3 ms·

As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. I'm a picky reader. I have a kindle and I use it a lot, typically late at nig

As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. I'm a picky reader. I have a kindle and I use it a lot, typically late at night and on the weekend. I do most my reading in bed. Every day. Most book sites are recommendation bubbles where once you get stuck in one you only get recommended things that you've already read or that you are not really interested in reading. Breaking out of these bubbles is super hard. So, I can see how it is hard for new authors to break into these bubbles. And then of course there is the notion that a lot of authors are not attractive to a broad audience; which means reaching such an audience is quite hard. Some of the stuff I read is pretty niche. Most of that is in English instead of Dutch (my native language) because a lot of that stuff just is a hard sell in the tiny Dutch market. Entire genres are excluded from being translated for this reason. E.g. most of Neal Stephenson's work has not been translated (except for some of his earlier novels). Including several of his best sellers. Forget about anything similar from smaller authors. I'm not aware of any Dutch science fiction authors. I'm sure there are a few. And of course this works both ways of course. It's very rare for Dutch authors to get translated to English. The ones that do have to be successful in the Dutch market first. Which means they need to appeal to a broad audience. If I were to become a novelist and would try to write some science fiction and do it in Dutch, I'd stand no chance getting any audience. And while I'm comfortable writing in English, I'm not a native speaker and it probably shows. Getting from alright to good is a lot of work and the bar is extremely high. I have a hunch that AI assisted translations are going to revolutionize the literary world in the next few years. There's a huge opportunity for publishers to broaden their markets for already proven authors to essentially the entire planet. Of course that won't make things any easier for new authors.

keiferski 2y ago
You might enjoy subscribing to a book review journal like the London Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, or New York Review of Books. They all have their biases but I’ve found them to be useful for learning about recently released books that I want to read. (I am a former subscriber of all three and thought the LTLS was the best and least biased.)
- everybodyknows 2y ago
  Ah, but those publications (also The New Yorker, Los Angeles Review of Books) are interested in scholarship and literature, rather than page-turning stories; high art, not popular entertainment. There's some intersection between the two camps, but it's largely due to intervention by influential personalities: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah's_Book_Club https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah's_Book_Club
edanm 2y ago
> As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. I cannot relate to this at all. The more I read, the more topics I get interested in, and the more I'm part of various communities of book readers (mostly watching BookTube or listening to podcasts), the bigger the list of books I want to read grows. My "want to read" list, of books that I actually wrote down in a file somewhere, is 1,000 books long, and that doesn't include many other books that I never wrote down. And I read a lot, compared to most people.
- vidarh 2y ago
  That you read a lot might well make you an outlier in terms of what you're willing to read. I read a lot too, in bursts, and I find that while I do have some strong preferences where it's hard to find stuff I really like, I'm flexible enough that I certainly can find a neverending stream of books that are "good enough". But a lot of people have really high thresholds for how interesting a book need to sound to them for them to even consider it.
vidarh 2y ago
> I have a hunch that AI assisted translations are going to revolutionize the literary world in the next few years. There's a huge opportunity for publishers to broaden their markets for already proven authors to essentially the entire planet. Of course that won't make things any easier for new authors. They're already good enough for a tiny language like Norwegian, that I've considered using it for my own books (I'm Norwegian, but write in English, to my editor's chagrin - my English is good but I still make many stupid mistakes especially when tired). They're not good enough not to have a native reader read through the result and edit, hence why I'd only consider using it for my native Norwegian so far. I wouldn't dare try to use it for French or German, even though I read both, as my command of those languages isn't good enough that I'd trust myself to catch more subtle problems. But I agree with you - it won't take much before they'll at least drastically cut the cost of translations even if you need a translator to clean up the result. There's no way translating my novels to a smaller language would pay off at current prices - I'd need English sales several times higher before I'd consider it realistic for it to break even in most other languages. I don't much care about making money from them, but I'm not going to do it if I can only expect to lose money. If I can get translations at, say 1/10th of current costs, I might well end up having them translated to 10-20 languages or more.
duggan 2y ago
> And while I'm comfortable writing in English, I'm not a native speaker and it probably shows. Getting from alright to good is a lot of work and the bar is extremely high For what it's worth, at least from this comment, I don't think I'd have any way to distinguish your writing from that of a native speaker (as a native speaker). I'm also not sure that mastery of English is the most important skill of a novelist. Obviously I'm just a random commenter on the Internet, but I don't think you should let English being a second language dissuade you. Might even be an advantage if it discourages you from using flowery prose.
- jeegsy 2y ago
  > advantage if it discourages you from using flowery prose. I've always said that "flowery prose" is something that needs to make a comeback. I really miss that style of writing. What fun to read! The 'modern' impulse for 'efficient' writing is at least a contributing factor to the decline in reading I daresay.
  - duggan 2y ago
    I suppose "flowery" is open to interpretation, but generally I mean those occasions where it looks like someone is randomly choosing from a thesaurus for every other adverb. Anyway, I don't think it's in any danger of disappearing – it's pervasive and popular – but I've never been able to complete a book with too much of it.
    - jeegsy 2y ago
      I mean it in the Dickensian sense
throw0101c 2y ago
> As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. I'm a picky reader. I have 70+ plus books on hold at my local library (though the holds have been 'paused' so that they will arrive in a staggered fashion). The library has a limit of 100 books being on hold at a time, but it does have a "bookmark" feature so you can save them for later: I have over 2000 books earmarked for future putting-on-hold. There's plenty to read. (I read a bunch of non-fiction on academic-leaning topics (history, economics, science), and often get new things to read from the references of the book I'm currently going through. There's a bunch of fiction too: put a hold on Shogun because of the mini-series.)
IndySun 2y ago
>As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. Why hard to find interesting things, because too much choice and/or market saturation of low quality? >I'm a picky reader. Is this part of the reason you find it hard to find interesting things? I've read the rest of your worthwhile reply but I'm finding it hard to reconcile the opening sentences. >I have a kindle and I use it a lot, typically late at night and on the weekend. I do most my reading in bed. Every day. Are paper books out for you? Thank you.
greenie_beans 2y ago
find a good independent bookstore. recommending books is one of their greatest strengths.

