By Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73
Boy, there’s been a lot of drama in the writing world recently.
Last week, there was this post in The Huffington Post, which essentially asked J.K. Rowling to stop writing, adult fiction at least, to give other less successful writers a chance.
Before that, it was this interview with Isabelle Allende, in which she referred to writing a mystery as a “joke.” (Full disclosure: Allende has since apologized for her comments; since she’s not a native-English speaker, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.)
And none of it went down well.
See, we writers are an insecure bunch. We are. We spend hours, days, weeks, years, making up worlds. Our fictional characters become as dear to us, sometimes even more dear, than real people. But what if nobody else likes them? What if I have an “ugly baby”? It’s almost enough to scare one into not writing (but if you’re really a writer, it’s kind of impossible not to write – but I digress).
Genre writers – those who write fantasy, or crime, or romance, you know genres – seem to be especially sensitive. Somehow, some of us (and yes, I admit that I am occasionally in this pool) don’t think we’re given the same credit as more literary writers. That somehow writing romance or mysteries is easy compared to a sweeping historical epic. That we spend less time working on craft (we don’t, at least those of us for whom writing is more than a hobby don’t) and more time just cranking out crap. Quantity instead of quality.
We don’t. Which is why comments such as Allende’s hurt. Yes, yes they do.
(Side note: After several years, I’m still fuzzy on what it means to be “literary.” Genre, I understand. But literary to me means words, so honestly, I find it a little confusing. Again, I digress.)
But I’m not only a writer. I’m a reader. And as a reader, I say, “Who cares?” As the saying goes, there’s a book for every reader. There’s a reader for every book. I like Jane Austen as much as Clive Cussler. It’s all a kind of escape. Give me a well-written story, and I’m a pretty happy camper.
Which is why I find all this sniping a little ridiculous.
Really, I’m a smart woman. I can figure out what I want to read. Sitting down to read Pride and Prejudice does not somehow mean I won’t read Sahara, or The Wrong Girl, or Game of Thrones. I’ve even been known to read more than one book at one time. So from a reader’s perspective, the number of books published in any particular field is completely irrelevant. My shelf has room for them all (okay, not really, but I’ve got lots of floor space – and that’s what digital is for, right?).
There’s the argument that books by Rowling, et. al. are taking up physical shelf space in bookstores, crowding out other books I, the reader, might like and making it harder to find. Once again, I call shenanigans. I do a lot of browsing on Amazon. I don’t often buy from there, but I do browse there. They don’t have shelves. It’s limitless. And if I see something else (because their algorithms are really not bad), I can always go to my local indie bookseller, and she’ll be happy to order it for me.
As a writer, well, I much prefer this guy’s perspective. I’ve got one of those “reluctant readers.” Rick Riordan is a godsend. My daughter got hooked on reading way back when she was five and we were reading Harry Potter together. She reads Stephen King and John Greene now (often both in the same weekend). These folks are taking away readers. They’re creating readers. As someone who wants to see her work on the shelves some day, digital or physical, I say “thank you – please keep it up.” More readers is a good thing. Because, as with my daughter, she didn’t finish Harry Potter and then say, “Oh well, guess I’ll never read again.” She went out and found other books to read. In other genres. By other writers.
So please: Ms. Rowling, Mr. King, Mr. Patterson – keep writing. Keep creating readers. For all our sakes. There seriously are enough books – and enough readers – to go around.
And hey, if anybody wants to buy me a castle in Scotland, I won’t say “no” to that either.
Image courtesy of Thokrates; used under Creative Commons license
Well said. I totally agree.