getting libertarian and Objectivist-ish thought under the radar

[Eugene]

In my novel, I made a point of not using the L-word and not making the main plot political, since I did not want to trigger libertarian derangement syndrome among my target audience. However, in some scenes, one of the characters backs up a point with at least libertarianish or Objectivist-ish reasoning, and in a subplot, a devotee of bigger government falls under the juggernaut that she helped build.

[J.L.]

Agreed. Subtlety is far more effective.

In both my books (one is about time travel and the JFK assassination, and the other is about a governmental conspiracy set on an island) there are streams of pro-liberty philosophy woven throughout, without specifically identifying it by name (if done right, you don't need to because the human desire to be free transcends labels).

Each book won me a Libertopia "best libertarian fiction" award in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

However when one reads my book descriptions they would not get that indication ( see their descriptions here: https://www.jlpattison.com/books ) because even though that message is highly important, it is secondary—or even tertiary—to my desire to tell a great story and tell it well.

This is important because, to be successful, you must still have a compelling story to tell (and it must written well), otherwise the reader suspects that your story is only a conduit by which to "preach" your political philosophy. That is never a good approach because it turns readers off and they distrust you.

This is exactly the approach that most Christian fiction authors take, and this is why so few Christian fiction books are any good (not to mention how vapid most of them are regarding sound doctrine . . . but that’s another issue for another time).

I hope this has added insight to your original post, Eugene.

Sincerely,
- J.L. Pattison

[Eugene]

Thank you for your comments.

This is important because, to be successful, you must still have a compelling story to tell (and it must written well), otherwise the reader suspects that your story is only a conduit by which to "preach" your political philosophy.

I bore that in mind when writing. I believe, and my beta readers agree, that I do have a compelling and well written story. It's about a romantic relationship and about the aspects of the psychological makeup of one of the characters that cause the relationship to sour.