This is me being blunt. I've joined several writer/publishing/author, etc. groups on Facebook recently and have traveled all around the information super highway at various markets and have stumbled across a plethora of what I deem to be just plain trash. Cover after sexist cover of bad photography with book names as predictable as the literary diarrhea within them, I'm sure. I started wondering if there was seriously a market for this rubbish or are these people jumping on the Fifty-Shades-of-Grey bandwagon.
I've paid very close attention to the music universe since I was young. I know the radio force-feeds us what they want us to hear, and we can blame the big recording corporations for that. Fortunately, I learned early in life that the music world is vast - much more so than your average listener realizes - and that within that world some of the greatest written and recorded music you're never going to hear on top 40 radio. You'll never hear it at all unless you go hunting for it; that, or someone blesses you with a mix tape with never-before-heard treasures.
The same goes for the movie industry. Independent films are full of originality, great ideas, excellent writing and dialogue, but we get manipulated into believing that the multi-million dollar budget, hyper-advertised monstrosity starting this Friday is the best movie we've ever seen up to that date. Unfortunately, most people take it hook in mouth. Now that I'm paying more attention to the writing/publishing world I'm starting to wonder if it's not run the same way. The literary powers that be pushing what the current trend is (of course sex will always sell) instead of a well-thought out, unique scenario presented in a fresh way that doesn't feel like we're being spoon fed. I read the first 100 pages of Twilight. I predicted the next paragraph before I finished the one prior. It was insulting to me.
I know there are excellent books out there, but it's quite disturbing that much of each entertainment market treats the consumer like a bunch of sheep. Perhaps I should write a book where teenage, sex-starved vampires roam the streets in search of sex, money, and guns while their sex-starved broom-riding teen rivals save the day using sex...and a kitten.
I've paid very close attention to the music universe since I was young. I know the radio force-feeds us what they want us to hear, and we can blame the big recording corporations for that. Fortunately, I learned early in life that the music world is vast - much more so than your average listener realizes - and that within that world some of the greatest written and recorded music you're never going to hear on top 40 radio. You'll never hear it at all unless you go hunting for it; that, or someone blesses you with a mix tape with never-before-heard treasures.
The same goes for the movie industry. Independent films are full of originality, great ideas, excellent writing and dialogue, but we get manipulated into believing that the multi-million dollar budget, hyper-advertised monstrosity starting this Friday is the best movie we've ever seen up to that date. Unfortunately, most people take it hook in mouth. Now that I'm paying more attention to the writing/publishing world I'm starting to wonder if it's not run the same way. The literary powers that be pushing what the current trend is (of course sex will always sell) instead of a well-thought out, unique scenario presented in a fresh way that doesn't feel like we're being spoon fed. I read the first 100 pages of Twilight. I predicted the next paragraph before I finished the one prior. It was insulting to me.
I know there are excellent books out there, but it's quite disturbing that much of each entertainment market treats the consumer like a bunch of sheep. Perhaps I should write a book where teenage, sex-starved vampires roam the streets in search of sex, money, and guns while their sex-starved broom-riding teen rivals save the day using sex...and a kitten.
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