iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

sunyi @sunyidean.com · 25/09/2026

Real life painting of a fan base consuming its creators (sorry couldn’t resist)

sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

It’s a litte hazy but generally if they’ve been around a few years they have a bit of a baked in readership which is a help

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

ATM a lot of crate books don’t do well long term, and sometimes not even out the gate I think the way I would describe it is, it’s one of the many keys needed for the kingdom, but on its own it can’t unlock anything big

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Yeah it’s such a strange ecosystem 😅🤣🙈 and I absolutely agree on that tiered thing

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I haye plugging my own thing, but Someone You Can Build A Nest In meets all of this criteria.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Always plug your own thing and also, that’s amazing!! ❤️🤓

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Ah I just looked it up sorry! It was in illumicrate 🙈

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Molly Templeton @mollytempleton.com · 14/09/2026

this is such an interesting (and depressing) question! my answer was Some Desperate Glory, which I think definitely counts (though idk if it was in a crate), but can you come up with any others?

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

I think we’re talking at cross purposes without disagreeing - crates are definitely a boost and think the lack of organic success in SFF outside of existing platform or crate buys is indication of that. But as an entirely separate issue, a significant % of crate books struggle these days.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Some desperate glory probably counts! Sf seems to manage this a little more easily (but still tough ofc) when it happens SoBD is a great book but probably doesn’t count as a breakout (in terms of how a press would evaluate that I mean)

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Yeah I would say Sequoia probably captured the mainstream audience more, which is definitely the way to go (and also how Gareth Brown did it). Breaking into mainstream is the surest and safest path if you can’t dominate the genre niche

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Yes, it was a monthly pick for illumicrate I believe x

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Yes, they massively lose interest when that happens A lot of crate books don’t do so amazingly without additional support, and unfortunately earning out doesn’t help much for future contracts if they don’t count towards sales. Royalties are good to have though.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Definitely not disputing that! More just a private theory that a lot of imprints don’t seem to know how to market a debut book outside of using crates lol They rely on them too much when other routes are possible

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Crates are also not allowed to list for bestsellerdom in the USA but they are here, meaning they dominate our Sunday times lists and skew the best seller charts with crateflation figures (representing one big sales burst, rather than overall book interest or health)

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Are you American by chance? :) Crates are a unique phenomenon to the uk side of the industry. They exist in the states but due to different printer tech and distribution issues, it’s really hard to have them at the large scale that they exist in the uk.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Nothing to excuse! 🤓 It’s shorthand for a book subscription crate, eg illumicrate or fairyloot

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

That one definitely tapped into a wide audience! Although she also published before the current environment which perhaps helps

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

I’m not sure, but generally the further away you get from sff core and the closer you get to mainstream, the more I would say the situation changes

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

I’m glad there are a couple of examples, but it is also a little scary how few examples we can think of

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Okay - I’ve deleted to avoid confusion, but record of accountability, I absolutely confused those two books. My bad! Was it it a book of the month pick though? I realise that’s slightly different from a crate but is still a huge boost

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

So I am, my apologies!

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

It sounds interesting!

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Oh that’s a good one!

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

We thought of you! You’re one of the few I can think of. However, I think this is largely because you’re tapping into a mainstream readership who are much bigger than standard fantasy audiences. This is the way!! 💪

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

Rough criteria for a breakout success: • at least ~10k goodreads ratings or more in the first year • And/or hit some big bestseller lists • And/or garnered significant industry awards or accolades (this last one must accompany one of the first two)

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 14/09/2026

A question posed by @franceswrites.bsky.social during a long industry discussion. Can you think of a SFF book in the past 5 years which was a breakout success, WITHOUT being a) in a crate; b) from an established author; c) an indie success ported to trad? Cause we were struggling.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 12/09/2026

Ty so incredibly much ❤️

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

That’s very kind! But I truly wasn’t intending it as a promo post. Unfortunately self promo doesn’t move the needle for trad.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

That seems likely 😅

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

Oops my reply of oh wow meant to go here haha

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Jamedi @jamreads.com · 10/09/2026

It's my pleasure to help reveal the cover of Ire, first book in the Age of Ire series, written by @scottdrakeford.com, which will be re-published in 2027 by @thebrokenbinding.bsky.social. Cover art by Joe Wilson. Release date: January 26th, 2027. Full info: jamreads.com/reveals/cove... 💙📚

Ire, by Scott Drakeford. Art by Joe Wilson

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

It is really good if other things happen alongside it! But if you look through goodreads lists of big crate books, a lot of them have shockingly low GR engagement and don’t seem to have sold much beyond that initial burst.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

Ah so sorry to hear that x

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

I had a longer reply to this elsewhere but yes

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

This is a great bargain

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

They are truly the last bastion of The Old Ways

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

I know . That’s why I said it wasn’t a hill worth dying on anymore; we lost 😞 FWIW I feel it was really helpful to have a delineation. I used to be able to tell people “real publishers call themselves Trade publishers, stay away from something called ‘traditional’” and I can’t anymore.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

I don’t know how we get to that place where the safety barrier exists, except by making it so big nobody dares to NOT recontract 🤣 but that takes so much luck and timing

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

He’s not wrong, but that battle is lost and that hill isn’t worth dying on anymore.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

Over time, because indies and vanity pressed vastly outnumber traditional pub, and because nobody outsode the industry understood what “trade” publishing meant, trad pub has taken over. When I started seeing agents say trad, I knew we’d lost that language battle forever. Even i say trad now. Sadly

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

A vanity press has no trade distribution, so it can’t claim to be a trade publisher. But it can claim to be a traditional publisher, because this was a nonsense phrase that meant nothing. Trad pub was then picked up by the indie community as a derisory ref to trad pub being archaic and old school

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

In fairness, he’s right about that. 10-20 years ago, publishers described themselves as Trade Publishers because they produce trade paperbacks and hardbacks for mass market distribution. Traditional publishing was a term invented by vanity presses to claim legitimacy.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

And again, as mentioned in another thread, my special edition sales are orders of magnitude more than that, which all goes to royalties. But crate inclusion is not considered a repeatable success for the purposes for future sales predictions, so they don’t help you in the acquisition process.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

“But 700 print doesn’t sound terrible, Sunyi!” Well, not in isolation. But the USA side, on just bookscan alone, is shifting about 200 copies a week. Even accounting for population scale differences, the uk side is much weaker. Also it’s about expectations, and Harper will have expected more.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

If you’re curious what “underselling” looks like, GWATF shifted about 700 print copies since launch, or about 1k all formats discounting special editions (your pub won’t count special editions when considering new contracts, bc that’s unreliable for future sales predictions).

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

Addendum: it’s allegedly all about sales—except when it isn’t. There are authors with frankly middling sales who net big advance after big advance; then there are authors who massively oversell and yet get decreasing advances each time. I truly have no idea why or how the calculation is made.

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sunyi @sunyidean.com · 10/09/2026

I wish we’d kept the term trade publishing, it is more meaning. He is right that trad pub as a phrase grew out of vanity presses but it doesn’t mean vanity publishing

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