Marquise > Status Update

Here are the explanations for the above graphic:

1. Limit the project to exclusively B&B: That is, strictly retellings of Beauty & Beast, and no longer the adjacent tales (there's at least 4 folktales and 1 myth of the same type that get a huge volume of retellings separately each year.) This would significantly reduce the number of retellings to read per year, and would solidify my project's niche separate from others who do the same but tackle ALL derivative tales.

2. Filter the indies: Self-explanatory. Indie authors make up for about 90 percent of all retellings, in my own unscientific observation & experience. How to filter them? No idea yet.

3. Throw the Christians to the lions: Hehehe, dramatic. Same as Point 2, Christian authors oversaturate the retellings market. Nothing against them per se, but when 2 + 3 combine, the offer is a lot of chaff.

4. Out with the PwPers: PwPers = Porn-with/out-plot writers. Usually a mix of indies, fanfictioneers turned published authors, and the majority of Romantasists and Dark Fantasists. Same reasons as 2 and 3, they oversaturate the market.

5. _____________? (Advise me, senpai): Self-explanatory. I hear your ideas for what could be done.

Despite the humour, this is a serious question. I do need a way to handle a manageable number of retellings for my website project. The market is HUUUUGE, you have no idea how huge, not even I did until I started this project. I knew it was big, but this is excessive. A minimum of 120 retellings just for 2025, and only counting Beauty & Beast plus a few derivatives.

Just imagine how many more are out there for other tales.

So, yeah, that's my problem of the day. Help appreciated. :)

Setting priority levels might be a good start. Favorite authors, or ones you have a good relationship with, are a couple more criteria you could use.

Good luck, sounds like it'll be a lot of effort, however you end up doing it.

I wish you luck, but have nothing more to offer.

Left Coast Justin wrote: "I wish you luck, but have nothing more to offer."

Cheerleader! Cheering me along counts, thank you. <3

Nothing to offer but good luck.

Beth wrote: "I have to write my review right after finishing a book, or I'll remember next to nothing but a fleeting impression. If I was in your shoes I'd just start over with the next one, probably."

Hahaha, I get you. My memory isn't the most amazing, but I don't have trouble taking a while to write my reviews. I don't necessarily have to write them immediately, so the issue is more one of organisation (what to read for reviews) than memory.

Setting priority levels would be a good start. Favorite authors, ones you have a good relationship with, books that made a strong impression one way or the other (ideally good, but a good roast is always fun), or (??)

Yeah! Good idea, that's what I need to do. How, though? To set up a priority level system, shouldn't I first whittle down the current offer? Refocus?

Going by authors might not work for the purposes of a Best Of award. That's what worries me. If I limit too much and place too many restrictions, would my intake be varied enough to be a solid sample of what's on the market so as to give awards/prizes?

Read less -- those filters are a good idea.

Fred wrote: "Nothing to offer but good luck."

Another cheerleader! It counts. <3

Upon seeing those numbers my brain would shut down and I’d quit doing it out of sheer overwhelm. But that’s just me and my brain, lol. 😅🫠

Honestly I have no idea aside from kicking Number 4 to the curb, but that’s just personal on my part because I don’t want to keep seeing stuff like that promoted anywhere. 😜 Maybe only pick one or two books from each category at a time or focus on Beauty and the Beast only? I honestly don’t know beyond that, but I’m cheering you on regardless!

(Also I did answer your email with a few questions to help me decide on my answer, just in case you haven’t seen it or checked your emails yet in your overwhelm of all those books/reviews 😉)

Go through your list, read the description carefully for each book and ask if the book sparks joy in you. Read the ones that spark joy. If they don’t, either toss em or read em last.

Also maybe it would be easier to look up the books as you go instead of working from a list. I received very good advice in art school. Inspiration is like fruit, it eventually goes bad. Whenever you finish a book, start looking at books again and pick the one that peaks your interest in that moment?

My apologies if you’ve already thought of these

Audrey wrote: "Read less -- those filters are a good idea."

