There’s an image that’s been making its way around the internet, popping up in both my Facebook and Tumblr accounts. It kind of drives me a little bit crazy. Here’s the image in its entirety:
So, let’s begin with the positives. First off, there’s nothing wrong with liking or reviewing or rating a book. I LOVE it when someone likes or reviews or rates my books. I even like the occasional bad review, especially if they’re fun to read. (My favorite bad review: it was completely negative and then said “I will give it credit because it’s an idea I haven’t seen before; but maybe I haven’t seen it before because it’s a really bad idea.” That’s a great review.) So, anyway, yes: reviews and likes and stars are awesome.
But:
Let me make that bolder:
BUT:
Readers do not owe one thing to an author. This is an attitude that I see often in writers circles, and it infects authors from the lowliest of indies to the most popular of bestsellers: that the author worked really hard on the book, so readers ought to like it for that reason alone. To quote the image above: “It’s a lonely journey to embark on just to tell a story, yet the personal costs are huge.”
You know what, though? Writing is just work. And while I certainly don’t mean to downplay my own profession, writing is REALLY GREAT. It’s the dream job. Even back when I wasn’t writing fulltime, back when I was right out of college and working as an accountant at a lumber yard and writing in my spare time–writing was great. It was fun. That’s why I was doing it. As the image above says: “It’s a labor of love.”
Besides that, you know what else is “a lonely journey” with huge “personal costs”? Just about any career. I got my MBA before my writing gig took off, and I can name dozens upon dozens of people who work harder than me: dozens of people who work longer hours, under higher stress, for much less recognition. And you know what? Every one of those people are just as personally committed to their dreams, be they entrepreneurship or business success or promotion or building a company from the ground up, they are just as committed to their dream as I am to my writing.
You know who has a lonely journey with huge personal costs? The guy who scraped together enough money to buy a Burger King franchise. Or the woman who sunk herself into debt and put off temporary pleasures so she could get through dental school. Or the carpenter who hangs drywall for years while he’s waiting for his own custom furniture business to take off. In other words: everyone is making a lonely journey. Everyone pays huge personal costs. And yet there’s no Facebook plea of “Please give my Burger King franchise a great review on Yelp, because I try really hard!” And there shouldn’t be.
Readers don’t owe anything to authors. It’s completely the opposite: authors owe everything to their readers.
A couple years ago I wrote about attending a concert where the crowd just wasn’t into it. I was infuriated–this was one of my very favorite singers, and my town wasn’t showing her the kind of attentiveness she deserved. But then she changed her show, singing some of her older songs, trying to connect–and when it worked, she did the same song a second time. And then she said, cheerfully: “My job is to make you happy.”
She knew the truth. She knew that SHE was the entertainer, and WE were the paying public. We’d paid to be there, and we wanted a good show, and she was bound and determined to give us one. And she did, and we loved it.
THAT’S the attitude that authors should have, rather than begging for positive reviews. That’s how writers get better, and it’s how readers get happier. And the happier those readers are, the less writers will need to beg you to give them a rating.
Variant, named as one of Publisher's Weekly's Best Books of 2012. A YALSA Pick for Reluctant Readers. Click here for more information.
Feedback, sequel to Variant, was released October 2nd, 2012. Click here for more information.
Blackout, a new series coming October 2013. Click here for more information.
Going Dark is a novella prequel to Blackout, to be released September 3rd, 2013. Click here for more information.
And that was a really good rant. I totally agree!
Well said, Rob!
SO TRUE. Well written, Robison.
(If it had been me, I would also have ranted about that heinous sentence fragment beginning “An intense….” Fragments have a certain rhetorical charm, I’ll allow–but not pompous, bloated fragments. Who wrote that thing?)
(I would also have ranted about the misusage of “author,” but I well know what a losing battle that is.)
But Luisa, you’re smarter than me. And as soon as I mentioned grammatical errors my blog would have been torn apart by Grammar Wolves. I know my place.
This is a great rant for a couple of important reasons, the #1 being that it pushes back on the idea that writing is somehow more a labor of love than other endeavors.
