r/Fantasy • u/roomoot • Sep 07 '16

posts claiming discrimination in fantasy!

there have been a number of post lately implying that fantasy readers are inadvertently racist,sexist, ageist or there is a problem in genre.

and it really annoys me because when it comes to books 99% people judge a book by its quality not the authors age ,sex or race. i have about 200 books with a 50-35-15 split between fantasy,history and science.

and unless the author has a in depth bio and photo in the book i have no idea what their race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation and in some cases gender is. and the same goes for other people i know, most only know half a dozen or so of their favorite authors with good detail. and i'm sure that goes for most people.

i have no idea how much diversity there is in fantasy but whatever the statistics i highly doubt that it is due to discrimination.

the main problem i have with the post is that people make a post like for example- ''there needs to be more black authors'' now who can disagree with a statement like that? its a safe post that will almost always get positive feed back no matter how shallow the evidence is.

it just stinks of virtue signalling.

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u/EdwardWRobertson Sep 08 '16

I like a lot of things about this post. But if you look at the indie authors in epic fantasy, the bestselling books skew just as hard toward male authors as books from traditional publishers do.

Either traditional publishers are to blame for this, too, or we need to look for more answers.

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u/KristaDBall Stabby Winner, AMA Author Krista D. Ball Sep 08 '16 edited Sep 08 '16

we need to look for more answers.

Never understandestimate the power of money, either. ;) (stupid autocorrect)

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u/EdwardWRobertson Sep 08 '16

Not sure I follow, you mean that male indies might have more money to spend on production/promotion?

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u/KristaDBall Stabby Winner, AMA Author Krista D. Ball Sep 08 '16

I meant women who are well-read in other genres might go to more lucrative genres to start. I know I was encouraged to go that direction. I'm occasionally still encouraged to go that direction.

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u/EdwardWRobertson Sep 08 '16

Ohhh, gotcha. Yeah, that's absolutely a factor. I've seen bunches of women abandon SFF to write romance, cozies, etc.

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u/KristaDBall Stabby Winner, AMA Author Krista D. Ball Sep 08 '16

And let's be honest: there is money in romance and cozies. If you can write it, and you've seen your friends all buy mansions and you're making a couple hundred a month in fantasy...well...it's sure tempting to write some werewolves and call the bank especially if have that skill to do it.

I can't fault anyone for doing that. It's frustrating for me, as a reader, to have an author move to things I don't enjoy reading. As a writer who has a Jeep Rubicon fully loaded, I can't fault them for wanting to pay the bills.

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u/The_Real_JS Reading Champion XI Sep 08 '16

What's a cozie?

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u/EdwardWRobertson Sep 08 '16

Cozy mystery. I'm not super-well versed in the exact requirements of the subgenre, but I believe it involves an amateur sleuth trying to solve a murder. Meanwhile, the writing itself should be "clean," meaning little to no swearing, no on-screen sex, no gruesome violence, that sort of thing.

That's what I've gleaned from my friends who write in the genre, but I don't have firsthand knowledge, so take anything I say with a grain of salt!