One reason for the dominance of genre fiction in online reading communities is its compatibility with modern recommendation algorithms. It’s easier for an algorithm to recommend books to you based on genres, tropes, or demographics of the characters or authors than on tone, theme, or quality of writing. Books with an easily identifiable genre will be favored by algorithms, as well as by readers whose idea of criticism boils down to replicating an algorithm.

The attention of today’s readers is also a hot commodity sought out by multiple parties besides the publishing industry. Modern publishers have to compete with not only other books, but also all of the internet. One way for publishers to level the playing field is to seek out and promote books that are not only attention-grabbing and easy to consume, but also primed to go viral on any digital platform with which the publishers must compete. This, of course, means playing to the algorithms of those platforms.

Of course, the more dominant these types of algorithmically-approved books become in literary spaces, the more aspiring authors will try to write like these books, because the logic of the market has proven that these are the types of books that get published and sold. Liz Pelly writes of streambait pop:

As the tastes of certain young artists are reflecting back the “tastes” of the platform, it seems safe to say we’re close to a type of pop genre that’s entirely Spotified.

Similarly, we might be approaching a literary landscape that’s entirely Amazonized or TikTokified.