This sounds like diet advice, m'dear. Eat less, move more. :P

Sarah wrote: "Upon seeing those numbers my brain would shut down and I’d quit doing it out of sheer overwhelm. But that’s just me and my brain, lol. 😅🫠"

Now you see why I said I need partners in crime, yeah? I felt overwhelmed too. 😅 I suspect seeing the numbers for only point 3 alone would send you running for the hills, I had no idea Christians were such retellings addicts... 😅

(I replied to you, I think we'll have to discuss this and your ideas for this plan by email.)

Susan wrote: "My apologies if you’ve already thought of these"

Oh, that's actually very sound and sensible advice! Thank you, Susan, I like both of your suggestions. Please, don't apologise. <3

The one little thing with point #1 (read descriptions) is deceptive marketing and misleading blurbs. You know how some readers fall for pretty covers? I'm like that but with blurbs. 😅 I've fallen for many rubbish retellings because the blurb & comps were so good.

Of course, I didn't go by blurb alone, I also checked reviews. But the issue is that the majority of reviewers, even self-proclaimed "fairy tale lovers," aren't very knowledgeable about the fairy tales. They read them before/after the retelling, and that's it. Very uncritical or very superficial understanding. I have a different standard for judging retellings, and a more strict understanding of what a retelling is or isn't. So... reviews by others don't help me at all in this regard. :(

Susan wrote: "Also maybe it would be easier to look up the books as you go instead of working from a list..."

Your point #2 is excellent, and sounds far better (in theory at least) than my current list-making method. Any further ideas on how to implement a method for this? <3

Marquise wrote: "Now you see why I said I need partners in crime, yeah? I felt overwhelmed too. 😅 I suspect seeing the numbers for only point 3 alone would send you running for the hills, I had no idea Christians were such retellings addicts... 😅"

If I may ask, how many partners in crime do you have so far? Please tell me there's at least one! Are there enough that you could feasibly divide labor in some way, like they do with SPFBO? It wouldn't have to work exactly the same; each person could choose, say, five books that get put into a longlist pool that everyone reads, and then those are discussed with the others to decide which are the runners-up and which is the winner.

Either way, I don't think it's reasonable to expect you to carefully consider every single retelling that exists. Surely there are quite a few that you could easily dismiss from consideration within a chapter or two.

Beth wrote: "If I may ask, how many partners in crime do you have so far?"

Two confirmed, and two to yet confirm or decline my offer.

What I need is four partners in crime:
- One partner to throw the Christians to the lions. (Someone familiar with the clean/wholesome/faith-based area.)
- One partner to get rid of the PwPers. (Someone for the Dark Romance and Romantasy area, they use fairy tales as mere dressing, but still...)
- One partner to handle the manga/comics/webtoons area. (In theory, I can handle this myself alone, but the output of B&B-like manga/comics/webtoons is high lately.)
- One partner to handle the "derivatives." (Someone to keep an eye on the B&B-style and adjacent folktales such as East of the Sun & West of the Moon, Snow White & Rose Red, King Thrushbeard, and Frog Prince. Theoretically, I could handle this too, but I dislike half of the derivatives and don't care for the other half, so...)

That's the division of labour I have in mind to set up my retellings mafia with me as Donna Corleone. :P

Beth wrote: ". Surely there are quite a few that you could easily dismiss from consideration within a chapter or two."

Yeah! Once you've read as many retellings as I have, you can toss a book away upon the first sentence. They all blur into one giant mega-blob of samey after a while.

But how do I do that without throwing the baby with the bathwater? That's my concern. I don't feel my strategy is quite it, considering that my ultimate goal is an award, which is already in the works...

I got it, will reply soon! 🫡

I’d definitely go with 4, but that’s just my personal taste. And 5 could be good too. Like setting priorities first of all. And for example, you could also sample the first couple of pages. If it’s not you cuppa, move on. If it is, keep reading. That’s my two cents anyway. But I’m glad you got some other good cheerleaders here and those partners in crime clearly come in handy too :)

If you have an eReader, maybe get just the samples of any that sound interesting to you, and filter out the ones where the samples look like they lead to bad rest of the book? I tend to do that and also look at reviews on GR to decide if I want to buy an entire book and spend my precious time on reading it. I don’t have the time to spend on a bad book and it sounds like neither do you. So ruthlessly filter and discard!

