Sigh ... Some people are just determined to get offended.
And some are just determined to cause offense, and insist they're right to do so and it's everybody else's fault for being insulted by their insults instead of stepping back and thinking, "Maybe I should quit putting other genres down and accept that I'm not coming across as charming, witty, clever, and delightful as I think I am."
But you cannot deny that it's always that certain type of book that it's in the front row.
I CAN deny it, with great certainty. I have quite a few friends who've been in that front row in YA, and none of their books are what you described. I've been in that front row in my genre, and my books are certainly not fanfic or P&P ripoffs or about vampires.
And everything behind that book, regardless of merit, is ... well ... in the shadow.
If that were true bookstores wouldn't stock any books in those corners you speak of, because there'd be no point at all. My books weren't bestsellers, and lots of my friends' weren't bestsellers, but they still got plenty of sales through bookstores from readers looking for something to read. Which is why they go to bookstores.
If, when you go shopping, you prefer to have only two options and ignore everything else, that's fine, but don't extrapolate from that that everyone else shops the same way. Readers often spend hours in bookstores, browsing, looking for new books.
So, if you are going to be in the shadow anyway, what's the point of being in the store anyway? Just to be able to say that you shared space with the bestsellers?
See above. For me, the point had nothing to do with bragging about sharing space--as if my goals are that shallow or silly--and everything to do with the 10,000+ copies each of my books have sold in stores since their release.
Again, if bookstore placement doesn't matter to you, that's fine. No one is insisting you care about it. We're not. Absolutely not. But you are not the only person who will ever read this thread, and some people DO care about it, so the information is here.
Now, would I like to end up in the front row one day? Sure. But it's not gonna happen. I know that my work is an acquired taste, and I am grateful for whatever a small press can do for me.
And no one is saying you're wrong for that. You know, for someone who calls the rest of us oversensitive when we're insulted by your dismissals of our work, you're awfully delicate about feeling your choice to submit to a small press--a choice not one person has actually criticized, or spoken of in the way you've spoken of our work--is somehow being looked down upon. And despite repeated explanations, you continue to insist that's the case.
And yes, I don't like Gossip Girl. I don't like where it came from, and I don't like what it did to the tastes of the younger generation.
Their tastes were in place well before GG, but fine.
I don't like the prevalent trends in modern literature. Am I allowed to say that? Or should I apologize for that too? Is this America or Stalinist Russia (where I happen to be from)?
FFS. You're allowed to say anything you want, as long as you're not rude about it. You're
not allowed to say whatever you want without anyone taking any offense or disagreeing in any way.
BTW, this is not America. It is a privately owned internet message board, where the owner makes the rules.
Stuff that sells is not necessarily the stuff that has most literary value. This shouldn't come as shocking news.
It's not. Of course it's not. I never said it was. Believe me, some of the trends in the marketplace these days literally make me feel ill. But it's hardly the fault of bookstores or publishers that they sell books people want to buy, in order to make money and stay in business, instead of lining the shelves with things nobody wants to read, in order to bankrupt themselves.