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This really deserves more....
Mar. 4th, 2011 05:15 pm..., but as Ivanova would say, I'm in the middle of 15 things, all of them annoying. Still, I've got time to at least throw the short form of my thoughts about this out for you to take a swing at.
Recently, in another forum, I mentioned that an author who is writing a series of books had announced that the next volume would be out in July. Actually, his publishers, in two countries, announced it, with a firm date.
One friend said, "I'll believe it when I actually hold it in my hand."
Another said he refused to buy it, in order to "hit [name withheld] in the pocketbook."
Look, I'm as anxious to read the next installment as the next person. I'm a little frustrated myself with the plot lines that seem to be turning into something as complicated as a dendrite web. And I really hate that my favorite character got killed off in the first half of the first book. And the Wheel of Time experience has made me a bit gun-shy, too.
But that said, where does the reader get to demand anything of the writers? In what way do the writers "owe" us anything? Even if they say "I'm working on it and I expect to be done by July 2009" in what way does that obligate them to give it to us? It's not like they're on salary. We pay them when there is an actual product to purchase. I'm baffled by the notion that readers should make the writer suffer by "hitting them in the pocketbook." They aren't tech writers, applying a specific skill set to a narrowly defined task (having done some commercial writing, that seems a fair description) with a deadline. This is a creative enterprise. They are gestating, creating, building...and even if it takes for-bloody-ever, we have absolutely no place being tantrum-y children about it because we didn't get our ice cream when we wanted it.
To quote Dennis Miller, "That's just my opinion. I could be wrong."
Recently, in another forum, I mentioned that an author who is writing a series of books had announced that the next volume would be out in July. Actually, his publishers, in two countries, announced it, with a firm date.
One friend said, "I'll believe it when I actually hold it in my hand."
Another said he refused to buy it, in order to "hit [name withheld] in the pocketbook."
Look, I'm as anxious to read the next installment as the next person. I'm a little frustrated myself with the plot lines that seem to be turning into something as complicated as a dendrite web. And I really hate that my favorite character got killed off in the first half of the first book. And the Wheel of Time experience has made me a bit gun-shy, too.
But that said, where does the reader get to demand anything of the writers? In what way do the writers "owe" us anything? Even if they say "I'm working on it and I expect to be done by July 2009" in what way does that obligate them to give it to us? It's not like they're on salary. We pay them when there is an actual product to purchase. I'm baffled by the notion that readers should make the writer suffer by "hitting them in the pocketbook." They aren't tech writers, applying a specific skill set to a narrowly defined task (having done some commercial writing, that seems a fair description) with a deadline. This is a creative enterprise. They are gestating, creating, building...and even if it takes for-bloody-ever, we have absolutely no place being tantrum-y children about it because we didn't get our ice cream when we wanted it.
To quote Dennis Miller, "That's just my opinion. I could be wrong."
