Perhaps belatedly, I've come to realize that being a well-known author in other fandoms takes one far in this fandom.
Well... yeah. Of course. Authors don't start completely cold in each new fandom, with no history or reputation. They have the same opportunity as anyone else to be discovered by new readers, but yeah, people who enjoyed reading them in other fandoms are likely to go "yay!" and give them a shot in SGA, as well.
I've been absolutely overjoyed to see how many authors whose work I've loved in other fandoms have shown up in SGA. Yay!
but I've been feeling a shift from considering crack fic to be good in terms of silly enjoyment to good in terms of characterization and quality, most often when a well-known name is associated with the piece.
One of the things that utterly boggles me about this fandom is that it has a number of authors who can write what is absolutely a piece of absurd crackfic -- and yet keep it in character, and keep the writing tight and solid. Which in my terms, makes it a silly, totally enjoyable story that's good in terms of characterization and quality. It isn't true across the board, but when I find something that's completely whacked where I can get sucked in, and where I can recognize the characters no matter how strange the situation I'm in? I grin the whole day long for the sheer delight of it all.
With many authors being brought in from many other fandoms, I had expected there to be more open and experimental air in terms of reading new authors.
That's weak logic on the face of it. You're assuming based on lack of recs (that you have seen) that people aren't reading widely enough to suit your preferences. It could just be that the people who are currently doing the recs pages have read, and simply don't like, the authors you think they're totally ignoring. Or that a story may be fabulously well-written but not have a strong enough emotional impact or some other factor that a reccer is looking for, and thus not be worth a re-read (which for me is one of the key points behind a rec -- would I want to re-read this story?).
You're also assuming (faultily) that the bigger the fandom, the higher the willingness to try new authors, which -- no.
Small fandoms are the ones where every new author's work gets read by pretty much everyone in the fandom. Fandoms where people are starved for stories and happy to get their hands on anything that shows up, even if they know that they're only actually going to like one or two stories a year. Not a week, a year.
Large fandoms, of which SGA is most definitely one, have to deal with the opposite situation -- tons and tons of stories to choose from, but then having to actually choose which to read, because who has time to read them all? Wraithbait has had at least 80 stories added in the last week, and a whole lotta authors don't bother putting their stories in the archive. I'm in fandoms where in five years, the fandom hasn't managed to generate 80 stories. Hell, in *25* years, one of my fandoms hasn't managed to generate 80 stories.
Large fandoms provide more opportunity to read a wider variety of authors, yes, and in terms of sheer numbers, I've read more unknown-to-me authors in SGA than in any other fandom in a long time -- but given a choice between an author I know and trust, and an author I've never heard of, I'm going to take the author I trust if I'm on a half-hour lunch break. I want to read something I'm reasonably sure I'll like during my scant free time, not make sure I'm careful to engage in socially correct behavior of providing every SGA author equal access to my time and energy (which, again... no. It's my time, my attention, my energy. My choice where it goes.)
no subject
Well... yeah. Of course. Authors don't start completely cold in each new fandom, with no history or reputation. They have the same opportunity as anyone else to be discovered by new readers, but yeah, people who enjoyed reading them in other fandoms are likely to go "yay!" and give them a shot in SGA, as well.
I've been absolutely overjoyed to see how many authors whose work I've loved in other fandoms have shown up in SGA. Yay!
but I've been feeling a shift from considering crack fic to be good in terms of silly enjoyment to good in terms of characterization and quality, most often when a well-known name is associated with the piece.
One of the things that utterly boggles me about this fandom is that it has a number of authors who can write what is absolutely a piece of absurd crackfic -- and yet keep it in character, and keep the writing tight and solid. Which in my terms, makes it a silly, totally enjoyable story that's good in terms of characterization and quality. It isn't true across the board, but when I find something that's completely whacked where I can get sucked in, and where I can recognize the characters no matter how strange the situation I'm in? I grin the whole day long for the sheer delight of it all.
With many authors being brought in from many other fandoms, I had expected there to be more open and experimental air in terms of reading new authors.
That's weak logic on the face of it. You're assuming based on lack of recs (that you have seen) that people aren't reading widely enough to suit your preferences. It could just be that the people who are currently doing the recs pages have read, and simply don't like, the authors you think they're totally ignoring. Or that a story may be fabulously well-written but not have a strong enough emotional impact or some other factor that a reccer is looking for, and thus not be worth a re-read (which for me is one of the key points behind a rec -- would I want to re-read this story?).
You're also assuming (faultily) that the bigger the fandom, the higher the willingness to try new authors, which -- no.
Small fandoms are the ones where every new author's work gets read by pretty much everyone in the fandom. Fandoms where people are starved for stories and happy to get their hands on anything that shows up, even if they know that they're only actually going to like one or two stories a year. Not a week, a year.
Large fandoms, of which SGA is most definitely one, have to deal with the opposite situation -- tons and tons of stories to choose from, but then having to actually choose which to read, because who has time to read them all? Wraithbait has had at least 80 stories added in the last week, and a whole lotta authors don't bother putting their stories in the archive. I'm in fandoms where in five years, the fandom hasn't managed to generate 80 stories. Hell, in *25* years, one of my fandoms hasn't managed to generate 80 stories.
Large fandoms provide more opportunity to read a wider variety of authors, yes, and in terms of sheer numbers, I've read more unknown-to-me authors in SGA than in any other fandom in a long time -- but given a choice between an author I know and trust, and an author I've never heard of, I'm going to take the author I trust if I'm on a half-hour lunch break. I want to read something I'm reasonably sure I'll like during my scant free time, not make sure I'm careful to engage in socially correct behavior of providing every SGA author equal access to my time and energy (which, again... no. It's my time, my attention, my energy. My choice where it goes.)
(continued...)