I have always been a big fan of fantasy books and as I have gotten older, I have also fallen in love with romance books - so romantasy should be a heavier hitter on my top reads. Unfortunately, a large portion of the romantasy books I have tried have fallen flat for me to the point I'm now skeptical of most romantasy books and I haven't been able to figure out why until now.

This week, I listened to a podcast interview with a romantasy author and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, because it started to crystallize something that has been bothering me about traditional publishing for a while.

The Interview I want to be clear, this isn't about one author. This is about what major publishers are choosing to acquire and amplify, and what I think that says about where traditional publishing might be heading. However, I think it's important to highlight the examples given in this interview as "evidence" of my theory. And to be honest, this interview made me personally not want to attempt another book from this author, so I wanted share so others could make informed decisions.

The podcast was Off the Shelf with Morgann Book interviewing Jasmine Mas in the fall of 2025 after her traditionally published release of Blood of Hercules and just before the release of her second book in the series Bonds of Hercules. Link to full video podcast on Youtube here

Throughout the interview, we learn a bit about Jasmine Mas's impressive background - I mean that sincerely. Not only does she have her classics degree from Georgetown, she did so on a full ride! She also had a full-ride for law school before working for a few years at a top-10 law firm, and now has a multi-book deal with HarperCollins for her Greek mythology retellings. On paper, this sounds like someone uniquely qualified to write mythological fiction.

However, during a "Greek Myth Trivia" segment on the podcast, the results surprised me. She didn't know that Apollo and Artemis were twins, confused Atlas with Kronos, and - despite one of her main characters being Charon/Kharon, ferryman of the River Styx - couldn't remember if she'd included the River Styx in her own book.

Her explanation? "Mine is like ancient history knowledge... not necessarily like deep Greek mythology." Despite her branding including her four years of studying classics, the actual myths she's retelling weren't her academic focus. She also noted in the interview that she doesn't research Greek gods beyond the ones she's currently writing about.

I want to be fair - we all blank. These moments alone surprised me, but I chalked it up to being caught off guard in the moment. But her skim-reading revelation made it so I won't attempt reading her books again. That's when it clicked.

Punished for Paying Attention She described herself as a "skim-reader", which is not a term I'd associate with any author, let alone a Big Five Publisher author. "I'm like one of those readers where I'm like a fast reader but like to like skim read." She designs her books accordingly: short paragraphs, frequent breaks, punchy chapters - because "I like to skim so I don't like see stuff as much."

When she drafts, she admits it's "not precise" because she types quickly and drafts fast. She relies on extensive editing to "try to catch it," but she's editing in the same skim-reading style.

And HarperCollins, seeing her self-published book hit #1 on Amazon, reached out the same day to acquire it.

The skim-reading admission made something click. In books where I couldn't DNF them (book club, reading challenge, ARC review, etc) I've felt like I'm being punished for paying attention. I noticed when the worldbuilding contradicted itself, character motivations shifted without explanation, and details from early in the book vanished without a trace. Even as an ARC reader - why am I the one catching these things right before publication?

This podcast made me realize that I might be bringing the "wrong" reading style to these books. These books were designed for inattention.

Mas specifically mentions having "brain rot" from TikTok, which reminded me of reports from the TV industry: writers are allegedly being told to craft scripts that still work for viewers scrolling on their phones during episodes. As someone who absolutely does this with TV, I understood the adaptation to viewer behavior (even if it makes me sad and embarrassed).

But I'd never considered that this was happening with books.

After this interview, I started looking into the skim-reader market. I learned that "vibes over craft" is not only some readers' preferences, but in self-publishing it can be a strong business model. Plenty of Kindle Unlimited authors have built successful careers giving readers exactly what they want: fast, tropey, emotionally satisfying stories that don't require careful attention.

But that's not what I thought traditional publishing was for.

What I Thought Traditional Publishing Meant Here's what I believed traditional publishing promised (from a reader's perspective):

1. Professional vetting for consistency and craft
2. Developmental editing to strengthen weaknesses
3. A quality threshold beyond "it sold well on Amazon" or "it has a lot of readers on AO3"

The author brings raw talent and the publisher refines their work into something that earns a place on their backlist.

