Fantasy. Science-Fiction. Same thing, right?

The photo above was taken in Scotland back in April. By June, those trees are still fluffy with pink flowers, only they're also a bit wilt-y with brown bits. Not as pretty.

I have a few things going on in June. 

I'm flying back to Canada in the next week. I'm facing more connecting flights than I have ever expected possible in the course of 2 days, followed by a 14-day quarantine. 

The question is, will I have to spend quarantined in a Federally appointed facility or will I be able to take my connecting flight to my hometown the following morning? Speaking of which, I need to call my hotel to confirm my reservation.

Admits arranging flights back, I decided to try my hand at organizing themed campaigns so that I can curate non-romantic fantasy stories, preferably in the dark fantasy arena. But it turns out, for some writers, dark fantasy means a story centered around sex magic. Sooooo that was a thing that I didn’t expect. Looking back, I really should have…

With regards to marketing, and possibly explaining some of the high volume of returns, I frame the misleading genre/blurb combo like this:

“You’re a customer at a shop. The shop sells kitchen appliances. When you go in, you learn that they also sell tool and pet food. A little weird sure, but it might convenient to pick up some dog food here instead of making another stop. This is what most indies think they’re doing; they think they’re adding value.

Carrying on with the analogy, you pick up a toaster. It’s one of those fancy 4-slice beasts because who has time to toast two pieces of bread at a time! Not me!

You cash out and head home with the toaster and the dog food.

You don’t set up the toaster right away. You’re a terrible procrastinator, and you had wanted to do something kitchen related… maybe clean the counter before you set it up. I don’t know, I’m not you. If it were me, I’d have that bad boy out of the box and toast my bread in minutes. But I’m trying to keep this to a book analogy, so to be clear, the reason you haven’t set up the toaster (read the book) is because you have another book on the go… toaster that’s not done yet. I suck at this.

The old toaster finally breaks (you finish the other book), and you crack open the new toaster box. Only there’s a kettle inside.

There’s clearly been some sort of misunderstanding. You look at the box. Proud and true, there is an image of a toaster right on it. You look at the description of the boxes contents, and sure enough, it clearly states that inside is a toaster.

This is what indies do on the regular through a variety of misleading tactics in pursuit of a sale. They do this through rapid changing of their genres so they can ride the algorithm wave. They do this by changing their subtitles often. They don’t do proper cover research, and they spend too much time telling us plot points in their blurb over the core genre conflicts.

Readers are stuck with kettles when they wanted a toaster. Something like this doesn’t bother a reader who also consumes tea, but I’m pretty sure the coffee folk will be none too impressed with their recent kettle purchase.“

It was time to get into the deep-end and test some theories.

I was super conscious of what ‘I’ wanted as a reader, and shaped my parameters around that desire (because I wanted something other than romance to read). The question I had was: if I was clear about what I wanted to read, would I get a curated list of actual dark fantasy novels, or would I get slammed with 'I totally swear I’m writing a fantasy novel tee hee sucker!’

At its core, the whole experiment was about testing the integrity of my fellow indie.

It didn’t bode well, but not due to lack of integrity which was my initial hypothesis - though there was plenty to go around.

I have one terrible experience with a science fiction writer, but most were romance writers swearing they didn’t include romance in their fantasy novel. When I looked at the cover and blurb, it was clear that these ‘fantasy novels’ were romance novels.

“Sorry, but I don’t want to read these; it’s not what I asked for,” got me called as sorts of colorful names.

FYI, if you’re a writer, you are NOT entitled to a readership, and lambasting a reader who isn’t interested in what you got IS NOT a personal attack! The reader has the right to read what they want to read. And if it’s not your work, you just have to learn to live with it! (Sorry for the preach, but I see this a lot)

I hate to say it but… the data tells me that romance writers overall don’t have any integrity. But that data is biased, and I know it because of a job I worked during the crisis. I know the people I ended up interacting with not representative of the whole of romance writers, they are just a segment - the bad actors in that space.

Now as annoying as that segment of romancers were clearly incapable of not recognizing the romance in their own romance novels were, the biggest backlash came from a science fiction writer.

I was called names. (Did he really think that I was going to change my mind after calling me a cunt? Like: oh sorry sir, I didn’t realize that you absolutely had no other options available but to participate in my promo for dark fantasy novels. I wasn’t going to change my mind until you belittled and insulted me, showing me the errors of my way. Idiot.)

I stood my ground.

Maybe I'm alone on this one, but to me Science Fiction and Fantasy are very different beasts. Much like how Dark Fantasy isn't Horror, though it does possess horror themes. 

Sure, Sci-fi and Fantasy can have similar tropes, but are they are ultimately different. One doesn't often expect a space opera in the middle of an epic fantasy novel (Although War Hammer). The MC may travel to a different world, but intergalactic battles aren't expected, or necessarily desired.

But that could be just me.

As a reader of mine put it:

“Science fiction tend to be stories warning readers of things to come, while fantasy acts like allegories or fables focusing on lessons of the past or stories of morality.”

I believe genres are more than just their tropes or their elements, but it is still a part of it. Conceptually, fantasy might be about morality, but you could explore morality in a romance novel: the morality of having an extra-marital affair with a billionaire.

I’m reaching here.