Writers aren't machines

[sholio]

Scalzi has a great blog post on 10 Things to Remember About Authors, which basically condense down to: No, whining will not make the next book happen faster, because authors are people too. (He's speaking more in the general sense than about anything specific, but I guess that reader complaints about "When will the next book get here?" are endemic to authorhood.)

I don't think I've ever experienced anger or resentment because an author couldn't deliver their book when it was promised. More like wistful disappointment (and I may have been guilty of typing "Scott Lynch" into Amazon.com's search window a number of times in the hopes that things will have changed since the last time I typed it). But given how many people have tended to default in the ficathons I've participated in (and the number of times *I've* had to back out of a commitment, failed to finish a WIP or realized that my creative energy had temporarily deserted me) I think I'm the last person who ought to be complaining about an author failing to get their next book out on time.

Comments

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

The article made sense to me. What self centred narsicistic (please let me have spelt that right, I've always wanted to use it :D) twat expects the book to come opout to his/her timeline. If it's not ready when the author said it would then chill. Trust me, a fan of Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children (http://ecfans.com/) has to be patient. They come out every ten years or so :D

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*nods* I'm kind of amazed that there are actually people who get genuinely ticked off at authors for not finishing books in what the so-called "fans" consider a timely fashion! I guess it's the same impulse that causes people to pester fanfic authors to update their WIPs. People ...