But Mas didn't get her HarperCollins deal because editors saw potential to develop. She got it because her self-pub numbers proved the market existed. They reached out the same day her book hit #1 and from her interview, she just had to "turn [the Amazon print on demand version] off." The question shifted from "Is this good?" to "Did this already sell?"

I'll admit, as a reader, I'm probably naive to a lot of aspects of traditional publishing and maybe it's always been this way. But it feels like traditional publishers aren't interested in discovering and developing talent - they're acquiring pre-validated products and just scaling them for wider distribution.

A Race to the Bottom Here's what bothers me the most: This creates a race to the bottom that redefines what readers should expect.

When a major publisher puts their credibility behind books designed for skim-reading, they're telling readers: Don't expect consistency. Don't pay close attention unless you want to be disappointed. Speed and virality (aka profits) matter more than craft.

And they're telling their authors: Precision doesn't sell. TikTok metrics beat editorial judgment. We reward authors who produce quantity over quality. Your classics degree is just branding, not a craft foundation you should honor.

I swear, this isn't about being a snob or gatekeeping who gets to be published. If anything, I want more people to have access to the support of traditional publishing to refine their raw talent for more diverse stories (but that pesky capitalism gotta capitalism). This is about what we lose when traditional publishing - that I thought stood for literary quality - decides that attention is obsolete.

What Self-Publishing Does Better Self-publishing is actually the perfect home for "vibes over craft" romantasy. Authors have complete creative control. Readers self-select and understand the author did not have a full publishing house to support them with resources. The market determines success directly, without institutional gatekeeping.

If this series had stayed self-published, I wouldn't have anything negative to say - even if these books aren't for me personally. That's the beauty of self-publishing: it creates space for every reading preference without the false promises about editorial standards.

But when traditional publishers acquire successful self-pub books without adding editorial value - when they're just distribution at scale - they're abandoning the only thing that differentiated them from Amazon's algorithm.

TL;DR If HarperCollins gives multi-book deals to authors who publicly admit they skim-read their own work, if TikTok metrics or AO3 reads matter more than editorial judgment, what does traditional publishing stand for anymore?

More importantly: Why should I trust their curation of anything else?

I'm not arguing Mas shouldn't be published. I'm not saying readers are wrong for wanting fast, tropey books. Hell, I won't shut up about the alien cowboy husband series I'm reading on Kindle Unlimited right now!

I'm asking what we lose when the last major institution claiming to stand for literary qualities decides that reader attention is obsolete.

Because from where I'm sitting, "good enough for TikTok" has become the new publishing standard. And I don't think we've fully reckoned with what that means.

End of my rant - I would love to hear what you think!

What is, according to you, the appropriate amount of pages/percentage read for you to log your reading progress?

I get temped even if I just read 2 pages lol

Mine surely happened one hour ago, when the author of Book of Hrabal randomly wrote his female lead to start to masturbate randomly in the middle of the scene. Maybe there was some very deep authoral message there, but it caught me so offguard, that I put the book down and went downstairs to do some kitchenwork.

Another one was Saint Peter's Umbrella by Kálmán Mikszáth, who wrote a 2 page scene of her female love interest undressing and a cat watching her. Then he skipped over the male leads bedtime routine as "a man changing was nearly not as beautiful as a woman". I give that one a pass tho, it was written like 200 years ago.

For female authors, the only thing I can think of is when the male characters have 12 inch long members. That must hurt!!

Hey everybody.

One of my goals for 2026 is to work my way through my TBR which led me to sort through all the books and be confronted with the fact that I either need to read or get rid of all the random books I added like 10 years ago 🥶

So I’m curious, what’s some of the oldest books in your TBR and do you honestly believe you’ll ever read them?

Mine are The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan.

The Silence of the Girls is part of the Greek Myth Retellings quest so it’s the only one I’m actually considering reading 😅 But I refuse to remove the rest of them from my TBR just in case 👀

Maybe it's just because I just got back from a hunt myself, but I feel like the writing here is really vivid and easy to get into the rhythm of! The only times that really give me pause is when they introduce a new word and I have to sound it out to myself to make sure I'm reading it right, and I like how sometimes we just have to infer from context what certain words mean

I just realized by reading in the forum this is a retelling. I didn’t read the blurb before I started. Kinda my habit. But, does anyone think I should pause and read Carmilla first? Is it valuable to know the original?