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Can we have a conversation about indie authors and "smut"? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by astreus@lemmy.ml to c/books@lemmy.ml

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When did written pornography become the norm for indie authors? I remember when Amazon was first taking off for indie authors and, yes, there was a lot of smut, a lot of Christian romance, but also a ton of cyberpunk, crime, and even some literary fiction. Now, every time I see an indie author on Threads or X, they exclusively write porn.

And if there was ever a problem with porn feeding into rape culture, then these books are rape culture on steroids. Nearly all of them think "enemies to lovers" should be "if a man holds you captive against your will, fuck his brains out and marry him". There's even a TikTok/Insta trend of "indie fans on a first date" and saying stuff like "you can burn me, you can beat me, you can choke me" etc.

And published authors are also getting in on it Sarah J Mass (a best selling author aimed at teenagers) is light fantasy tropes mixed in with graphic sex scenes, kidnap fantasy, and rape fantasy.

When did this become the norm? It feels like OnlyFans, but aimed at children and exclusively rapey...

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[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Maybe you keep viewing it and so you get more of it recommended to you because platforms crave user interaction so they can show you ads.

Perhaps it's also the other side... Authors see more engagement from one topic. So they focus only on that.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 3 points 10 months ago

Yup, my wife gets ads for unhinged bullshit from Amazon, and she keeps getting them because she clicks on every one.

[–] astreus@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The entire discourse is like this. Seriously, there was a great threads where someone asked to spend money on anything that was literary and indie. Crickets, despite indie authors attacking her a few days earlier for not reading indie.

I'm not searching this out, I'm searching out indie authors. On instagram yesterday, I checked out the indie author hashtags and every single one was porn.

[–] astreus@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

And then I checked out a competition for unpublished authors looking to break into self publishing.

Seven judges. ONE wasn't porn.

[–] VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I can remember a few years ago I was browsing through the genre categories on my kindle and the romance category was filled with books where a woman is held against her will or something similar. I didn't search specifically and i wasn't looking at recommendations, I was browsing a genre and a large chunk out in 5 pages was extreme erotica. So I get where op is coming from.

[–] SteelCorrelation@lemmy.one 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I dunno what it is, but it’s all my wife reads. Every time I call it porn, she gets very defensive. I just shrug and tell her to read whatever she wants.

[–] astreus@lemmy.ml 0 points 10 months ago

Now go watch some "problematic consent" porn next to her and see what happens!

[–] randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I can't hear you over my audiobook "Pounded in the butt by my own butt" written and read by author Chuck Tingle.

[–] Sharpiemarker@startrek.website 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's pretty gross, isn't it?

I've always enjoyed a bit of YA fiction/sci-fi and now it's all weird kink stuff.

[–] astreus@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

I wonder if there's a clear marker pre-50 shades of grey and post-50 shades of grey...that book seems to have done a number on people.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

Sex sells

[–] TomJoad@lemmy.tf 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes, we are in an artistic lull (for what is popular lately).

…Yet still, some artists stay true on the path and create something cleaner and healthy… today… Honest and Brave.

That is the actual Liberation.

[–] HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So what do you want done about it?

[–] astreus@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just because I don't have a solution doesn't mean the problem isn't worth highlighting imo

[–] HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social -1 points 10 months ago

Okay so what outcome do you want? What does winning look like to you?