Nerds
Being a nerd was never supposed to be
I am the OG nerd.
I was part of that generation that saw the advent of video games. I played Pong. We had a Pong console when I was a kid—that and Tank Battle. My parents got me an Atari 2600 console for Christmas. I even possess a copy of the notorious ET video cartridge somewhere in my home. And yes, I played it when I was a kid.
I was part of that generation of programmers, in the late 1980s / early 1990s, who created the things most people take for granted: apps, web pages, games, you name it. Over the course of my career, we went from 1200 baud modems, bulletin board sites (BBS), and Hercules green-screen graphics cards to the Internet you know today.
The tech you know and love? All created and facilitated by nerds. Social outcasts, often with bad hygiene, whose ostracized youth was filled with D&D and Turbo Pascal.
Speaking of D&D, I still have my Basic and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons manuals and a whole bunch of those old modules (Keep on the Borderlands, Expidition to the Barrier Peaks, Against the Slave Lords, etc.). I even used to own the first-edition pamphlet-style books, but I donated them to someone’s garage sale. Yes, I still kick myself for that stupid decision.
I even play a D&D MMORPG to this very day.
Nerds, of course, are big speculative fiction fans. If not in books, then comics, or movies. Nerds LOVE Science Fiction and Fantasy.
So, I was rather surprised when I came across this on X the other day:
The thing is, I attend a lot of book-selling events (or at least I did until this year when surgeons started carving me up like a Christmas Goose), and at these events, you meet all kinds. Furries, goths, old nerds like me, young nerds, Christian missionaries (yes, one bought my book to read while he flew to Africa), and so on. You deal with all kinds. Most of these people are disaffected from the mainstream in one way or another. Yet, the one thing they all have in common is that they buy my books.
Well, except furries. I don’t think I’ve ever sold a book to a furry. I think it’s a Manga thing.
Anyway, there are often more misfits at my table than not. Many of them are loyal readers.
Laughing at your readers doesn’t exactly endear an author to their audience.
Likewise, the people most hip with the current trends? They don’t exactly like Fantasy. In fact, they’ve never liked it. Romantacy is a prime example. Romantacy isn’t exactly Fantasy—it’s Romance with a Fantasy skinsuit. While it’s the current hot trend, its readership could easily slip into Hockey Romance if so inclined. Because the main point of reading both is for the typical Romance tropes. Just like Paranormal Romance is read for the Romance, and the paranormal attributes are there mainly for flavoring.
Oh, and as a vehicle for smut. Let’s not forget that. Just like guys used to read Playboy for the articles.
I’m sure I get some crossover with some of these audiences. However, the audience I write for is the nerd. The Fantasy nerd, more specifically. And to be really specific, I write them for me, and I am an OG nerd. I write what I want to read. Which is probably why I have a lot of nerds reading my books.
Yet, the trend these days seems to be to take a property or a genre and try to bend it in ways so that it appeals to a different audience. Usually, this is done at the expense of the fans…you know, the people who actually purchase the content in one form or another. I mean, there are so many examples to illustrate my point: Amazon’s Rings of Power, Amazon’s Wheel of Time, the Ghostbusters 2016 reboot, Star Wars (pick anything post-prequels)—the list is rather extensive at this point. Favorite properties and genres are “remade” for people who never liked them in the first place.
It’s the same type of mockery if you ponder it for a bit. “Haw haw! I took your favorite book and turned it into something else!”
Then they wonder why their stuff bombs. It’s a really stupid idea when you consider it.
It’s part of the reason why men don’t read fiction anymore (they read mine). The same principle is in play. Of course, this is good for people like me, because I have a chance to pick up the people this new crop of creators turns away. Bully!
Unfortunately, this behavior has ruined the American comics industry. Movies, these days, generally suck. The upside is that the indie book scene? Well, they cater to nerds.
I cater to nerds.
It’s a good thing.
(And buy my books!)
The Revenant and the Tomb eBook is now 99¢! Check it out on Amazon.
