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I love getting reviewed on Amazon. Wait, that's a lie. I love getting good reviews on Amazon, really hate the 1 and 2 star reviews I get.
However, I notice a trend in reviews that I don't know whether or not I should be concerned about. First off, I get a ton of reviews that say "Katie writes a different kind o TG story." That is true, but isn't it true of every author., We all write differently, but I understand the sentiment. I've come to the conclusion, with the help of some friends, that I write mainstream fiction that happens to have transgender characters and themes (kind of toeing a thin line there).
Now this is what has me concerned and it has happened more than a few times. People review my work and say "thankfully there is no sex" or "there is little sex." The problem is that they are writing this on YA novels like Unreachable. Did people really read a novel about a 12 year old and think sex was in there. Or is transgender stories so littered with sex that a lack of physical activity is newsworthy/
Comments
Yes they do
A large portion of the people out there that read TG stories expect them to have "sex" in them, no matter what the age of characters.
That's right
And I for one want to see that changed. As you, Katie, are well aware, Amazon insists that TG stories be erotica. When you get a good review that includes "there was no sex" that's a good thing. It's the beginning of education that TG is not about sex.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Yes! A lot of people expect sex.
Those people equate any Trans Fiction with erotica.
In fact I had been thinking of posting about that from a different angle.
Recently, while browsing to find the "more serious"¹ Trans works on amazon, I had noticed a trend. I was spotting some low star reviews on some of those more serious works when I read those reviews they were not what I expected. I was expecting anti-Trans put downs by those who probably would not really read the books in question. Instead they were comments like, "Not enough sex" or "No Sex", and they were giving a negative review for that reason.
Let's hope you get no bad reviews for lack of sex in your YA works, but it would not surprise me either.
You need to expect that some reviews will be stupid, because some people are stupid. Don't not let it get you down. That is just he way it is.
Keep writing your good at it.
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
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¹ Those that about the act or need to transition and the emotions etc involved, whether RL based stories or not.
Honestly, I think the world
Honestly, I think the world we live in is so bass ackwards these days, that it's not just TG fiction that worries me. I mean you can literally turn on the television, find a modern sitcom, and it's usually all sex jokes. The comedy movies anymore make me think kids wrote the scripts while they were giggling at their own fart and penis jokes. So while it's refreshing to see a change, most people expect the normal things to be where normal things are. Unfortunately for TG fiction, it's normally laced with strong sexual overtones.
I've been reading comments over on other sites, and they are actually bitching about the overall changing tone of TG fiction. Comments like, "What's with all the sentimental crap lately?" are among many questioning where all the forced sexual slavery stories have gone. There will always be "those people", and there will always be stories written for that kind of audience. Sadly all kinds of those stories get lumped together under erotica, because the majority of TG fiction is/has been erotica.
However, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to exclude sexual topics from YA stories. A YA story, by definition, deals with the struggles and societal pressures a young person faces in life. Sex is a strong societal pressure these days, and seems to be a problem for younger and younger kids. But I'm not saying go with the flow either. I completely understand if an author wants to skip sexual situations. It's their right to do so. Especially with characters as young as you have written about.
That said, I would never cater to anyone commenting (and rating down) on a story because there is no sex. And I find it disturbing that someone would think that is a bad thing on a story about a 12 y/o protagonist. I've had to pull my Bailey series (about a 12 y/o protagonist) from another site for a similar situation. The comments were getting rather creepy.
On the flip side, if it's a positive review with "no sex" stated, that could be a good thing. And it could attract people looking for non-erotic styles of TG fiction.
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.