keiferski 2y ago

You might enjoy subscribing to a book review journal like the London Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, or New York Review of Books. They all have their biases but I’ve found them to be useful for learning about recently released books that I want to read. (I am a former subscriber of all three and thought the LTLS was the best and least biased.)

everybodyknows 2y ago
Ah, but those publications (also The New Yorker, Los Angeles Review of Books) are interested in scholarship and literature, rather than page-turning stories; high art, not popular entertainment. There's some intersection between the two camps, but it's largely due to intervention by influential personalities: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah's_Book_Club https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah's_Book_Club

edanm 2y ago

> As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. I cannot relate to this at all. The more I read, the more topics I get interested in, and the more I'm part of various communities of book readers (mostly watching BookTube or listening to podcasts), the bigger the list of books I want to read grows. My "want to read" list, of books that I actually wrote down in a file somewhere, is 1,000 books long, and that doesn't include many other books that I never wrote down. And I read a lot, compared to most people.

vidarh 2y ago
That you read a lot might well make you an outlier in terms of what you're willing to read. I read a lot too, in bursts, and I find that while I do have some strong preferences where it's hard to find stuff I really like, I'm flexible enough that I certainly can find a neverending stream of books that are "good enough". But a lot of people have really high thresholds for how interesting a book need to sound to them for them to even consider it.

vidarh 2y ago

> I have a hunch that AI assisted translations are going to revolutionize the literary world in the next few years. There's a huge opportunity for publishers to broaden their markets for already proven authors to essentially the entire planet. Of course that won't make things any easier for new authors. They're already good enough for a tiny language like Norwegian, that I've considered using it for my own books (I'm Norwegian, but write in English, to my editor's chagrin - my English is good but I still make many stupid mistakes especially when tired). They're not good enough not to have a native reader read through the result and edit, hence why I'd only consider using it for my native Norwegian so far. I wouldn't dare try to use it for French or German, even though I read both, as my command of those languages isn't good enough that I'd trust myself to catch more subtle problems. But I agree with you - it won't take much before they'll at least drastically cut the cost of translations even if you need a translator to clean up the result. There's no way translating my novels to a smaller language would pay off at current prices - I'd need English sales several times higher before I'd consider it realistic for it to break even in most other languages. I don't much care about making money from them, but I'm not going to do it if I can only expect to lose money. If I can get translations at, say 1/10th of current costs, I might well end up having them translated to 10-20 languages or more.

duggan 2y ago

> And while I'm comfortable writing in English, I'm not a native speaker and it probably shows. Getting from alright to good is a lot of work and the bar is extremely high For what it's worth, at least from this comment, I don't think I'd have any way to distinguish your writing from that of a native speaker (as a native speaker). I'm also not sure that mastery of English is the most important skill of a novelist. Obviously I'm just a random commenter on the Internet, but I don't think you should let English being a second language dissuade you. Might even be an advantage if it discourages you from using flowery prose.

jeegsy 2y ago
> advantage if it discourages you from using flowery prose. I've always said that "flowery prose" is something that needs to make a comeback. I really miss that style of writing. What fun to read! The 'modern' impulse for 'efficient' writing is at least a contributing factor to the decline in reading I daresay.
- duggan 2y ago
  I suppose "flowery" is open to interpretation, but generally I mean those occasions where it looks like someone is randomly choosing from a thesaurus for every other adverb. Anyway, I don't think it's in any danger of disappearing – it's pervasive and popular – but I've never been able to complete a book with too much of it.
  - jeegsy 2y ago
    I mean it in the Dickensian sense

throw0101c 2y ago

> As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. I'm a picky reader. I have 70+ plus books on hold at my local library (though the holds have been 'paused' so that they will arrive in a staggered fashion). The library has a limit of 100 books being on hold at a time, but it does have a "bookmark" feature so you can save them for later: I have over 2000 books earmarked for future putting-on-hold. There's plenty to read. (I read a bunch of non-fiction on academic-leaning topics (history, economics, science), and often get new things to read from the references of the book I'm currently going through. There's a bunch of fiction too: put a hold on Shogun because of the mini-series.)

IndySun 2y ago

>As someone who reads a lot, it's actually hard to find interesting things to read. Why hard to find interesting things, because too much choice and/or market saturation of low quality? >I'm a picky reader. Is this part of the reason you find it hard to find interesting things? I've read the rest of your worthwhile reply but I'm finding it hard to reconcile the opening sentences. >I have a kindle and I use it a lot, typically late at night and on the weekend. I do most my reading in bed. Every day. Are paper books out for you? Thank you.

greenie_beans 2y ago

find a good independent bookstore. recommending books is one of their greatest strengths.