Let's Talk Bookish; The Impact of Social Media Platforms and Trope-Based Marketing

 It's Friday and I thought it would be rather fitting with a Let's Talk Bookish post courtesy of Book Nook Bits and Dinipanda Reads, and today's topic is "are published books losing quality? The impact of social media platforms and trope-based marketing".

Here's the further prompts for today's discussion.

Reading has become increasingly more “popular” due to platforms like booktok and bookstagram, which tend to promote certain types of books. It has also given rise to the “trope only” marketing trend. Do you think the hype that’s been created on these platforms has impacted the quality of books that are published these days? Do you think it’s impacting only certain genres or do you notice it across all genres? How do you think this will impact book quality and publishing in the years to come (i.e. is it just a phase or will it continue)?

While it's great that more people discover books and reading, it's not necessarily that ALL books published at the moment are that great.

I do believe the hype that's been created on some social media have either directly or indirectly impacted on the more recent book releases in a negative way, especially in genre fiction such as romance and fantasy (both with all their sub-genres).

Genre fiction does of course rely a bit on elements such as tropes, (character) archetypes, and other plot devices, but that's just part(s) of the books. There's hero's journey, the chosen one, final girl, haunted house, good versus evil, red herrings, happily ever after, femme fatales, and rugged detectives with a weak spot for single malt whisky, just to name a few. If done right, they can "flavour" the story and the plot to make it more interesting, but you'd still need elements such as character development and a plot to make it a good book.

That said, there's some literary fiction novels that's more on the vibe-side rather than plot-side of things, but in those cases, more often than not, elements such as beautiful prose and/or the author's writing style makes up for it. Some of the literary fiction novels I've read that's more quiet and understated, yet thought-provoking beautiful pieces of art are for instance Stoner by John Williams and Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, although these two have some plot to them.

I honestly feel that at least in some more recent romance releases, such as The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore (and the rest of the series), it's more vibes and tropes than actual character development and plot. While I can admit I found The Pumpkin Spice Café a bit charming as I love autumn, I honestly doubt it ever will be considered a classic anytime soon. It's almost a bit the bookish version of fast fashion or something.

There's a risk that it all bleeds over to other genres as well sooner or later, and I already see it when it comes to fantasy novels, considering how popular BookTok and Bookstagram are at the moment. I can't deny I've struggled quite a bit with recent releases in general, as I've felt the quality is lacking somehow and it's far between those good quality books, but it might be the English/literature major in me that's slightly critical of a lot of genre fiction (somehow proper horror fiction can still be found though). Fortunately there's still some good quality books that gets published though, so it's not all lost.

With social media like BookTok and Bookstagram, I'm worried this issue is here to stay, at least for now, but if enough people get fed up by trope-based marketing and the current quality of books, and actually voice their opinions, just maybe there's hope. Maybe. I don't dare hoping for too much though.