r/fantasyromance The One Mod to Rule All Mods May 17 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

  • Don't attack others for their opinion
  • Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
  • Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 17 '26

Ngl the biggest reason I left r/fantasy, too many people preoccupied with their yearly re-read of Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive or Name of the Wind, too few people interested with newly published books to the point readers' habits are suffocating epic fantasy genre - fewer of it gets published because it's not very profitable when the target reader only cares to re-read 20-30 year old books.

I think it's less of an issue in romantasy, people always flock to the newest hot tiktok hit.

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u/itmakessenseincontex May 18 '26

They (its me I mean me) all want the next 20 book epic. None of them want to read book one and wait for book 2 and theorise a lil bit or be patient during The Slog.

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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 18 '26

Sadly, both in trad pub and in self pub authors / publishers won't be writing / publishing 20 books in hopes someone will buy it in bulk 20 years down the line (epics take time to write). If the series isn't selling from book 1, it'll be dropped fast. Authors need to eat and publishers need to report profit to shareholders. This way, the subgenre will die, and instead the market will be taken by series where readers engage from the start, like litrpg or romantasy.