An example from a few years ago: someone on my facebook wall complained about spending 10 hours at the library working on their master’s thesis and saying it was harder work than a 10 hour shift at Burger King. I argued that this was the kind of hogwash that academics say when they’ve never worked a grueling retail job. yes, writing and research and thinking are hard and stressful, but it’s foolish to place these things above physical labor.
Now, as to the idea that non-writers are just as likely to devote themselves to a lonely journey, I can attest to this. My father put all his time and energy into his business when I was growing up. he worked a job and then ran a computer business at home. That business was what he really loved and it helped pay for my college education. He had bad customers that didn’t pay but kept asking for his help. He had friends and relatives expect him to give free advice. Even I got lots of free work out of him over the years.
Would I ever run a business? No. But it’s the easiest way I can explain to my father why I can sit at a coffee shop all day and think about sentences and fictional situations about things called “characters.” (he’s not a fiction reader or a writer in any universe.)
Fiction writing is pretending all day. and that is certainly fun and difficult, but it is not the same kind of sweat-inducing labor-intensive life as a contractor, engineer, or food server. Perhaps people can debate about the nobility of jobs or the artistic qualities. But I agree 100% with Wells when he writes “In other words: everyone is making a lonely journey. Everyone pays huge personal costs.”
Still, I am not sure I can go all the way to agree with this part: “authors owe everything to their readers.”
At first my objection felt simply personal. I want readers to owe me something since I have loved my book for so much longer than anyone else. Seems fair. They are going to read it, which might take a few hours. Least they can do is write me a good review or get their friends/family to come to my readings. If my readers love books and want to support good writing, then it’s their JOB to support ME.
So, that’s my first response. But like an old man, it doesn’t hold water well.
Then I thought that Wells’s comment is more in line with the commercial aspects of writing: I can sit in a room and write books for myself, but once I publish it I am making an effort to find an audience. The author who believes his/her writing is artistic (ie, a precious peacock meant to be nurtured, not a compromised cockroach meant to make money) will also adhere to the idea that readers owe authors. An author who believes in writing as entertainment, who is less concerned with the timelessness of their work and getting onto college classroom syllabi in the future, will embrace the idea that writers owe readers. Because the commercial writer, just like the singer in Wells’s example, needs to please his/her audience. Bend to their will, play the trends, etc.
But that doesn’t sit well with me either because I’ve come to understand that MOST authors in history were commercially-minded and their artistic reputations were often granted by academics and philosophers and other writers later. Sure they wrote with art in mind, but they also negotiated for higher royalty rates, fought for reviews, and begged their editors for advances to live on while writing their new project (see:F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Joseph Conrad for examples. In fact, Whitman wrote his own fake reviews and altered his opus LEAVES OF GRASS to gain a more middle class readership as the years went on. He knew that reaching more readers meant appealing to DIFFERENT readers than he originally intended. Those middle-class readers would then help Whitman spread to other readers. Saturation led to reputation. Also, writing about Abe Lincoln helped.)
So, what I’ve come to realize is that my initial (albeit minor) disagreement with this rant is just a difference of publishing perspective. I’m an author living in the sweet sweet time before my first novel debuts. I’ll never have this window again.
Wells has been through the publishing process a couple of times — successfully, no less. He knows through experience that writing is lonely but also not. That there ARE readers out there. He reaches more and more every day. He’s not going to go back and CHANGE his books, but he’s also not going to demand that his readers do things for him. They have not given success to him. They have led him to success. (So has his agent, his editor, his friends.) The writing success is not necessarily due to the readers. But the PUBLISHING success surely IS. The difference becomes more crucial as I go through the process. Because writing and publishing are two parts — much like being a great baker doesn’t mean you’ll run a great bakery.
The way I see it, he has learned the true nature of owing things to readers and that’s the core of his rant above. Right now, I can only experience his point as an abstract concept and my gut response was “Errr, no.”
(To be clear: I am not suggesting Wells has sacrificed art in favor of commerce, that he lacks nobility or anything of the sort. I have rejected those theories above.)
No, I believe that Wells and I simply are at two different points in the publishing experience, so when I bristled at the line “Writers owe readers everything” I did so because I have not yet figured out who my readers are and what I owe them. Or if I have them!
