It seems that, with the internet and capitalism, there is an overabundance of novels available to us...and yet finding good novels seems harder than ever. There seems to be nothing original and if there is...it's poorly written?

Is this a misconception? Truth? What are people's thoughts?

 

Back when TV and Movie was less accessible and before the age of streaming, books were seen as the alternative. I know I started reading from Harry Potter because I saw Chamber of Secrets on Film4 on TV but my family couldn't afford to go to the Cinema or buy me the latest DVD.

Now, TV Shows and Movies are more accessible. It doesn't matter if your parents don't have the CW, you can just stream Arrow online on Netflix. It doesn't matter if you haven't watched Endgame, you can just watch it on D+.

Plus, it feels like any concept you want to read/write about has been done already, either already in novel form or in a different medium.

 

Browsing bookstores these days gives me hope of having my own stuff published, because the shelves are groaning under the weight of so much shit churned out to tap into the latest market fad. There are good books out there - they're just harder to find amongst all the dross.

 

I think its a misconception, in that, good novels were never that abundant in the first place.

Its just that the Internet has made all the good ones more accessible, and as a result, avid readers devour them at a faster pace, leaving them with the shitty ones.

 

Part of the reason the good works of fiction are hard to find is the massive amount of ultimately forgettable works that check all the boxes of adhering to convention. Listen to publishers on youtube explain what you need to do to hook the reader's attention and write a satisfying conclusion. Basically, if you adhere 100% to industry standards, you can get published, just write a hero's journey that entirely wraps up every detail in one book. If it seems like books are running out of ideas, it's because there are only so many different colors of paint you can use for the paint-by-numbers approach you have to follow to be published.
The great sieve of lethe will get rid of all the non-attempts in a decade or two, so if you're looking for newer books that are actually good, probably look through what was published around 2009 and manages to stay on the shelves. These will be second or third books of already published authors.

 

There are still many really good books being released. It's just that the bottom of the barrel stuff, which probably hasn't even increased in volume, is way more prominent nowadays. It doesn't need to pass a basic sanity-check that was usually part of the whole publishing industry. It has an easier time to get out there, to grab attention for its brief and miserable life, and by doing that it vastly dilutes the total quality of books being released.

Today it's just way more work to find good books, to filter out the crap and identify the works that have value and merit.