Not saying this entire piece is wrong, sometimes this place can be a circlejerk and we need some dissent to keep it interesting. But here’s some truth for you: If you’re on here complaining about overhyped novels and writers people pretend are the “next big thing” who are actually mediocre but you don’t have the balls to actually drop names, that means you’re still climbing. You’re afraid of alienating these “cliques” because on some level, you still want something from them. And let me tell you, I know quite few people whose DM’s you’ve been in with your hands out asking for reviews, or whose novels you reviewed thinking you would get more tit for your tat, and I can tell you none of them are elitist in the slightest. All they care about is one thing: is your writing good? That’s the only way to earn their respect. If they’re ignoring you, it’s for that reason alone.

Look man, I think you’re a good guy, and I really do root for your success, but all this “they rejected me because I’m an individualist freethinker” nonsense is a little embarrassing. That’s a myth you made for yourself to compensate for some other lack you won’t acknowledge. You’re no more an outsider than anyone else struggling to make meaningful work in this unremunerative medium which has been pushed further and further from mainstream culture for the last half century. We’re all outsiders. That goes for all the MFA holders and traditionally published too. Everyone writing literary fiction is an outsider. That’s why no one can make a living off of it.

By all means, knock down the sacred cows and critique what you think is overhyped, but engage with the actual work. Do it with balls. And whoever told you your writing is just too weird for this imaginary council of substack elitists, they were lying to you.