Publishing “Bizzybees” revealed something uncomfortable about modern book culture: discoverability and quality are no longer closely connected.
There is too much noise—too much content—and too little availability of attention span and actual readership of books.
A thoughtful, idea-driven science fiction novella about First Contact by an unknown author enters a marketplace dominated not by bad writing, but by algorithmic momentum, branding, and reader habit. Most digital storefronts reward familiarity, speed, emotional immediacy, and genre repetition.
Books are often consumed the way fast food is consumed — quickly selected, quickly consumed, and quickly forgotten. “I will have what they are having!”
First Contact and Foo Fighting is in the news after Trump administration disclosed the classified files on UFOs, US military contact with these UFOs and also the testimony of highly skilled and highly qualified personnel—including Top Gun pilots. This and the geopolitical situation of war possibly escalating into global annihilation through AI technology inclusions in military operations—you would think this was the best most appropriate time to launch Bizzybees, a timely tale of first contact gone wrong through human misunderstanding and prejudice. Author Harold Platte should think he hit gold and I need to believe I am selling gold at the price of silver flying saucers. Alas, close but no dice!
There is a difficult environment for intellectual fiction, especially from amateur or completely new writers. A work that asks readers to slow down, think carefully, absorb atmosphere, or wrestle with abstract ideas competes directly against endless streams of highly optimized entertainment engineered for instant gratification. The surplus of formulaic, predictable stories dotted with genre specific tropes and something to keep you amused rather than alarmed.
Philosophical science fiction, literary speculative fiction, and contemplative novellas occupy a shrinking commercial niche because they demand attention instead of merely capturing it. Sure, the Bizzybees novella’s cover or the reel may interest you—but we didn’t aim to get hits and eyeballs—we aimed to get conversations and questions and doubts and concerns and revelations.
(Would the White House accept a free paperback copy for the Hon. President? LOLz)
At the same time, publishing Bizzybees also demonstrated that niche audiences still exist. Readers interested in first contact, systems thinking, hard science fiction, and philosophical themes are real, but fragmented across online communities, podcasts, Reddit discussions, BookTube channels, and small review ecosystems.
These readers are harder to reach through traditional advertising because they are driven less by impulse and more by trust, recommendation, and intellectual curiosity.
I will have to use channels of communication, platforms of engagement I have never bothered using because I really want this key, brilliantly crafted novella in the right hands and minds. It fills me with anxiety and hesitation and worry—but that’s what is the natural outcome of “first contact”—even if it is with a new internet platform or a new mass media channel. That’s exactly why human limitations are the key –the actual weapon—as we can understand from Harold Platte’s Bizzybees.
The experience ultimately suggests that serious independent fiction should not expect immediate commercial success. Instead, it must build slowly through reputation, discussion, excerpts, reviews, and consistent thematic identity. In a crowded digital market, intellectual fiction survives less as mass entertainment and more as cultural conversation — passed between readers who still value ideas as much as stimulation.
See you on the other side of the doom.
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