#fic >>>>> published books

[synister09]

"what made you decide to take art and writing seriously? what helped you improve?"

i hyperfixated on a minecraft pig a bit too close to the sun

[writingwithfolklore]

Book Terms to Know Before Self/Trad Publishing

Will continuously update. Last updated: May 2025.

ARC: Advance reader copy – a special edition of the book printed before the release date, may still need finalizing edits. Meant for creating marketing buzz.

CNR: Closed No Response, when a query has been sent for long enough with no response to be considered an auto pass

Contemporary Fiction: A book that takes place in the present day, typically lacking in a genre. Centers around a protagonist’s everyday life: work, relationships, and modern day struggles

Literary Fiction: Contemporary fiction but considered to have some sort of artistic value—typically character-driven and introspective, it’s meant to engage the reader in a personal or social commentary.

Magical Realism: A real world setting with magical elements. Typically, the magic in the world is unusual and a cause for concern for its inhabitants.

Manuscript: An unpublished piece of writing.

MG: Middle grade. Books targeted at readers 8-12

Monomyth: Another word for the Hero’s Journey

MS/MSS: Manuscript or manuscripts

MSWL: Manuscript Wishlist—a list of an agent's next “want to reads”, look under #MSWL on any social media, or the MSWL website to find.

New Adult: For readers just beyond young adult containing college-aged protagonists written in the commercial style of YA.

Literary Boutique: This is what small agencies tend to call themselves instead of saying "small". Usually they are very selective about their clients but are also able to give a lot more attention to each individual.

R&R: Revise and resubmit—the agent is interested in your work but needs a hefty revision before they can really consider it.

SFF: Science fiction and fantasy

Speculative Fiction: Umbrella genre of fiction that breaks away from reality—can be fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or otherwise imaginative.

Upmarket fiction: contains the lyrical writing of literary fiction with the plot-focus of genre fiction. AKA bookclub fiction

Urban Fantasy: Subgenre of fantasy that places supernatural/magical elements in a contemporary, urban setting.

Women’s Fiction: An umbrella term for books targeted towards a female audience—typically about female issues or struggles. AKA Chick-Lit

Young Adult: Targets readers aged 12-18 with characters around the same age. Most typically a coming-of-age story.

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[erinwantstowrite]

seeing a lot of people complaining about the fics they don't see, and not enough people picking up a pen to write it themselves 🤨

[sharksfrommars]

in the Better World, Stan faked his death and moved to Argentina. He takes Ford’s journal, he reads it on days he gets lonely. But he lives. Because a long, long time ago, he promised his brother that they’d die at exactly the same time, fighting monsters. And even if Stan still feels the brand on his shoulder sting with shattered dreams, he can’t bring himself to die without his brother.

so Argentina it is. Stan deals with his issues in the least healthy way possible. He ends up in rehab about 5 times. He lives by the sea, and goes fishing, learns to scuba dive. He dates a lot, gets burned a lot, and ends up building a small circle of friends. And he slowly builds his life back up. Stanley Pines is dead, but Stan still finds a way to live.

Ford thinks Stan is dead. He only found out about the car crash in ‘85, when he finally called his mother. Two years, for two whole years, Ford didn’t realise his twin was dead. They didn’t find a journal in the car, but it was pretty burnt up from a gasoline explosion. The only thing that identified Stan was his teeth, a plethora of fake ids, and a photo of Stan and Ford boxing, back in the 60s.

Ford feels like it was his fault somehow. He and McGucket run the institute of Oddology. They become rich and famous, people respect him. But Ford still feels the weight of the photos he kept in his pocket, of the last things he ever said to his brother before he died.

[quinn-of-aebradore]

I think everyone should be at least a little bit of a Shadowgast shipper. Not just because the wizards are The Wizardsbut so that people can experience all the phenomenal fic this fandom has to offer. More people deserve that experience.

[why-lamp]

i'm finally getting around to reading Killing Time by Della Van Hise.

you know, the Star Trek book that was so gay that it was recalled and reprinted with over 50 changes.

I got my hands on a first edition copy from Thriftbooks and decided to use a sticky tab every time something "spirk" happened

I'm only halfway through.

update its very fucking gay

[witchysniffles]

FUCKING HELLO???

transcript under the cut

Dolores drives me mad with her constant sneezing and scratching. I order myself not to be annoyed: the girl can't stop herself having hay fever! But her sneezing is so operatic. She can be heard from across the courtyard, through walls, on and on, and then she traipses around leaving crumpled tissue crumbs as she goes, her red eyes streaming. But it's the full-body convulsions I can't stand; the dramatic pause, the way she casts her pitiful gaze around at anyone in the room, before another round of swooping, high-performance noise, then the litle moans as she scrubs at her face with tissues. The crackle of antihistamine blister packs follows her around. (book is Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood)

[youhideastar]

Hello! I just needed to say that your tags on that ABO post (#maybe someday I will write that essay on how I think a/b/o starts from a fundamentally ace perspective#ie that it starts from a premise of no desire#into which desire arrives as a rare unexpected unwelcome and often traumatic deviation from the baseline) shook my brain like a magic 8 ball and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I mean I guess I kind of already have since I follow your blog but like. That is genius and also I think that approach helps explain part of why I loved your ABO bingo series so much!

