Russ
Istar
Lately, I have become increasingly aware of how much today's modern morals and worldview are pushed by fan communities and communities of writers. It seems to be becoming more and more expected that all writing should represent today's world. I can't do that. Is there still a place for my stories in this environment?
I believe the answer is "yes".
The people who post on the internet, in blogs, etc are people who are both politicized and engaged. They represent a small subset of the book buying public.
I would believe that while the majority of the book buying public are support of or sympathetic to non-traditional gender roles I don't see any indication that plays a significant role in their book buying choices. So I think there is a large non-politicized group out there who will happily buy good fiction that is not politically progressive and does not engage with modern gender issues.
The data also however seems to tell us that this group is shrinking as a proportion of the modern population, thus you should not delay your publication as time does not seem to be your friend on this issue.
I also heartily echo Nimue's comments on this issue. If you simply indy publish on your own, until you reach a pretty significant threshold of success you will not be on the radar of the politically engaged crowd who are likely to comment on such issues in your work. So the question of taking flak for not handling such issues in an appropriate way, or even acknowledging their existence is not likely to manifest itself until you are fairly successful. Since it appears that our answers are unlikely to change your path or behavior on these issues my advice would be "write your stuff, market and sell your stuff, worry about the critique when it comes and be pleased you have become a large enough player to attract the criticism."
Edit- I see in a later post you asked for reader reaction to that type of fiction. Personally, despite being a modern feminist in my worldview, I would have no problem buying and enjoying a book where all of the characters have traditional gender roles. I don't expect all fiction to represent or even touch on all the important issues of the day. I still very much enjoy Conan, Tolkien or Lamour for that matter. I just don't build my worldview on that kind of entertainment.
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