Just read a book description for a post apoc LitRPG. At first I was stoked... then... Really, if you cannot get through such a brief description without bothering to proof read and muck it up with several spelling errors... your book is probably shit too.
Ya... but the carelessness... it just screams to me.. "I don't care you're going to buy it anyway, so I can half ass my work". Maybe it's my line of work and personality where attention to detail means sink or swim. If this came across my desk as a finished product someone would lose their job because this sloppiness would cost me time And money. Is it too much to as for an author to, at the least, proof read the product description? This is first contact where this impression is, in many cases, what is going to sell his product. I give alot of leeway to self published and independent authors in their stories. I expect small mistakes.. it happens in a 35k word story. But right here in the first sentence in his sales pitch. Lol. Its laughable now. And too may times have I seen in this Genre the same type of reviews and ratings and been let down.
@Jason I've noticed the same thing you mention. I'm quoting Paul because even though some of these books are poorly written and edited they still sell well for some reason. I don't get it. I mean I can understand overlooking some errors, but some of the story and plotlines are so derivative. How do books like that continue to find an audience? Are the standards for LitRPG that low? Are LitRPG fans that starved for content that they're willing to accept anything that's given to them?
I've been writing for many years now, and I've found that readers want more or the same. As writers, we overthink it sometimes. Some readers are critical and some demand something new in every book for a writer, but some really just want more of the same that they know they like.
I think there's some truth to that and I'm that way too, but LitRPG seems to be really pushing the repetition button. I mean EVERY SINGLE BOOK I've read has characters starting at Level 1, learning the game basics (which are pretty much the same as every other game I've read about), and then engaging with an interface that might as well be universal because the only variations from book to book seem to be the transparency amounts for the in-game notification windows. I'm not arguing with you. You are right. It's just that I've never seen this degree of embracing the tropes as I have in this genre.
Many readera want their favorite book repackaged and now editors and authors who can spell and or proof read or afford a great editor are in competition with poor, ok, or even decent writers who do have an audience willing to buy, rebuy with or without spelling errors. But i love the internet. Many great writers have found their true calling. A typo won't kill me. But a good story or new LitRPG story gives me life!
Since I read a lot I like any story that is not a rip off of famous works. I like all kinds of themes. One of my favorite LitRPG titles is way of the shaman, just finished the crystal sphere. A great story has adventure, battles, monsters, grinding, loot drops, epic gear and treachery. Also unexpected problems, wars within the main chatacter to be bad or good are also fun. When reading regular scifi I like cool new worlds, aliens, horror, self diwcovery, tech. The long earth and the long mars were fun reads for that sort of thing.
I enjoy many independent authors. Going into a book from these folks 1 expects errors and some garbaldy-goop every now and then. They aren't professionals with tons of schooling and experiemce backing them. Having said that, a good story makes up for any mistakes. But back to my OP... proof read your book descriptions FFS. To have errors tossed in my face before I even read the prologue... it just shows a lack of professionalism and attention to detail that leads me to believe the rest of the book is going to be a dumpster fire.
I have seen that alot of the reviews are fluff. There is a certain clique of writers in the genre that back each others work with high praise, and after reading their reviews I have to wonder if they are high on some really good shit. I don't consider a 5 star review that simply says "great read" a real review. And after 100 5 stars with the same thing....
I'm so glad I found this thread. I thought I was the only one who was just astonished at how bad some of these highly reviewed LitRPGs are. I can't tell you how many I've started and not made it through the first chapter. That said... I must be blind because I'm not seeing what is so awful about this blurb. It's not super well written and civilization is spelled with an "s" here (which is a correct British spelling, if I recall correctly), but I don't think it's just horrible.
That's kind of what happens when a niche starts getting bigger and bigger. Supply and demand dictates that the fewer the supply, the greater the demand, with very few exceptions (either due to artificial scarcity or the supply being essential to life). Thus, when demand is very higher, you can command high prices for low quality and people can't really do anything about it if you're among the only ones offering a product. It's like the difference between quartz and gold. You can find quartz by accident. In order to get a high price on it, you basically have to have some of the purest, most beautiful quartz imaginable. Whereas with gold, you can pull it out of a pig's anus and still get huge bucks for it. The best way to counteract this is also the hardest way, and that's to keep up the quality as much as possible so that standards don't drop. This runs the risk of elitism of course. That's not something limited to books either. That's just about everything, even life itself. Occasionally, someone will put a certain twist on things that leads to evolutionary growth. Sometimes that growth leads to a dead end, but other times it survives and thrives, eventually becoming a brand new genre. But all throughout that time, most casual fans will want things that are more like what they are used to. Gradual evolution can occur as the offshoots affect the originals. Remember New Coke? Heavy metal, alternative rock, they both had that same thing going for them. Remember when alt-rock fans wanted more bands like Sonic Youth and the Jesus and Mary Chain? But when grunge took hold and went mainstream, everyone wanted the new Pearl Jam-meets-Nirvana (eventually giving the world Creed and Nickelback). And for heavy metal, in the beginning the record labels wanted someone who sounded like Black Sabbath— evidently, it didn't really work out because the doomy bands they got never took off (except in the underground). It wasn't until roughly the days of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest that it came into its own and then every band had to have an operatic wailer, Maiden fonts, and epic themes. But then all the subgenres split off from there and the rest is history. One of the reasons I've been working with a particular story concept is because I wanted more Scott Pilgrim that wasn't explicitly Scott Pilgrim. And naturally there are several people demanding I finish it (read: start it at all) lest they come to my house and play sadistic games using knives and my nutsack. And why? Because Scott Pilgrim left an aesthetic void in its wake that other works (Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Steven Universe, etc.) have been chasing. You could argue that this very forum and a good chunk of the genre to which it's dedicated is part of that wake. People want these quirky, classic video game-inspired, anime-inspired tournament fighters/beat'em'up stories, and there's been virtually nothing done to satisfy that niche. If people didn't want more of the same, they'd have moved on already.
Consider, while you as an author notice some of the grammar and other mistakes, how many readers are simply burning through the books, not paying attention to such detail? How many readers are not actually competent with spelling, grammar and punctuation themselves? So, if there's a 'your' when it should be 'you're' or a 'loose' instead of 'lose,' or sketchy punctuation or antecedents, does the reader even notice? Even if the same error is repeated again and again and again? That said, believe that producing the best quality product, including SPaG, can only help gain and maintain a wider audience.
[QUOTE="Larakel, post: 8462, member: 211" Are LitRPG fans that starved for content that they're willing to accept anything that's given to them? Yes[/QUOTE] I would argue that a decent percentage of the fans of the genre arent exactly avid book readers as the genre aims at people who like other forms of media (games and some anime) as such there standards are usually lower and there willing to put up with bad editing and stuff. I also want to point out that this genre possibly unintentionally winds up being very strongly aimed at teens with gaming being most popular among teens and wish fulfilment and power fantasies being commonly occurring if not staples of most teen novels and definitely an attractor not only that but theres a strong trope of the useless slacker becoming some crazy powerful demigod that also goes well with the teen genre PS I could just be crazy as I dont have the numbers but it wouldn't suprise me if both of these were true
so are you saying people got essentially a taste of the niche and now there just being sold water with perhaps a hint of niche
