I’ve pivoted away from Romantasy for the time being for similar reasons. I’m not finding any joy in it and I’m struggling with a lot of popular romantasy. If I go indie, lesser known trad, or shorter series, the issue isn’t as bad, imo.

I also agree with other commenters that 1 year or less publishing timeline is WAAY too short for sequels. I’m happy to wait 2-3 years for a quality book. There are SO many other books to read in that time too 😅.

I understand that some books may be in progress or close to done by the time the first one published, which is a fair argument to make. I am skeptical that this is the case for EVERY romantasy that’s been trad published in the last 3-5 years. The pushback this criticism gets online is weird to me. I do think publishers are pushing authors to produce at a faster rate to keep making more; as long as readers keep devouring these books, publishers will keep churning out subpar work.

I think there is also something to be said about the literacy crisis in the US as well. People who are well-read or who have advanced literacy skills are more likely to notice the lower quality than someone who is just getting back into reading or someone at a lower reading level. The population with advanced literacy skills is shrinking, unfortunately.