Romantasy is the Blob
An amorphous grey goo is eating all of fantasy
A few months ago I posted a video to YouTube entitled “Amazon is Hiding Sword & Sorcery!” It received support, condemnation, and solid number of views (for my tiny channel). Linked here for your viewing pleasure-
I’m turning it into a Substack article with a few updates. I’ve gone to strange places for your reading pleasure, so you don’t have to, as they say. But first, I’ll reiterate the points I made and expand on them.
Traditional publishing is reaching a point where even its proponents can’t deny there are issues. One of those issues is that men’s fiction, meaning fiction directed at men, is underserved. Very underserved.
As sword & sorcery is my main jam, I took a look at that genre specifically. When I called S&S men’s fiction, some people disagreed. “Anyone can read sword and sorcery! don’t gatekeep S&S!” I don’t disagree there.
In my video I pointed out that the genre has women readers, women writers, and women characters. Still, sword and sorcery is almost as male coded as military sci-fi, and has a strong bent to high T, hyper masculine archetypes and stories. I had several kind people with S&S related platforms reach out with some of their own stats that showed 95% or thereabouts of their audience was male, much as I predicted. If you are a woman reading this, I would encourage you read (or write) S&S if you want.
I was also accused of manosphere shenanigans. Rest assured, I am not going Andrew Tate here. Nor am I “hating on women” or whining about how unfair traditional publishing is. It is unfair, but that is nothing new on planet Earth.
My interest is recognizing the issue, talking about the issue, and working out a constructive path forward.
So let’s look at the issue.
As a new pub creator (or self pub, or indie) my concern is with Amazon. Bookstores and the greater traditional publishing ecosphere are largely beyond my access, my concern, and frankly my interest. In my video, I had a look at what books populated the top 100 in sword and sorcery on Amazon. There was very little in the way of sword and sorcery, sadly.
What is there now? As of June 22, 2025, the top 100 sword and sorcery list remains much as it was months ago. Romantasy dominates, almost to exclusion. Works by Sanderson and Tolkien appear. I will always defend Tolkien, but his works are not sword and sorcery. Here’s a screen shot of the top 8. Go check Amazon out for yourself. Has it changed?
Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Yarros Broadbent Broadbent…
What about other genres? Fantasy Action and Adventure gives us a Dungeon Crawler Carl, a Joe Abercrombie, and a Sanderson at least.
The Dark Fantasy category boldly starts out with Dungeon Crawler Carl, but then goes on and on with more Romantasy.
Epic Fantasy? Take a guess.
It’s not as dominant as in other categories, but it’s still everywhere.
Science Fiction Adventure fares better, but romance still takes top spot
Various Science Fiction categories are not as flooded as Fantasy, but it’s still everywhere.
Here’s where things get weird.
I helped a friend out with a cover recently, and after doing a little research on typography for short stories and anthologies, I ended up on 30-Minute Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads. Romantasy abounds again, and there were covers suggesting what Devon Eriksen calls “monster f*ck*r p**n.” I’m going to use these censor marks, as I just don’t know how different platforms react to these words.
Just look at the current top 8 and you will see what I mean
It’s frustrating, but I was tired of just being grouchy. What’s the deal with this stuff!?
This will come as a shock to many of you, but I don’t read romance novels. I did read about half of Anne Rice’s spanker novel back in the day. I think it was called “Snow White and the Seven Spanks,” I’m not going to look it up. All that I recall is that some princess was taken away to a castle where she gets carted from one location to another to be spanked. That’s the whole plot.
Looking at the metadata of these short reads, I noticed two things right off the bat. These stories are almost exclusively ebooks, and most cost $2.99 or $3.99. The second is that they are short. 40 pages. 27 pages. 16 pages. Who would pay $3 for a 16 page story? In retrospect, most of these stories are probably read through Kindle Unlimited, and so don’t make as much as I originally assumed with such low page counts, but it’s still significant dough. Incredulity prompted me to check the BSRs.
Holy smokes. These almost universally have low BSRs. Four-digit BSRs are common. For comparison, the BSR calculator estimates that a BSR of 10k gets 450 reads per month. Few have it worse than 100k. They are being read. Stupid titles. Terrible cover art. They are being read.
Further, many of the authors have 100+ titles. All doing well. There are hundreds of these authors. How much of Amazon KDP is just smut? I can only guess. Not quite half, but it is a significant percentage.
So I bought a half dozen of them.
All of them were short stories, and high on the BSR. I couldn’t commit time or sanity to reading a full novel, but I must know what’s going on here!
