Wouldn't mind Vonvalt in the US government rn, we're in desperate need of some off-the-top-rope justice

Prepare to be broken.

Alderaan had tunnels, the Empire did what it had to do.

Do you get extra HP for qualified immunity?

5 cont.) The point is to try and be the next Travis Baldree or Rebecca Yarros or Sarah J. Maas. The person whose success creates the trend that publishing chases.

Anyway, just two cents from a writer/bookseller currently watching the myth retelling trend start to collapse.

5) What has always made the most sense to me is to write what you want to write, but I think the best thing to focus on is your own creativity. What could make YOUR work unique? How might it stand out in a crowded market?

3 cont.) ...rate they are right now in a year or two.

4) The constant caveat to the above is that if you WANT to write something on-trend because it's what you want to write, more power to you. But you might struggle like the people who wrote UF books in like 2010 struggled.

3 cont.) If you're able to predict the boom before everyone else and get in on the ground floor, hell yeah chasing a trend can work out super well. But at this point, I wouldn't start writing a romantasy. I will be surprised if editors are acquiring them at the same feverish...

3) Publishing's obsession with trend-chasing will lead to constant boom-bust cycles in these small subgenres, and trying to chase the boom is a bad plan, because (as happened to Grimdark and UF before it) by the time you notice the boom happening it's too late to strike gold.

2 cont.) ...cozy fantasy, as well as what I perceive to be a burgeoning "mystery fantasy" subgenre as continuations of that same trend, but in a different aesthetic direction. For something to stand out, it has to be DIFFERENT from the stuff that's already saturated the market.

This has led to...

2) People still like fantasy, that just like differently flavored fantasy. Grimdark was the first wave of this as more conventional good vs. evil epic fantasy gave way to darker and grittier "realistic" fantasy. I see the explosion of romantasy and...

1 cont.) What I observe as a bookseller is the classics / megastars of the genre are still selling like gangbusters, but debuts and smaller authors are struggling to break out. It isn't that EPIC FANTASY doesn't sell (it does), but the stuff that sells is already established.

It’s in the mail. Honestly, you could absolutely bomb this last entry (not possible) and I’d still buy it for the cover art alone.

The trio will look incredible on my shelf.

D&D - 🤦‍♂️

Talk about playing to your strengths

Yeah. Turns out the things I did in high school that mattered were drama club, speech team, and role playing games.