#bookish discourse

[xiranjayzhao]

Some truths about the publishing industry because I certainly got blindsided when going in. Now I'm so broken by this industry I struggle to encourage aspiring writers lmao

[melhyan-writes]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐯 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫: 𝐏𝐮𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐭, 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐫

Friendly fandom reminder that fic writers, and writers in general, do not owe you fanfiction for your ship.

A writer writing about a particular ship has not sworn an ancient blood oath to you. They are not a knight kneeling before the fandom throne, sword raised, solemnly declaring, “I shall provide 47k words of Blorbo/Blorbo until the end of my natural life.”

They are a writer.

They are not Writesalot of House Fic, Keeper of the Blorbo Table, sworn to provide you with your preferred pairing upon demand.

If someone writes your ship? Wonderful! Feast! Rejoice! Throw flower petals! Leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

If they stop writing it, write something else, pair the character with someone you don't like, start a completely different fandom, or simply wander into the woods and disappear for six months? That is also their business!!!!

If you desperately want more content for your particular ship/blorbo of choice and there isn't enough of it? I have some devastating news...

You have been granted the ancient and sacred power of “putting your sword to it yourself!”

Pick up the quill, soldier! The AO3 tag is waiting! The kingdom needs you!

Stop standing outside the castle yelling at the one writer who happened to make three fics about your ship and start writing the fourth one yourself!

[mysteryofvampires]

Love to see the booktok girlies whining over how the only goodreads update is the logo change and not that they get some new features like half stars or anything.

This is exactly what you deserve if you still support Amazon and Jeff Bezos with using that shitty website even if there are other options with the features you want.

While we're at it: I hate the discussion about what tracking app is the best because goodreads shouldn't even be an option, because it's owned by Amazon.

If you still use that app actively get away from me!

[littlecakeclub]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole “RF Kuang is cancelled again” discourse because she was invited to a fantasy conference in Dubai to talk about Babel, then withdrew after learning about the UAE’s involvement in extractivism and violence in Sudan. People are saying she “should have known,” that it’s hypocritical for a decolonial author to attend, etc. And yes, Dubai is deeply implicated in what’s happening in Sudan. Yes, Gulf states deserve critique. Yes, Arab people especially have every right to boycott influencers and institutions that profit from exploitation.

But I want to be very clear from the start: I respect the boycott when it comes from Sudanese and Palestinian movements themselves, and I understand why cultural institutions in the UAE are being called out through BDS. Boycott is a tool of solidarity, not a moral purity test. My issue is not with the boycott itself — it’s with how selectively people apply it.

I find it interesting how quickly the internet jumps to cancel a woman of colour for being associated with Dubai, while completely ignoring the fact that the United States is itself a colonial state. Every American city is built on stolen Native land. Europe is sliding into open fascism. Canada is still a settler colony. India is openly supremacist. And yet, no one screams scandal when RF Kuang travels to Oxford or Cambridge — institutions built on imperial extraction, scientific racism, and colonial wealth. Somehow Western colonialism remains invisible, unremarked, and even prestigious, while non-Western states become the sole terrain of moral outrage. It’s a double standard that reveals far more about Western comfort than about actual solidarity.

I keep thinking about how people said “she should have known,” as if Americans are magically omniscient about global politics. I’m sorry, but I’m a Belgian woman of colour, and when Angela Davis came to Belgium a few years ago — someone I admire deeply — she had no idea about the police violence Black and Arab communities were experiencing here. That same year, a young man had died from police brutality and we had massive protests across the country. If Angela Davis, with her decades of activism, didn’t know about Belgian struggles until someone told her, why do we expect a fantasy author to automatically know everything about Sudan, UAE geopolitics and Gulf extractivism.

And to situate this within the BDS framework: the issue is not that RF Kuang was going to speak about colonialism. BDS targets state-backed cultural partnerships that whitewash oppression, not independent authors who come to critique power. Speaking about decolonial violence in Dubai is not the same as legitimizing the Emirati state. This distinction matters and people keep flattening it.

This is why Alinsky insists on being radical, not “pure.” Purity politics do nothing for oppressed people. They just create smaller and smaller circles of “acceptable” activists. Movements don’t win because individuals are morally flawless; they win because they act strategically. There is a difference between refusing to normalize a regime and refusing to let decolonial voices speak in difficult spaces. We have to know the difference.

Honestly, having a decolonial author present Babel in Dubai might have opened conversations that desperately need to happen in that region. Silencing those voices doesn’t challenge authoritarianism. It reinforces Western cultural dominance by keeping decolonial critique confined to Western audiences only. There are other ways to boycott Dubai that hit harder (like not participating in the trendy Dubai chocolate craze) without shutting down opportunities to challenge narratives from within.

And I’m tired of watching authors of colour get held to impossible standards while white authors face zero consequences. Colleen Hoover still sells millions. Emily Henry hasn’t said a word about Palestine and no one seems to mind. Brandon Sanderson? Also silent. The fandom’s appetite for moral perfection applies almost exclusively to racialized authors, especially Asian and Black writers, while white authors are allowed to be apolitical by default. That’s not solidarity that’s racialized scrutiny disguised as ethics.

To align with the joint Palestine–Sudan call: yes, these struggles are linked, and yes, the UAE plays a role in both. But so do Western states. So does Europe’s border regime. So does the United States’ endless militarism. If we’re serious about solidarity, we cannot reserve outrage for non-Western states while normalizing oppression at home. Solidarity has to be global, or it becomes theatre.

So yes, critique Dubai. Yes, critique extractivism in Sudan. Yes, hold everyone accountable. But cancelling a decolonial author for an honest mistake, while giving Western institutions and white authors a free pass. It misses the structural point entirely. And it makes our movements smaller, not stronger.

[amaliazeichnerin]

Some numbers about AI generated e-books (found this on Instagram)

[queerbookmasterlist]

(via 2023 Bookish Bingo)

It’s almost the new year, so it’s time to whip out your 2023 Bingo Cards!

I made these 2023 Bookish Bingo cards to be used throughout the year. They were a little snarky, but I thought it could be fun to see how fast someone get’s Bingo!

Feel free to download them and cross off the squares if you find any of this in any type of your bookish groups, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Bookstagram, BookTok, Discord, or so on!

[bookbeani]

I am reading Uprooted right now, and loving it! Torn between being happy that I waited to read it until Spinning Silver is out so I didn’t have a long wait for her next book and waiting to get the paperback so it will match my copy of Uprooted. What’s a bookworm to do?

Glad you’re enjoying it!! Ah, that’s the eternal struggle, isn’t it? I’m in the exact same boat with V.E. Schwab’s Vengeful. Personally, I’m in the habit of waiting because I can’t stand having mismatching copies if I can help it. And you can always borrow it from the library in the meantime and read it so you don’t have to wait? 👀👌🏼

[xiranjayzhao]

Listen I'm just trying not to get squeezed off the shelves when there's less and less room for POC books ok