Anyway just wanted to say that, hope you're having an awesome day!

Aaahhhhh thank you so much! All credit to the initial poster for kicking my brain into gear on this. (For the curious, here's the series the ask mentions!)

But yes, to expand on those tags, there's so *much* about a/b/o as a genre that, to me at least, starts from an ace perspective.

For example, in most a/b/o universes where there are, in fact, betas (as opposed to another common take on omegaverse worldbuilding where there are just alphas and omegas), then the inherent starting premise of the world is that there are two kinds of people--people whose lives in large part revolve around intense, consuming, and uncontrollable sexual desire and people whose lives don't--which is to say, the inherent starting premise is that some people are (at least symbolically) ace. Indeed, in most of these fics, that's considered unremarkable in-universe... which is, from that point of view, a fantasy of a world where asexuality is commonplace and accepted. (Then again, it's rare for the main characters of such stories to be betas - it looks like a fantasy of ace acceptance, but the symbolically ace characters are relegated to the sidelines, as if a life that doesn't revolve around that kind of desire isn't worth telling stories about.)

In another example, a/b/o fics often posit a worldbuilding where the norm is that a person will only go into heat or rut (i.e., experience sexual desire) in reaction to a particular person--maybe a "fated mate"--and indeed, that the presence of sexual desire is proof of some kind of intense emotional connection between two people... which is basically just a sci-fi-ification of the experience of being demisexual. It's really that straightforward.

And that's without even getting into the ways that heat and rut often appear in fics as funhouse mirrors of what garden-variety allosexual desire looks like to people who don't experience it themselves. The original post says that "magical pheromones made them do it" sounds just as plausible to an ace person as "looking at someone in their underwear made them do it," but you don't even need the word "magical" - the idea that hormones could make you lose your head with desire and behave in ways that would embarrass you (or worse) once their influence wanes is both a sci-fi conceit for fanfic porn and actually how many, many people on this planet go through their lives on a regular basis.

What's ironic is how, despite all this, most a/b/o fic makes no room for real ace people (as opposed to symbolic aces, i.e., betas), especially sex-repulsed ace people. What are those folks supposed to do when heat strikes? Or other people who, for various reasons, might not want sex or be in a position to consent to it? I think a/b/o often teeters on the edge of body horror; in those situations, it tips right over. Most a/b/o worldbuilding does nothing to address this--and I think that's one of the great blank spaces in the genre that is ripe for exploring with all kinds of interesting fic!

[torpublishinggroup]

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT

As a child, Fetter walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel both revelatory and resonant.

[hugefuckingtitsmassivepair]

hot take but I don’t WANT ao3 to allow the commercialization of fics OR create an algorithm. Commercializing is a grey area legally but Wattpad did both and it fundamentally ruined the site. One of the joys of fanfic is that it’s a hobby done out of love. There’s no incentive to appeal to a marketable audience. Theres no algorithm to game. There’s no pressure from advertisers to censor your work. There are no rules or standards that force you to do anything. I, personally, enjoy reading the insane, poorly written fanfics that someone crafted out of an authentic representation of themselves. I adore seeing new writers exploring the interiority of their minds, regardless of how embarrassing it is, without the threat of getting shadow banned. There are very, very few hobbies that have not been turned into an extrinsically motivated side-hustle or algorithmic click farm. I don’t want to open ao3 and see PG, polished, and inauthentic stories that were created to appeal to the largest common denominator. I want to see people who love what they do, regardless of how ‘acceptable’ it is. If you want 20 million ads and a marketing campaign, Wattpad still exists. Leave ao3 alone.

[m4rs-ex3]

i love how this show just fucking says things. like oh? i'm sorry? that is not a line out of a fanfic or a shitty ya novel that is a line that's from this incredible show and you expect me to be normal

anyways callum. i love how callum just says things

[cowboy-robooty]

im not going to lie i have an illuminati type theory that fanfiction has gotten so fucking bad recently as yet another consequence of the pandemic

[battylite]

it's so annoying how every time there's a discussion about how ya lit/fanfiction has effectively ruined adult fiction and tradpub there's always someone who has to be like "you just hate fanfiction." first of all, that is obviously not true. second, I actually just love novels enough as an art form that I would like skilled and careful authors to keep writing and publishing them. and third, I don't understand why the idea that fanfiction has its own tell-tale elements (some of which are not conducive to good adult literary fiction) is so shameful. so does every other genre??

[saphira-approves]

MURTAGH UVEK AND RORAN?!?!?!

oh my god ARE WE GOING TO GET AN UNCLE MURTAGH MOMENT

[pigeon-reads-st]

Yeah so fyi, Kirk is completely naked during this exchange...

Surprised they censored "Killing Time" for being too gay... I read the uncensored version and it's nothing compared to this.

[cubistemoji]

A difference between fanfic and a standalone original novel is a fanfic can just be a series of scenes of two guys from another thing falling in love and the reader will get it because they know the thing the guys are from, but in original fiction you also have to explain who these guys are and what's going on in their lives and where they live. Bc the other thing they're from is your brain