Hmmmm...hard question! I think filtering just JUST B&B is a good start...as well as the PwPers because almost all of it is just fanservice. That said, I don't necessarily know if I'd filter indie just because I like giving rep to the smaller guy AND there have been some absolute GEMS from indie authors but I get how it would cut down on a significant chunk.

Alternatively, find a few people that have your similar tastes in fairytales and have them vet. Forward the ones that are great and the ones that are horrible but yeet the okays.

Whatever you choose to do...I wish you luck, soldier. *salute*

I absolutely mood read so I second Susan's suggestion, also. Ha.

That's a lot of retellings, sheesh. Considering you have your award in mind, how about if you figure out something is terrible you DNF it at the halfway point? (Maybe skim/skip to the ending but not be thorough)
Do you think that would help at all or do you have to absolutely finish them all?

Sarah wrote: "I got it, will reply soon! 🫡"

Much appreciated, darling!

Thibault wrote: "I’d definitely go with 4, but that’s just my personal taste. And 5 could be good too. Like setting priorities first of all..."

Good advice, thank you, Thibu. Your vote makes it 2 people in favour of getting rid of the PwPers, so it looks like that category will be the first to go.

Honestly, even if nobody had said this to me, I would've got rid of it all by myself anyway. This category uses B&B merely as window dressing, and often goes against the theme and message of the tale, adding to the misconceptions about it that are still alive. The Romantasy and Dark Romance categories are the ones that have done the tale's rep the most harm.

Jen wrote: "If you have an eReader, maybe get just the samples of any that sound interesting to you, and filter out the ones where the samples look like they lead to bad rest of the book? I tend to do that and..."

Yeah, I already do that for my regular reads and have done so for years now. My 'sampled and declined' shelf has over a thousand titles in it because of this habit. :)

So, doing this to my B&B project is also a great thing to do. But . . . the little thing is that I can't quite trust the blurbs or others' reviews for this tale specifically. It has happened already that I've seen GR friends praising a retelling and swearing it's great, they they just love the tale, and when I read it, I go "really?"

Because I judge retellings as retellings, and they don't. :(

Megan » wrote: "Hmmmm...hard question! I think filtering just JUST B&B is a good start...as well as the PwPers because almost all of it is just fanservice..."


Spot on! Yours makes the 3rd vote for tossing away the PwPers, thank you.

And limiting it to just B&B is also gaining traction with me. There's many, many B&B-like tales and even more Animal Bridegroom tales, but generally 4-5 of them are the ones that hog the market (I mentioned them in my reply to Beth), and to be honest they're not worthwhile, with the exception of maybe East of the Sun & West of the Moon. So, yeah, I like this idea very much!

Megan » wrote: ".Alternatively, find a few people that have your similar tastes in fairytales and have them vet. Forward the ones that are great and the ones that are horrible but yeet the okays."

That's what I'm trying to do, create a team of collaborators to lend me a hand when I need it.

I accept volunteers., too ;)

Megan » wrote: "I absolutely mood read so I second Susan's suggestion, also. Ha."

Hehehe, much to my own detriment sometimes, I'm the opposite: a disciplined reader, even masochistically so. :D

Morphing_kashi wrote: "That's a lot of retellings, sheesh. Considering you have your award in mind, how about if you figure out something is terrible you DNF it at the halfway point? (Maybe skim/skip to the ending but no..."

I'm trying to do that, my mini-reviews for a Quarterly report for my website is basically that. DNFs and 1/2 star books that don't merit a full review get one line or a paragraph.

Even those are a lot of work due to the volume of titles published, though, so it's not working that well. :(

I answered your email just so you know! I look forward to your reply. 😉

Sarah wrote: "I answered your email just so you know! I look forward to your reply. 😉"

Thank you, doll! <3

[Pssst, I'm struggling with Dark Mage... That's no Piper! :'(]

I have the bestest advisers in the world on this site, hey!

Thank you to each and every one of you who answered to offer their feedbad here and in private. <3 Love you all, I now have a clear idea of what to do.

All I can say is good luck with that mission :D

Baba wrote: "All I can say is good luck with that mission :D"

Thank you, Babsy! <3 Cheerleading for me is much appreciated, too.