THE CLONING, A NOVEL BY GEORGE SHADOW

Subject to copyright

Ever wondered about the humongous number of fictional novels out there in this time and age? I’ll be focusing on the genres I write in this piece. Today, the number of sci-fi and fantasy novels on Amazon alone is mind-boggling, talkless of the other major online bookstores. Look it up, so many stories in these genres have the same titles. Go to an online bookstore and you’ll see ‘A KNIGHT’S TALE’ from many different authors, or my favorite, ‘THE WITCH & THE DRAGON.’

Dragon Art. © Wereworld.fandom.com

This phenomenal cloning can be attributed to the indie author, whose ease of publication via online publishers and bookstores has given him or her the ability to churn out so many titles in a year. Multiply this by the number of indie authors out there and you get the picture. If you haven't gotten the picture, remember that anyone could turn into an indie author these days. Just download a Microsoft Word app into your phone and you're good to go.

True ‘THE WITCH & THE DRAGON’ can never have the same plot as all the novels out there, but I know that no rational reader would love to have his or her bookshelf filled with just novels titled ‘THE WITCH & THE DRAGON.’ Sure, this is usually never the case. Such a scenario in the real world only holds for sci-fi/fantasy fanatics, but the point I'm trying to make is that this excessive cloning of fictional titles has made the task of selecting novels of the same genre for one's Kindle eBook reader or physical bookshelf an onerous one, especially if one is an indie author enthusiast like me. Add in the common case of novel contents and plots looking and sounding almost the same. Now, that's another story.

Halloween. © Getty Images

It's no longer news that many books of fiction out there have similar storylines and endings. I see this in the books I review year in and year out. The hero or heroine is always naïve and ignorant. He or she goes through a journey through which he learns to be courageous and knowledgeable, after which he faces the ultimate test and comes out victorious by defeating the greatest villain. Sound familiar? Of course, this plotline is a sure winner any day. The thing is, indie authors seldom individualize their characters nowadays. Flat men and women run around in their stories hoping to finally become the next Frodo and Voldemort at the end of it all. This makes for boring reading and I've refused to review many manuscripts as a result of feeling I've met the hero or villain somewhere in another story also titled ‘THE WITCH & THE DRAGON.’