Did you know that there is a whole adult book market? Well, that is just the upper part of the typical iceberg meme. Below there is a whole network of interest, millionaire contracts, low blows, influencers come to more and editorial stamps that go completely unnoticed by the mainstream Cultural, but that move a lot of money. And this is the last controversy that has shaken the scene of this sprimer books coloring 20 semi -out.
The panorama. Adult books arose as a global trend in the mid -2010, driven by the rise of products with anti -stress albotade and mindfulness (Do you remember the meditation apps, the gratitude notebooks, the bombing of crafts and the cross point …?). In this context, many activities that until then had remained in the children’s sector of the market were reoriented. The puzzles, the games and the coloring books began to be tolerable for adults. And everyone dusted their cariocas boxes.
Shift of the elderly. However, there were differences, of course: these coloring books adopted themes that had no childhood: mandalas, natural places, abstract art and, of course, the inevitable displays of NSFW illustrations. A scene came quickly around these books: Tiktokers and YouTubers who colored and gave advice to those who wanted to try at home. And of course, artists emerged who turned to create books with very diverse styles: from the manga of Camilla d’Erico to the dark fantasy of Kerby Rosanes. An entire industry.
The subgenre facilitated. Among all this phenomenon highlighted a style with force: the ‘Bold Easy’, or books of extreme simplicity and that anyone can face without any experience in coloring. Voluntarily naif issues (although not always), thick strokes, simple shapes, for pages that can literally color in five minutes. Of course, you can always raise the difficulty and give a complexity to these drawings with some skill, but the starting point was clear: everyone can color.
Entra CocoWyo. For 2019, the initial boom of adult books had faded, or at least did not reach those figures of 12 million books sold 2015. But this new trend of the bold easy He arrived to resurrect her, and new authors and authors enshrined in this style: Mia Birchwood, Jade Summer, Vivi Ink or Bobbie Goods. And, above all, Cocowyo, actually a study of Vietnamese cartoonists who started in the field of self -publication and whose work is so neat that it is difficult to account, but that in Goodreads, for example, it has 416 different books.
Anonymous but successful. Cocowyo artists remain in anonymity despite the popularity of their social networks (more than 700,000 followers on Instagram, for example), and above all, despite having signed a millionaire contract with Penguin Random House in September last year. Of course, that firm multiplied its ubiquity (and more being a study without public names that can be fattened, license and derive indefinitely) and made Cocowyo almost the only ambassador to the line bold easy.
Trajinar with the algorithm. And this is where the controversies begin, whose roots are tracked until the times when Cocowyo self -published. According to his most staunch critics, the study was an expert in detecting fashions and trends in the coloring book section and replied with very little dissimulation. For example, as Bookriot said, his ‘food, Drink & Sweets’ was very similar to Megan Miley’s ‘food / snacks’, even in the design and cover style. Nothing denouncing, but the similarities were very striking: Cocowyo also imitated the format and size of the book … and the term ‘blod & easy’, which transformed into ‘bold-easesy’.
Suspicions of AI. Can the appearance with just a few months apart from a couple of books with a death of Cuqui riding the clouds, as Bookriot also pointed out? It can be, but there did not end the controversy. Cocowyo’s neatness made them creditors of suspicions of use of AI for their illustrations, something that has never been demonstrated. The opposition of the community multiplied when Cocowyo registered (not the use, but making them a registered trademark for legal purposes) a series of very generic terms and that affected the material that the competition was producing: “Bold and Easy Coloring Books”, “Cozy Spaces” and “Simple Art”, among many others.
Goliat against David. The pressure of the other authors supplied its effect, already the end of last year, Cocowyo abandoned its purpose of registering these terms. But complaints have not ceased: authors and fans have continued to protest because they consider that Cocowyo is not behaving as a small author competing against others legitimately. You are using the advantages that it provides to belong to a large multinational publishing house (armies of lawyers, tactics to bend the algorithm in social networks, burst the market with much cheaper books than those of its rivals) to present unfair competition. And that has nothing of cozy nor of bold.
Header | Cocowyo
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