I won’t mention them titles or authors by name, but here’s what I found out, and much of it was a surprise:
1) This revelation was something I had heard about, but paid no mind till now. Four of the six stories were about r**e. One was perhaps “just” about SA, depending on how you define it — it was more about psychological abuse. Three were about clear cut violent r**e. When I saw what was unfolding, I hoped for the appearance of a hero to kick some ass. As men, we’ve had the finger pointed at us, individually or as a group, and been accused of supporting r**e culture. Yet here it is in “romance” written by women.
Is this what women really write about to get off? No heroes appeared to end the violation or exact justice as I had hoped. No, the women MCs went from resisting it to enjoying it. No jokes to make here. I found this disturbing.
How often has Conan been accused of this? Canonically it never happens, not even in The Frost Giant’s Daughter.
Aside from this, the sex scenes are extremely graphic and goopy. I’ve never written anything remotely as explicit, even before I’ve edited.
2) Writing was not consistently awful, as I expected.
One story, the longest, was absolute garbage. Every scene smelled like plastic as if it was just pulled out of the box prepackaged from TVTropes.com. Marilyn Manson style edge-lordery. Telling us what a character might do and not showing it, when the opportunity to show happens on the very next page. Repetition. Not a single likeable character.
The writing in three others was bland. That’s possibly a worse sin than what I described above.
A few of the stories were well written! This was the shocker. Two of the stories – monster f**kers, and the struggle snugglest of the bunch – started very well. The MC moved from the ordinary world into the fantastical in well ordered, well written scenes. One of the set ups is even lodged in my head as a possibility for a story of my own. The follow ups to these scenes are, sadly, r**e. It was a clash to read an intriguing set up, to be followed by a reprehensible act. If this author had followed up with something besides these disturbing scenes, they might have been enjoyable.
3) How well each of the authors and each title was doing in the BSR and reviews seemed to be independent of the writing quality. The worst was as well received as the best. I can hear some of you saying that’s subjective! I tend to think that kind of argument is a cop out. The worst author in the pack clearly stank, and the best was far better (if disturbing). I won’t state definitively that romance and monster f**ker p**n aficionados have no taste. My survey was only six very short stories, and I won’t be delving any deeper. But it’s not looking good.
I had to take a step back and wonder if I should even post this part of the article. I expected “spicy” and if that’s what you like, go ahead and read what you want. I don’t think of myself as a prude. I’ve made a video in support of the bikini armor trope (and the furry loincloth), both for the fan service and for the primal atmosphere it evokes.
The prevalence and graphic depiction of r**e was too much for me. How much of the “erotica” genre is affected. The descriptions of non-r**e graphic sex were more amusing than titillating, as was the bad writing (once I was through it). Go read a spanker if you like. I realize it’s fantasy confined to the pages but in my opinion the SA fixation was a sad sign of social and mental illness. Quite depressing.
So what have I learned? I wouldn’t say I’m any wiser for having read lady-smut. I was (and am) surprised at what some woman read for titillation purposes. I’m resigned to the fact that very low quality writing garners about the same BSR as better stuff. That’s the market. We roll with it.
I can’t and won’t hold my breath for Amazon to categorize things in a way that suits me. Romantasy, both the kind that pretends to be fantasy and the flat out smut, outsells just about everything. That’s just reality.
Just as I was putting this together, a friend just sent me an article here about the failure of Korgoth of Barbaria. The show was a hyper-gory parody with what is now considered a dated 90s grimdark feel to it, but it was fun. It feels like sword & sorcery always gets the sharp end. Writing sword & sorcery is hard mode, and indie fantasy and sci-fi is no cakewalk.
Men, and SFF readers and writers in general, need to slog it out for now and look for better avenues to find and promote their work. Once my Wandering Sword Book 3 comes out (it’s being beta-read by some absolute Chads right now), I will do some local cons. The Brothers Krynn have similar plans. I have high hopes for real world face to face interactions, and those authors who have done the same have told me. Herman P. Hunter and Alyssa Hazel come to mind.
So, if there are any lessons here, I would say it’s that you can’t rely on others to do your lifting, especially corporations. The silver lining — Iron Age and adjacent indies are doing that lifting, they are mastering a dozen skills, they have entrepenurial spirit, they aren’t waiting for permission, they aren’t backing down, and I don’t think things will always be so dark. We’re the one who keep our heads high in the storm. When the rain and thunder ceases, who can stop us?
You made it this far? Many thanks for reading. I’ll be focusing more on Substack content instead of X and Facebook, and I promise no more details about milking minotaurs.
-Erik
A potent point. I stopped looking at Amazon and GoodRead's book list suggestions as they always have a targeted lean to them.
I see your perspective and would ask you your perspective on my essay and Therese Judaena's essay