Is including lore in your novel a mistake?

>>8361177
what's lore?

>>8361177
Better to release it as a companion book so that you can cash in twice.

>>8361177
I guess Herman Melville got away with it.

Ask if yourself if it's necessary.

>>8361177

Yes, but because I can tell you're trying to write the next LOTR and it's shit regardless

>>8361177
Explicit it's a mistake, implicit no

>>8361177
It depends. I sprinkled really dumb irrelevant factoids throughout the book I'm writing now to set the mood but they're only doled out a couple of paragraphs at a time and when it's explicitly noted that nothing's happening.

I feel like I've got to include lore in my current project.

Like, how else am I going to explain the aliens that aren't really aliens because they were there first suddenly appearing from outer space. Way easier if there's some myth about it already.