The day I realized corporate fiction wasn’t for me

The straight, simple take? Corporate fiction kills creativity. Hell, corporate-sanitized text destroys the creative mind.

I used to write for a fan-driven sports and entertainment company. Ironically, that company hires freelancers, and freelancers outnumber full-timers 10 to 1. We couldn’t tell them what to do. Instead, we could recommend and say things like, “Our most successful sites do this…”

In short, we left them to their devices. Some thrived, others barely survived, and a few flamed out. As for those of us working as full-timers? It would depend on our director or senior director. For me? I had the biggest micromanager of the bunch. One who looked and sounded more like a rat than Peter Pettigrew.

Working for them drove the point home that writing in the corporate world wasn’t for me. But I should’ve known better. Because a long time before that, writing corporate fiction was something I vowed I’d never do. That was back in 2018.

What is corporate fiction, exactly? In my lexicon, another name for traditionally-published fiction.

I was never going to conform as a traditionally-published author

I remember taking a few creative writing courses on my own dime with the hopes of getting published traditionally. It should go without saying I have yet to reach that “goal.” Mainly because I disagreed with half of what they were teaching me.

“Something needs to happen by the end of the first page.” “You need to thrust your character into the middle of the action.” “Write in short sentences.” “Use minimalist description.”

At the end of the day, I asked, “Am I writing a book or a screenplay?” Pair that with the fact most books I read didn’t follow this formula, so I went indie. It wasn’t a hard decision that I made back in roughly the spring of 2018.

And when I saw what kind of work traditional publishers sought: Work so bland you’d have thought some random off the street wrote it, I knew there was no way I’d submit my work. Not in that kind of atmosphere.

I also wasn’t writing safe fiction with no backbone. Nor would I write sensitivity reader-approved fiction. Nah. If my work offends, it’s not my problem. It’s your problem for getting offended.

👉 Catch my work if you can’t stand safe and sanitized fiction

I opted to write fiction that bites

I wasn’t writing soulless fiction that only amplified reach. Hell, writing for algorithms sucks, and it’s something I have real-world experience in. Which is one of a few reasons I’m no longer working for that company or that rat of a supervisor.

As for my fiction, I wanted emotion, not glorified screenplays. Sharp, snarky writing, not something that looks like a first draft. And trust me, if you want proof that what I’m saying exists, just check out Liza Libes’ Pens & Poison. She’s not afraid to screen capture that garbage.

Nah, I said “screw it” to the genre fiction trash, the fancy formulas, and the false cheerfulness I see from most authors. I wasn’t about to be part of that crowd. So instead, I charted my own course, broke some rules, and gained a readership anyway.

All without writing for the mass market, where an author’s work could get lost in cyberspace anyway. That’s when I said, “Why not write fiction that really bites?”

Corporate fiction keeps rearing its ugly head in the 2020s

Other than spineless stories, what else does corporate fiction “boast?” Leftism masked as morality, and not the cancer that it is. Again, let’s look at what Liza Libes said in a recent post on her Substack:

If you think publishing is becoming less woke… think again.

When Donald Trump got elected, everyone started telling that it was going to be much easier for me to get published. After all, no one is doing DEI in the corporate world anymore.

That’s true for the corporate world—because no one in the corporate world believed any of that to begin with.

But if you look at publishing, these people are coming out of the Columbia University English department (and others). They created the woke plague in the first place—and if anything, they’ve now doubled down on DEI because they’re scared of their totalitarian dystopia collapsing.

So, no, wokeness in publishing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. If anything, it’s only getting worse—and we need to fight back.

Corporate America may be seeing the light, but corporate publishing isn’t

I disagree with Libes to an extent: That godforsaken company I worked for is still woke and DEI-embracing AF. So a few nutty corporations do believe in that garbage. But of course, radical leftists running the Ivy League created this mess and it spread like the pandemic. I don’t want to say plague, because pandemic is more relevant to the age.

Yet it drives home the exact reason I self-publish. Not because I don’t think my books can hang with traditionally-published works. The opposite, really. No, it’s because traditional publishing houses have an agenda I’d rather not put my name on.

Their DEI crusades keep spreading cancer throughout the literary world. That said, it’s not only turning off authors, but readers. If the latter weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have a readership.

Plus, I’m completely on board with what Libes said: “we need to fight back.” Any author, regardless of their genre, writing style, or message that falls outside the lines needs to fight back. If that means going the self-publishing route as opposed to traditional publishing, that’s the route we need to take. For now, at least.

This is why capitalism and free markets rock

It’s the one economic system that gives us choices. Capitalism, contrary to the false Marxist belief that it’s destructive — they’re thinking about mercantilism — is the way to counteract this nonsense going on in the literary world.

Without it, our work wouldn’t see the light of day. It also gives readers (the market) choices. They’re not forced to read books they’d rather not open. And it’s what gives self-published and indie authors skin in the game. Even when Big Tech works against us, alternatives keep popping up.

Sure, it may piss off gatekeeping traditional publishing houses and the Ivy League. But who the hell cares? Let them whine. Because authors like myself, Libes, and those sick and tired of DEI-driven corporate nonsense in the literary world aren’t just writing articles and complaining — we’re actively part of the solution.

If you’d rather be part of the solution, then check out my backlist. You’re getting politically incorrect genre-fusion that doesn’t play by the rules. Best yet, you don’t need to get my work at Amazon. The Rebel Lore Vault gives you a sound alternative to that Big Tech nonsense. One that doesn’t operate on an algorithm, doesn’t track you, and doesn’t shove a dozen carousels in your face.

👉 Catch fiction that bites at The Rebel Lore Vault