Stark Reality

One of the horrors I have found is that publishers only want what they can sell quickly. This means that being a new writer, you are told that you must be different, but you are also told to read a lot of the published books in the genre you wish to be issued so you can be the same. I have met a lot of people who like a particular genre and see a new book and think they have read it before but notice the names of the people are different, and that’s the only change. Books become predictable. Mystery novels display their clues in signs with flashing lights saying, “Look here, there’s a clue I’m trying to hide from you.” Deep down I am horrified by this. You are not going to find a different type of story because no one will publish them.

Even William Shakespeare stole stories and made them his own, Othello, Romeo & Juliet was taken. The cracked.com website shows 5 writers who took work to make them famous. But if they are still the same, how are they more popular?

There is more that is imparted through a story. There is the voice of the narrator, there are the words they use. Shakespeare used a lot of Iambic pentameter phrases, which are used in poetry and almost sound perfect to the ear.

I used to go to a middle school called Shakspeare Middle School. There were four groups in our year, Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, and Othello. I was in Macbeth, but my favourite play was Hamlet. Why was it a favourite over all the others?

My personal opinions on this are that the Iambic pentameter is very attractive. The type of story, ghosts and revenge, spite and despair of the protagonist. The only problem I have with Hamlet is that just about everyone dies at the end. Although ‘Hamlet’ was written by Shakespeare after his own son who was called Hamlet had died, so the story was written with a lot of despair and pain.

There are two different ways to publish, there is traditional publishing, and there is self-publishing. The second one allows you to go off on a tangent to everything you have read, but it also means you have to attract your own willing audience to appreciate your different approach. Even though traditional publishers don’t do any marketing for you. Every single author has to attract their own audience to buy their books.