I’ve noticed this happens a lot, but especially when it comes to right-wing authors in a lot of genres.
Now, I know that it’s important for writers to establish a persona of types in order to stand out from the crowd. Stephen King, Dave Sedaris, Chuck Palahniuk, etc.- they have a fun personality to go along their works. But, in the end, their writing stands up and entertains.
But, with right wing authors, especially in the sci-fi and military fiction genres- they go overboard trying to play to the crowd.
Larry Correia tries to paint himself as some rage-filled writing god amongst ants, and goes out of his way to mention how his readers are all cops and ex-military while hammering his Mormon beliefs and hatred of liberals. When you actually read his books, you realize he basically just steals Warhammer 40K fanfic and inserts himself as the hero.
Richard Fox is ex-Army, and continually squawks about being an officer in Iraq. He uses his service and PTSD claims to try to guilt-sell more books, while raging about the LGBTQ community with an emphasis on transgender individuals. His books are just Army fairytale in space churned out every week, with no real characters and plots thinner than the paper they waste.
Brad Torgersen spends almost no time writing , and merely pontificates about his church and his self-martyrdom leading the Sad Puppies. When he’s not complaining about his “sacrifices” one weekend a month in the reserves, he complains about how he and Correia and Fox should be in charge of Star Wars and Star Trek. Yet, his writing output is just Halo and Battlestar Galactica clones with all the fun removed.
There are hundreds more like them, including the guys who took over Jack Ryan from Tom Clancy. Every one of them writes the same kind of macho bullshit, with the “fun” being derived from bad stereotypes and even worse humor. And when you read the reviews, you see that the people supporting then barely read the material, but want to support “heroes and patriots”.
And yet, despite the market being flooded with this crap, along with their marked efforts to chase out authors they deem to be the enemy, they complain about bring silenced.
I guess in order to make it in today’s market, all you need to have is a good sob story and a raging ego to put yourself over the top.
by Equivalent-Tone6098