For far too long, there has been a nasty injustice lurking in the fantasy best-seller charts that nobody wants to talk about, much less change.
Many authors — young and old, successful and not — are contributing to this impasse with every release, and worse still, some are doing so willingly without any regard for our plight.
The situation has gotten so bad that some readers have completely given up on the genre.
How do I know?
Because I was nearly one of them.
BLM, or at least my version of it, affects so many more people than authors and publishers realise. And the problem isn’t going away… If anything, it’s growing with each coming generation.
“But Watson… you’re a white guy. What do you mean by ‘our plight’?”
Ohhhhhhh, crapshoot.
This is awkward.
I hate to be the person to do this but, uh…
You do remember in the third email I ever sent you that I don’t do politics or current affairs in this newsletter, right?
🤔
If you thought that was what you were getting then, well, you’ll be either glad or saddened to learn that no, I’m not riffing about Black Lives Matter.
I’m, of course, talking about fantasy books.
Namely, the size of them.
(Book Length Matters… BLM… duh?)
Admittedly, yes, I borrowed a social hot topic and deviously deployed it to ensnare your attention, which, by virtue of you reading this very line, has clearly worked. But hey, let’s not detract from the main issue this email stealthily tackles:
97% of fantasy books are ludicrously long.
They take weeks and months to wade through, especially for slow readers like myself, and that there, my Legionnaire, is where the true injustice lies.
Not in the colour of our skin…
But in the time and ability from which we have to expend on reading.
As I said earlier, many authors are willingly publishing tome after tome, which is not helped by Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited per-page-read royalty rate. This only encourages authors to write longer and longer books.
Thus, reinforcing this “impasse” that prevents shorter works from gaining traction in the marketplace.
All is not lost, though.
I have a growing collection of leaner fantasy books that won’t take you months to finish, nor does it depend on Amazon’s tome-loving charts. Each tale was designed to be read in 1-2 sittings, with my latest sequel (The Great Betrayal) requiring 3-5.
Still, a damn sight less than most titles proliferating the genre.
The best part:
You still get all the world-building, POVs, and character depth you would expect in an epic, but with the speed of a thriller.
To get your hands on this series and join the Book Length Matters cause, go here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
DJJW