Elizabeth Tai

Is it me, or is it just more difficult to find good fiction these days?

This may seem like a clickbait title, but I really wonder if this is a trend because I saw a book blogger ranting that she’s fed up with books being released today and she’s going back to read classic fiction and finding more satisfaction there.

It’s kinda me too. ๐Ÿค”

Currently, I am reading (extremely slowly), Strange Tales from the Chinese Studio, written centuries ago during the end of China’s Ming dynasty.

I am also reading more and more badly translated Chinese webnovels ๐Ÿ˜†. Not from official publishers but from platforms like Novel Updates.

I’d much rather read these than polished, English fiction from known publishers or indie writers.

Every time I think about trying to find something new to read, I sigh and just walk away from the digital shelves of Amazon or Goodreads.

I think part of this is also due to the realization that I have spent decades reading literature from another culture (Western) and have ignored mine (Chinese). So,ย  Sci Fi, regency romances – my favourite “kick back and relax fiction” – no longer hold the same appeal.

I don’t think this is due to people writing shittier books these days.

I am sure there are good books that are written by modern writers still.

I think it’s a noise problem. It’s increasingly difficult to find books that will resonate with you.

This is partly due to the enshittification of platforms that we had relied on to find recommendations.

Amazon is overrun by AI-generated books. The mainstream publishers are playing it safe, publishing books with tropes that sell. They don’t stray from the proven formulas because they want profits.

Indie writers with deep pockets for advertising are drowning out writers who don’t have deep pockets.

To top it all off, search engines are also enshittiffied.

I am not familiar with Book Tock, but I believe they are often pursued by indie authors and mainstream publishers to promote their books. The loudest and most persistent (and yes, richest) will win.

I personally find myself exhausted with the pursuit of trying to find a good book so I’ve retreated to the classics because their worth have been proven ages ago.

So, have books published gotten shittier, or are good fiction just harder to find now?

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Comments

7 responses to “Is it me, or is it just more difficult to find good fiction these days?”

  1. Ada Avatar
    Ada

    @elizabethtai.com I think you are right about publisher's playing it safe. If you can't have a blurb with a bunch of buzz words, they're not interested. I feel like you can see this in contemporary cover design. Go into B&N and look at the top fiction and every cover looks the same.

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  2. Ray McCarthy Avatar
    Ray McCarthy

    @elizabethtai.com
    There is good fiction but it's almost buried in the noise. Goodreads was bought by Amazon, though it wasn't great before that.

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  3. Todd Avatar
    Todd

    I tend to agree its a noise issue or maybe an issue of needing a gateway? For example, I searched an author’s name on Bluesky the other day. I had just discovered them and loved the first book I read. This yielded a bunch of people’s best-of lists and looking at *those* gave me some really promising suggestions as well.

    Like lots of things these days I think it’s a matter of trading algorithms for people you can trust. It might also be an issue of the nature of short form content being something that people can easily “poison” with bots and paid reviews. Longer form content like book blogs might also lead you to what you’re looking for.

    And of course big mainstream publishers and outlets are aiming for reach over content. A mediocre book that appeals to 80% of the people will be mentioned everywhere. The excellent book that appeals to 10-20%? Harder to find. So many publishers are risk averse. They’ll green-light crappy formulaic content because they know it will sell. This is likely why Novel Updates is working for you – it might not sell widely but it does what you need it to.

    And yeah – BookTok is just what you think it is from what I see. Now our big mainstream bookstore chain has a huge display of “#BookTok” in the store – likely heavily promoted by the publishers and stores themselves.

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    1. Elizabeth Tai Avatar
      Elizabeth Tai

      Kinda sad, but maybe the world has always functioned this way, with things getting louder and louder and more unique things just disappearing due to the din. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

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