It's Okay to Hate Tropes. It's Also Okay If Other People Love Them.

Not every book is written for you.

It sounds obvious, but judging by social media, it's a lesson a lot of people seem to keep forgetting.

Every few weeks, another trope becomes the centre of an argument. Enemies to lovers. Reverse harem. Age gaps. Accidental pregnancy. Dark romance. Love triangles. Second chance romance. "Bully" romance. The list never really ends.

One group loves it. Another group hates it. And somewhere in the middle are thousands of authors quietly wondering if they're suddenly supposed to stop writing the books they love.

Here's our take: no, you're not.

Readers aren't all looking for the same book

One of the biggest misconceptions in publishing is that there's a "right" kind of book. There isn't.

Some readers want fluffy romance with zero spice. Others want morally grey characters making terrible decisions. Some adore monster romance, others want historical fiction. Some want a mystery that keeps them guessing to the last page, and some just want a cosy fantasy where nothing particularly stressful happens.

None of those readers are wrong. They're simply after different experiences, and that's exactly how a healthy market is supposed to work.

Disliking a trope doesn't make it bad

Everyone has preferences. Maybe accidental pregnancy romance isn't for you. Maybe love triangles drive you round the bend. Maybe billionaire romance just isn't your thing. All completely fine.

But disliking something personally isn't the same as it being objectively bad. If millions of readers genuinely enjoy a trope, it's clearly working for somebody. Publishing was never about writing books everyone loves — it's about finding the readers who'll love yours specifically.

Try not to write for the people who'll never buy your book

This is one of the most common things we see trip up newer authors. They start worrying about the readers who don't like their story.

What if people hate this trope? What if this character reads as unlikeable? What if reverse harem isn't popular anymore? What if dark romance is falling out of favour?

Here's the reassuring part: the people asking those questions in the comments were usually never your audience to begin with. Trying to please everyone tends to end in pleasing almost no one — it's just how it works.

The internet magnifies the loudest opinions

Social media has a funny way of making it feel like the whole world agrees with whoever's shouting loudest. Someone posts that they hate a particular trope, thousands of comments pile on in agreement, and suddenly it feels like nobody likes it anymore.

Except the bestseller charts usually tell a completely different story. Readers keep quietly buying the books they enjoy, because social media isn't the whole market — it's just the loudest corner of it.

Trends come and go. Readers stay.

Publishing trends shift constantly. Vampires were supposedly "dead," then came roaring back. Fantasy romance exploded. Cosy fantasy became huge. Monster romance found a genuinely massive audience. Dark romance keeps thriving despite the regular pile-ons.

The point was never to chase every trend. It's to remember that readers are wonderfully varied, and there's genuine room for all kinds of stories.

Nobody needs to feel shame for what they enjoy reading

If someone tells you they love a trope you personally dislike, let them enjoy it. Reading is personal — books help people escape, laugh, cry, heal, learn, and unwind. Nobody should feel embarrassed because the story bringing them joy isn't the one someone else would pick.

Publishing exists because readers have different tastes. That's a strength, not a problem to be solved.

As an author, the audience is what matters

One of the most freeing realisations in an author's career is understanding they don't need everyone to love their books. They just need the right readers to find them. That single shift changes everything.

Instead of trying to appeal to every possible reader, it becomes about creating books that deeply resonate with the right ones. Those readers become the biggest supporters — they recommend the books, join the newsletter, preorder the next release. They become genuine fans, not because the book appealed to everyone, but because it felt written specifically for them.

Lean into what makes a story different

Rather than hiding what makes a book unique, it's usually worth leaning into it instead. If readers love possessive heroes, own it. If they adore found family, market it. If the audience can't get enough dragons, pirates, fae, hockey players, or cosy witches, tell them so.

The goal was never to convince readers who hate those things. It's to make the readers who love them think: this book was written for me.

What we believe at The Indie Author Hive

We believe there's room for every kind of story — sweet romance, dark romance, fantasy, thrillers, horror, sci-fi, literary fiction, or anything that refuses to fit neatly into a category. The readers for it are out there.

The real challenge was never convincing everyone to like a book. It's helping the right readers discover it in the first place. That's exactly why we focus on things like compelling blurbs, proper keyword research, carefully chosen categories, eye-catching covers, character artwork, and free, AI-free promotional events like our monthly BuzzFest and Stuff Your Kindle-style listings — all built to connect books with the readers most likely to fall in love with them.

Marketing was never about winning over the wrong audience. It's about reaching the right one.

The bottom line

Hating a trope is allowed. Avoiding entire genres is allowed. Having strong opinions about the books enjoyed is allowed too. Just worth remembering: personal preferences were never universal.

The book someone wouldn't touch with a barge pole might be someone else's all-time favourite. That's exactly how it should be.

Publishing was never a competition to decide which stories deserve to exist. It's a celebration of the fact that there's a story out there for everyone — and if a hand with finding those readers is ever wanted, The Indie Author Hive is here for that too. If not, this roadmap works perfectly well solo.