Lit Reader’s Reviews > Room for Improvement > Status Update

Amongst all the glowing reviews, I'm seeing little hints that there are problems with this one - reviews mentioning the difficulty in believing the premise and woke elements. I'm looking forward to your thoughts on it!

Like many co-writes, this projects fails to strike the right chord >> it’s a comedy in a very modern tone, but it rings as farce; the scenes are forced and the characters caricatures of themselves.

Darcy wetting his shirt over & over, while Elizabeth salivates over his physique won’t ever ring true in any accurate Regency setting, or a respectful P&P variation… “every feeling revolts!”

Wow. That's not what I'm looking for in a P&P variation. I don't like such a "modern tone" as you call it. From what you're saying, I'm reminded of the "comedy" in Enamored by JL. I thought it was more horrifying than funny, but I've never thought adultery or the plight of kept women to be good for a laugh.

Oh, I purposefully avoided that one ! There’s no way in the world in which I could stomach casual adultery as comedy — that maybe worked for Jack Lemon in some edgy 1960s comedies… but clearly not for any Austenesque, and probably above the skill level required for most JAFF authors…

Yes! I agree. I should have skipped it too. I read it against my better judgment. I'm starting to abandon some authors who have repeatedly disappointed me, and I'm waiting to read some of these new releases that sound questionable to me (like this one).

I am disappointed in some authors I considered talented and somehow reliable, and they are churning out writing experiments that are clearly beneath their former quality standards, and which defy logic, structure, and historical accuracy.

Why write in Mr Gardiner into the plot if he barely features at all and his introduction serves no purpose? Why cheapen the whole bonkers plot with a random maid who gets an infected wound in her bum (construction site risks)???? WHY ??? I didn’t find it funny at all.

This is just speculation on my part, but I find myself wondering if they are struggling to come up with good ideas for new variations that are different enough from previous variations. It's almost as if they had a certain number of great ideas or completed FF stories at the beginning of their publishing career, but those are already published, and now they're struggling to come up with new ideas, thus the increasingly contrived and silly stories. So many of the stories released last year by well-known, talented authors were disappointing.

This is absolutely ACCURATE! I also have the feeling that many popular authors are trying to salvage old writing exercises, failed ideas, or any writing lark they had stored somewhere, in order to churn out X amount of ebooks per year — maybe their income is dependant on a certain amount of releases per year, regardless of their abysmal quality…

There was a conversation in a post on FB where a newer author was lamenting the drop in income for her book, and several experienced authors explained to her that she needed to publish a new book every 90 days to sustain a level income. That explains a lot.

I'm also thinking of one author who began to publish circa 2022, who now publishes new novels every 6-8 weeks, and now she pads her new stories with older novels as a "bonus." (KU income is only generated during the first borrow of a book by a reader, but if it's republished by adding it to a new book, it can generate income.) She also pads her stories with ridiculously detailed descriptions of everything - furniture, clothes, food, landscapes, and on and on.

I know people need money to live, but that doesn't always translate into a good reading experience for me. It's unfortunate. I used to try to read all the new stories from popular authors but not anymore. And don't get me started on all the AI generated stories flooding the market. At least I'm starting to recognize all the signs and the "authors."

The situation is ghastly !

About a decade ago authors were busy carefully polishing old online fanfics, which were in turn the product of months of writing efforts, readers’ input and commentary, having enough time for plotlines to mature. Those published stories were better quality overall than these insta-stories and that so faulty and unsatisfactory !

That's a great point - the fact that online fanfics have had time and input to "mature." I feel like your point about fanfics being refined by readers' input and commentary is valid.

As you've mentioned a few times, the lack of logic, plot holes, and timeline mistakes (my pet peeves), should be resolved by editors and beta readers, but it's not happening. Perhaps it's the condensed publishing timelines and the affection that beta readers have for authors they genuinely like. This is natural; it's difficult to give hard criticism to someone you sort-of know, as opposed to the relative anonymity of commenting on fanfic stories.

Last summer I did a beta read for a story, and I spent many hours reading and making notes. There were many timeline issues that I carefully documented. Although I'm included in the "thanks" paragraph at the end of the book, the author never contacted me to discuss my detailed notes (which I sent six months before publication). I haven't read the final version yet, but I'm interested to see if it was fixed. I doubt I will volunteer for this again; I suspect the author was daunted by my feedback.

I’m sorry you put so much effort into a read/critique and maybe it wasn’t appreciated in the right way ; I understand how that may happen, since we see in the ratings how sycophantic or complacent many arc readers can get… and some authors don’t like to receive unbiased opinions, even when they should be asking for it (it’s sorely needed in many cases)!

Agreed!