by Stephen King, one of the most well-revered authors of our time, a super prolific guy dropped a major secret to writing yesterday on twitter:
…I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
BOOM! THE KING!
This sent the SJW crowd reeling, of course, since they push diversity over anything. They have requirements for exactly what you need to “represent” in your writing much like soviet Russia, and this is what the publishing industry has become over the last ten years.
Naturally, King was attacked and had immense social pressure applied on him immediately. NK Jemisin — who has won awards because she shakes down the writing establishment over her race — came out and made a bizarre statement that “diversity and quality” are the same thing.
Damn, Stephen. Damn. I thought you were better than this. It should be obvious that diversity and quality *aren't separate qualities,* or in opposition to each other — except in the minds of bigots.
Damn.
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) January 14, 2020
Complete with a personal shame to Mr. King.
Jemisin uses her race in order to sell books, and has not had a release where she hasn’t made it about drama because of her skin color.
The difference is, King is able to sell books just based on the contents of said books. And that’s a major difference between quality and a virtue signaled “diversity” of which they really mean no diversity at all, but every book looking exactly the same in their political leanings. The sameness, the lack of energy, the lack of passion of characters, the complete absence of fun plots, is why these books in this generation sell at a far lower rate than those of their predecessors.
Most indies understand this, and because of that, indie fiction has pushed for quality without checking boxes to force their stories all to look the same. Readers have responded. Just this last year it was reported that indie books now take 51% of the market. The establishment publishing is fading because they’re trying to shame authors into writing what they have to instead of what they want. I’ve reported a lot about this with YA books over the last few years — and YA as a genre is getting stale because there’s very little variation, dare I say, “diversity of content.”
It’s because they’re not focused on quality, they’re focused on checking the right boxes.
Unfortunately, so many in establishment publishing attacked Stephen King that he walked back his huge truth bomb for writing. But this tweet is still live, he hasn’t deleted it. Authors everywhere can take heed that deep down, King understands — readers want good books, not some forced social agenda.
Which is why Clockwork Dancer #1 is such a success. You’d think the Diversity crowd would love it with a Hispanic writer, a female artist, a Hispanic colorist… but no mention from them! It’s almost like it’s just about politics and they don’t even follow their own creeds.
But it doesn’t matter, because the book became a #1 Bestseller last night on its merit of a story alone. It’s not about who created it. We just make great comics. Read today.
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