I think it is safe to say there are a lot of books. Every year hundreds of thousands of books are made available to the public and are sold in bookstores and online retail sites all over the world. With the expansion of more and more formats, like audiobooks and kindle, books are easier to access than ever before. Self-publishing, something that was relatively rare only a few years ago has become incredibly popular and successful for many aspiring authors.  Despite the early twenty-first century prophets of doom predicting the end of books in the near future and bemoaning the fact that "No one reads books anymore," books are not going anywhere any time soon. But this begs the question: are having more books than ever before a good thing or not? The answer is complicated, and it depends on who you ask. 

On one hand, there are far more options, titles, and authors, giving readers more opportunity to quantity than in the past. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of genres out there. Although variety gives readers more choices, I honestly feel like the huge quantity of books out there has led to a lack of quality when it comes to modern works, particularly fiction and fantasy fiction. These books generally follow a common trend: the story usually revolves around high action, modern dialogue with little creativity, cheap romance, and wooden worldbuilding as well as forgettable themes.

Of the many frequent pitfalls, the most common is the extremely odd approach that tends to twine modern themes into historical settings, and, or the overuse of opposite gender role-playing. Essentially, in trying to avoid traditional stereotypical characters, authors go beyond all believability. The current flow of culture continues to prove this again and again. The biggest trend in writing, music, and film I have seen develop over the last 10 years is the high number of female characters who have taken over the male role in the story. Countless recently released books and films have portrayed women as almost pseudo-strong characters by just giving them a sword and making them act and think more like men. A common tactic used in these books or films is to make the man or men in the story immature or stupid to make the girl look completely grounded and the infallible voice of reason. This isn't a sexist criticism; it's not a bad thing to make a woman who can fight with a sword or act decisively at the moment, but the way that authors go about it is often wrong. A strong character, whether man or woman, is not determined by their fighting skills, psychical powers, or even their individual glory and victories. Any number of characters can be great fighters, it does not make them great people or strong characters. Just because a woman takes on an untraditional role, it does not mean she should be unwomanlike. On the flip side, if a man has tender moments with the ones he loves, it does not mean he cannot also be a fierce soldier in battle. Strong characters have virtue and standards. Virtue has nothing to do with skills or being better at something than someone else; rather it shows the character's true identity, and whether they fight solely for themselves and their pleasures or instead fight for a higher ideal. To completely impoverish the opposite sex's credibility and intelligence deliberately doesn't really do anything but demean and denigrate both sexes.

Sadly, in this day and age, so much is based on the externals and not the core of the soul.  Maybe this is why I find so many books, movies, and music albums/singles that feature erotic content with lewd front covers. I think this is a terrible mistake for several reasons. Although it is a tactic that might drive sales initially, long term, it reduces strong characters to mere objects of quick thrills. If a story is real good, you don't need an erotic picture to draw in people with. A great example of this is many long-forgotten films and albums of the past. No one watches a sixties film today because some underdressed woman is on the cover. Trends come and go, and the question is whether people will still want to read my book one hundred years from now based on the content of the story itself, not the cover, online reviews, or current public opinion.  If you are looking for something that will last, create truly strong, memorable characters that have a sense of decency and virtue, and despite what the mainstream trends say it is your best chance to succeed long term.