my BRAAHND!

[Aloria]

I keep coming across people complaining about books being bland and writers having no real voice of their own past internet memes and writers having WAY too much clout for what they do.
And my answer keeps being that Branding is the problem.
I've always resisted being part of the product when it came to selling my books. My readers should only be interested in the book. Not my opinions. Not what I ate for breakfast. But social media has pushed everyone into caring about that kind of shit when it really doesn't matter.
I feel like Branding has destroyed the ability to just enjoy a piece of media without the issues of "Oh, they did XYZ 20 years ago! CANCEL!!" and honestly, cancel culture is so performative. If they did something actually wrong, then let the justice system work it out and punish them. Public executions were never cool.

[gorzek]

If people did bad things, even if they weren't illegal, I don't think there is anything wrong with telling others. People can decide for themselves if they want to buy from that person or not.
I do hate "branding," though. And it all seems to be not just about selling products, but about selling a lifestyle. You don't buy this person's books because they're good books, you buy them because they are part of an overall ecosystem of products that will make your life... uhh... something, I guess.
I'd call it the Appleization of commerce, since Apple kinda pioneered this whole notion of making a lifestyle brand ecosystem.
My brand is leave me alone.

[ScottyMcGee]

God, the stuff I hear from friends trying to/getting published in mainstream publishing. The whole "looking at your Instagram followers" thing. God. I want to be a writer but I know I would fucking end up tarnishing my image or whatever by telling some agent or publisher to eat a dick and haplessly post about it everywhere online. I guess that's where self-publishing comes into play after all. And indie publishing. I know a good friend of mine who got published through a small, niche indie publisher.

[gorzek]

Yeah, the implication is that it doesn't matter if you are any good at writing, it only matters how good you are at selling. If I wanted to be in the business of selling, I'd be a salesman!

[Aloria]

Recently my new therapist (may not keep this person around long) was telling me that I'm not TRYING to get money from my work because I'm not TRYING to go tradpub.
She said I was only listening to people online who probably aren't who they say they are. She talked over me when I tried to tell her that wasn't 100% of where I'm getting my information when I say I've Researched the topic. 
I have a group of writers I meet with monthly. IN PERSON.
They're all buying the rights back on their books so they can indie/self publish because their tradpub never did anything with their books. They got on shelves at B&N but there was no marketing. The authors were forced to do rewrites to change the book how the publisher wanted and thought the plots should go in order to sell the book (that they never marketed) and essentially just turned the author into a ghostwriter for the publisher. And the book wasn't even that good after the publisher was done with it. And then the publisher changed their mind because the publisher was trend chasing and decided that was out and this other thing was in.
And besides lacking control over your own creation, there's the whole topic of advances. They're a joke. IF you get an advance, it's going to be maybe $2k, and split into installments. And then you don't get paid again until you sell that many books and start getting your whopping 8% royalties. Which are subject to be less than 8% because when booksellers discount your books, it doesn't come out of THEIR money, it comes out of YOUR royalties.
Again. Trad pub doesn't market. YOU are expected to do 100% of your marketing.
Even though it's already proven that if they put money behind marketing something, they sell a fuck ton more books.

[gorzek]

Yeah, the two tiers of publishing are "mega star who gets a massive marketing push" and "everyone else who must do their own marketing."
There's so little advantage from traditional publishing anymore unless you're in the former category.