Straight Troping · 9:36pm Oct 29th, 2020
Hello readers! I hope things are well with you in these turbulent times. Me? I’ve already voted. Now I’m just waiting for the madness of the election to be over so that book sales actually accomplish something once more. And, you know, actually exist.
I still don’t understand why elections and politics of all things hurt book sales the way they do … but they definitely do. I remember being skeptical of it myself when I was first told by a few other authors … but lo and behold, year after year whenever there’s a major political event going on … sales drop.
Weird. And slightly concerning, I think. Why is it that when two aged children shout “shut up” at one another on stage, book sales fall?
Though that said, if that money was instead going to bunkers and supporting the political party of “anyone but this” I’d understand.
Anyway … the imminent doom of the United States as an even faintly respectable country aside, let’s shift gears and talk about something else.
A black hole. Well, actually, TV Tropes. Same thing, really. If you’ve ever been sucked into the endless dissection of the tropes that make up your favorite show, game, book, or whatever, you know how much time you can lose reading up on these things (and if you’re unfamiliar with tropes, check this post for a primer).
But there’s another use for TV Tropes, and that’s to find material that you might enjoy. Got a trope or concept that you really enjoy? TV Tropes can be a handy reference for finding other entertainment or even non-fiction (and real-life) uses of a trope, concept, etc.
I’ve actually done this myself. Look up a trope for a concept I really enjoy, and then see what items are listed as showing those tropes off and add them to my “list of things to check out.”
So, where am I going with this (outside of giving some you ideas for where to find new material to enjoy)? Well, simply put the other day someone asked me about my books, and then when I mentioned Colony, asked: Does it have a TV Tropes page I could check out?”
To which I replied “I don’t actually know.” Which was truthful. It had been a long time since I’d looked, and there was a chance one had popped up. But after a quick look I had to tell them “No, not for Colony.” Dead Silver and One Drink yes, but Colony? No.
Worse, I can’t actually do anything about this. I have no idea if I made or lost a sale based off of that, but as I understand it, creators themselves are not supposed to submit TV Tropes pages or edits on things they themselves created. A rule which I understand and respect. But it does mean that a TV Tropes page will and can only exist if there are fans who are “tropers” (or people who do work on the TV Tropes pages).
So, the point of this post is to ask: Are any of you tropers? And if so, did you enjoy Colony, Jungle, or Shadow of an Empire enough to feel like putting them on TV Tropes for those looking for them?
That’s all. Just asking. Like I said, as far as I understand it, that’s about the limit of a creator’s involvement. But a TV Tropes page for Colony and Jungle would be really nice … hint hint.
Again, it’s just a thought. I hope you’re all getting ready for a fantastic Halloween weekend. Stay healthy and safe!
Used to be. Back in the Before Times, the site got ideological cancer: deleted all the Troper Tales, then nuked a bunch of Tropes, then the Wikipedia-style "I own this article and I don't like your edits, so I'm reverting them" nonsense started.
5388454
Yeesh. I wasn't aware of any controversy like that, but it may explain why Troping stopped being so popular.
I have made tropes pages in the past. Even started/seeded a couple for some of my own works (didn't realize there was any sort of rule against that, or maybe there wasn't at the time).
I'll consider putting together the start of one, though if I did it would be a little anemic to start with. I'd also need to reread Colony which, while an enjoyable prospect, is also not an undertaking to take lightly.
Still, it could be a fun project to catalogue tropes as I go through a second time.
5388463
Yeah, there's three or four mostly-dead forks (roughly one per incident), and the original is a shadow of its former self.