I hope to have them. I hope they will come to me with open minds and write reviews if they’re compelled. I hope they adhere to the SPIRIT of the image Wells posted above — that financially and verbally supporting an author is GOOD. I know that the world is not simple, that my work is always going to be more important to me than everyone else, and that if I DEMAND things of my readers then I set myself up for a disappointing existence.
Thank you, Evan. That was a very nuanced, well-thought-out post, and I appreciate the insight. I think you’re absolutely right: we see things differently at different points in the publishing process. I think you said it all better than I did.
But Rob, I need you to leave me a review. You owe it to me. After all, I worked really, really hard.
I was going to leave a comment, but I remembered I don’t owe you anything. Except for that time you pulled me out of a burning car.
On the other hand, you’re the one who set the car on fire in the first place…
Just trying to keep you on your toes, Joel! Never get complacent. NEVER.
I thought the way to help an author was to buy their books. I’VE BEEN WASTING SO MUCH MONEY!
While I do agree with this rant, I believe there is one thing that readers owe to writers and it’s probably not what you think. They owe writers the same thing that we all owe to each other, the truth.
Rant on brother, rant on.
Randy! I forgot. In your case, you DO owe me.
You don’t know this, but every time you sue someone, you are helping a lawyer.
Being a lawyer takes dedication. It takes a lot of manpower hours. It takes the lawyer away from their children, their friends, their hobbies, and their family.
Lawyers get paid less than you think. They are lawyers because they love to argue – just ask their spouses. It’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s not a path to fame or fortune. IT’S A LABOR OF LOVE.
An intense, soul searing, hard, tearful, discouraging journey for a lawyer. Complete strangers can tear them down or lift them up with just one court brief.
It’s a lonely journey embarked on just to make a living, the personal cost to be an attorney is huge. It takes years to become eligible for law school, it takes three more to graduate from law school, and then there’s that bar exam. Most lawyers then have to spend years at the bottom rung of some huge law firm working 80-120 hours a week in the hopes that they will move up the chain at some point.
Please give something back. The only way a lawyer can afford to be a lawyer is if you help them using the system in place.
Sue someone! Even if it is for only a small amount. Help them make a few bucks by taking some stupid dream drug and giving them clients of a class action lawsuit.
SUE SOMEONE!
I make it a point to never heed the advice of some semi-viral idea that tries to get me to take action through guilt.
Amen.
If you have the ego to put your work in the world, to act as if what you have to say is of possible interest to someone beyond your family and close friends, then also have the confidence to stand behind your work. It’s that finished story that is the reward for the long journey — anything beyond that is gravy.
Micah,
I just spit hot chocolate out my nose. I’ve got so many people that I could sue but I’ve held off because I’ve not wanted to make anyone’s life difficult. And now I find that all this time I’ve been denying you, the lawyer, a chance to practice your hard-won profession. I’ll do you a favor and sue someone today!
Lily,
I will sleep well knowing that I have improved the life of a lawyer somewhere.
Thank you for your contribution to this noble, but misunderstood profession! You are making the world a better place by suing.
I do believe it’s “nice” to leave reviews if you liked a book and that it helps other readers if you explain why you did or didn’t like it. But I totally agree with you about all the rest.
I loved the post but your comment section has me both thinking and laughing loud enough to scare my children.
I agree about readers not owing authors but I don’t entirely agree about authors owing everything to their readers. I liked Evan’s comment (very thoughtful) about how many people are involved in the process. I also liked what WHM said about standing behind your work and accepting the other stuff as gravy.
I don’t like this strange notion floating around that authors are entitled to great reviews or detailed not-great reviews. Those are also gravy to me, be it a positive or negative review. The idea of author retaliation against reviewers is a HUGE no-no to me.
I guess my view is that an author’s job is to write the best damn book they can (hopefully while enjoying their job), get it into the hands of the best damn readers they can, and then get to work on the next book.
You see this in blogging, too (or at least you used to before the blogging world collapsed, assuming that the blogging world has collapsed, as I assume based on the fact that I read fewer blogs than I used to). You see people complaining that other blogs get lots of visits and comments, and why don’t people come pay some attention to their blog like they do to the big popular blogs?
Those kinds of whines always left me scratching my head. If you want more people to read your blog, write something people will be interested in. Isn’t it simple?
So very true, Rob. I’ve seen that floating around, too. I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of the tortured artist.