Calgarians are fortunate enough to get Wordfest, an annual event that hosts numerous authors from around the globe; however, my school, Webber Academy, was even more fortunate to host Veronica Roth and Tahereh Mafi last Friday.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, Veronica Roth isn’t an author in the shadows,” or perhaps, “Wow! You are so lucky to see Veronica Roth!”
Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably about Veronica Roth, right? You probably totally didn’t even consider the second author, Tahereh Mafi, or even realized that she was an author too.
Coincidently, this is a topic that was brought up during the talk between Veronica and Tahereh.
Readers frequently point out that there recently has been a “dystopia boom.” Examples include: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, Matched, and the list goes on and on. And before dystopia, it was the “magic and mystical creatures boom,” during which books like the Harry Potter, The Twilight Saga, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Mortal Instruments series were popular. You’ll notice that all of these books are series. Although it’s probably and hopefully not the only reason, writing series for books during each era of book genres would economically be great.
Out of these booms in the book industry, people are “discovering” skilled writers. For instance, it was only until John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars became a bestseller that his other books, such as Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, also became popular. What people don’t realize is that John Green and his books have existed for a while. Readers nowadays are following too closely to bestsellers and not enough on actually good reads.
I encountered this phenomenon just months ago, when If I Stay was released in movie theatres. Three years ago, I had read the book version of If I Stay and in the theatre, when I heard people say, “They should make a book out of this movie,” I was utterly shocked. I fought the strong urge to stomp up to them, buy them each a copy of the book and make them read it, because it already exists. While movies may promote books, it’s sad how little people know about great books until the movie version comes out.
Don’t limit yourself in the confines of bestsellers. (Not that any of the current bestsellers are bad). Try reading other books. Ask for recommendations.