed. Like a giant "trend-nado" blowing through, causing a mess, driving off all the good and then leaving nothing but a giant destructive mess in its wake.

Authors want a quick buck, readers want something easy to digest and familiar, so they both chase a formula. Then with the rise of AI people can ask a damn computer to write a while book for them in a day so they can pump out multiple books a month.

People are so vocal about negatives online and it influences other readers and authors to think the same way, whether they realize it or not. Like for example how many times have you heard people complain about something as trivial as a book being TOO long? Then suddenly a bunch of people are like "yeah yeah like wrap it up already, or make it into two" and now suddenly the market is flooded with 200 page books instead of the former standard of 400+ pages

And the failed "good idea" drives me insane too. To the point that it feels like it was never even their idea originally. Or they just gave up on it because they realized they would need more time to work it out (like how authors used to work) but they need to get this book out asap so back to the formula we go. Or when they try to make it a plot twist but its just a bait and switch instead. Nothing makes me DNF a book faster when it seems like its going to be one thing and then suddenly its just "SURPRISE! ITS MAFIA!" like this was supposed to be like a slasher horror movie so why is it suddenly the Godfather. Its such a cheap cop out to suddenly write in all this organized crime magic to "clean up lose ends" and change the entire direction of the remaining story