I’ve been doing a Dear Published Authors posts series on IG to ask self-pub or trad pub authors about tips, tricks, and secrets. I started it because I, personally, want to know and want to have everything in one place. Other people seem to find it helpful, so that’s good
Trad or self-pub. It can be anything. Even if it’s about money. I’ll ask nicely, of course.
It can even be genre specific. I have an audience of all different kinds of authors; fantasy (dark, epic, high, romance), sci-fi, historical fiction, memoir, contemporary, middle grade fantasy, paranormal fiction, etc.
So…yeah.
Got anything? This is your chance to ask all the inside questions.
I’d love to hear about literary fiction in the modern day, in some form. Not necessarily “has it gone the way of the dinosaurs” or “how do I market it,” but things like how people adapt its framework to shifting societal forms today or what lessons we can learn from the classics (or even readapt them). Or even something like if readers’ cultural base has shifted over time (do people get Shakespeare jokes any more) or shifting demographic trends (there’s a lot of youth-oriented upmarket literary fiction that’s perhaps even more for English majors than older works). Something that isn’t about genre fiction, no matter what.
Interesting… I can’t fit a lot of words in one post, so I’ll have to think…
So, maybe
Literary Fiction authors! Do you believe your genre has adapted to fit modern society and the modern-day reader? How so?
Is this close to what you’re asking?
Then maybe a related question: As an author writing for literary fiction, do you find demographic trends have shifted in your genre? How have you dealt with that?
So…I hope that’s some of your questions?
Since I’m specifically asking published authors, I want to make sure these questions ask about the publishing industry or what published authors might think about.
It would make sense to ask questions to authors who have published and are continuously publishing in that genre. But come to think of it, it might be a bit hard to keep out of writing-specific questions when you get into genre, because it’s not like you can publish without experiencing the writing bit at least a little
I didn’t have a specific question that I “wanted” to see be asked, but I wanted to throw out some ideas in the hopes it would help you come up with some too in that general vein. As long as there’s some lit fic representation of some sort I’ll be happy, since I know from experience those sorts of questions aren’t necessarily asked without someone gunning for them.
I do lots of questions to authors, writers, and readers. I post bookstagram photos and story snippets. Sometimes, I have various thoughts in my stories (like, the other day, I wondered if I was the only one to find haul videos problematic and why I felt that way).
Diversity might be an interesting topic…
I did ask a question like that to writers not necessarily published. I asked what they thought “diversity in fiction” meant. If you wanna know the answers, I can probably pull it up again and jot down some of the comments.
Ah, I see. I do think talking about lit fic in some way with published authors would be interesting. I’ve heard a little discussion on this idea of “modern lit fic vs classic lit fic” and how some people think lit fic in the modern era isn’t real lit fic or something along those lines.
I’ll see what I can cook up along with those other questions.
From published authors: do they have the instinct when they know which drafted book is worth more and more time investment to edit it to the point they are confident in each sentence, and does this instinct fail them often? Do they know when to stop throwing time on a book that just not going to be successful? How do they tell a potentially successful book from a passion project doomed to fail?
Those are such good questions! Definitely going on the list. I can’t make such long sentences, but I’ll come up with something similar and elaborate in the captions.
Are you on IG? If not, I can let you know the responses when I get them for your questions.
This is your chance to ask all the inside questions.
