I was doing my daily trolling of various blogs and forums and saw a few heated discussions or recaps of heated discussions or debates about “controversies” in certain genres.

And something occurred to me.

Most readers don’t care.

Most readers are not reading a novel, conducting a critical analysis of the contents, and judging the book on whether it supports one or another side of some obscure argument.  Or whether it’s derivative.  Or whether it’s…whatever.

Most readers don’t care what some author said in some random interview.

Most readers don’t care how an author spends their free time.

Readers care about story.  Readers care about being entertained.

For some readers that means they want to spend six hours reading a mindless, repetitive, escapist story just like the last ten novels they read.

For others that means spending thirty hours wading through a complex, nuanced, challenging novel that makes them think and is nothing like anything else they’ve ever read.

They each have their preferences, but their main goal is to be entertained.

Sure, there are folks who jump on the bandwagon.  Who read what others read just because others are reading it.

Or who spend their reading dollars as a form of social vote on who an author is as a person.

But, most readers?

No.

Most readers just want to be entertained.

(Something to keep in mind before spending hours debating these things with other writers instead of, well, writing.)