Writers and readers - are they getting too close for comfort? by Ali Bacon

Ali Bacon

Like most people I read the summary of Joanne Harris’ ‘writer’s manifesto’, (headlining in the press and social media on Monday) in summary form. Of course the whole thing (I found it here) is more wide-ranging than the headlines suggest, but the main point remains the same: the breaking-down of barriers between writer and reader has resulted in “a false sense of entitlement” on the part of readers to interfere in or even dictate the writing process.

Of course the experience of a first-time author is a different kettle of fish (like how I did that?) to that of an international best-seller, but it did make me wonder if our proximity to readers has changed the goalposts for writers, and think about what readers are actually entitled to. 

No complaints!

Looking at this from the ‘consumer rights’ perspective, I would say that a reader is entitled to a book or story that is complete (no pages missing!) and written by the person who claims authorship.

Is there anything else we ‘owe’ our readers? I don’t think so. Of course if we have built up an audience in one genre or sub-genre, we change the goal posts at our peril. The audience for Harry Potter did not in general warm to A Casual Vacancy (which I loved!) but hey, it’s still the prerogative of JK Rowling to write what she pleases, look for a new audience, or live off her earnings from the boy wizard.

Nathan Filer pleasing the punters...

Of course it gets more difficult if we want, as Harris requests, to make a living from what we write and I'm not sure it quite sits with her own claim to "never let anyone else decide what I should write, or how - not the market, my publishers, my agent, or even you, the readers". 

The work of a commercially successful (or even less successful) author has always  been moderated by agents, editors and publishing houses who think they know what readers want. (See Kath’s post yesterday on how demanding they can be) and even those working independently from the traditional publishing industry are going to have some kind of eye to the market if they intend to reach a mass audience. In this respect a book is a product which like any other will only succeed if the market likes it and most professional writers will know the tension between what they want to create and what readers might want or expect and have to decide to what extent they will compromise, even if its only in matters of title or cover design. Not that any of this encroaches on a writer’s freedom, but anyone looking to earn a living should be aware of their market even if they choose to ignore it and plough their own furrow as many in the writing game do. (Chris Hill, who write last week on Writers Unchained) is a good example of the do-as-you-please philosophy). 

... or lost in the crowd

But I do agree with JH that writing is not a democracy, and however much we might ramp up publicity by involving our readers, the creative choices (which might extend to making a character after a sponsor) are still ours to make, and anyone like Harris’ bible-bashing bowdlerisers who ask for text to be changed run the risk of breaching copyright as well as artistic autonomy. Personally I would ignore them!  We may live in a world where "the consumer increasingly calls the shots," but we can retreat from it any time we like and throw ourselves on the mercy of the book-loving public.

The new social media world does expect more visibility from authors - which for indie authors is a double-edged sword in terms of time and energy management, but we do it to reach our public. As an international best-seller Harris could probably downsize her media presence (much of which she enjoys) but if there’s a publisher driving her engagement calendar …? 

More convincing I think is her point about the cheapness of e-books and the devaluation of writing in a market where, apparently, ‘anyone can write a book’. 

In fact we know this is isn’t the case, but anyone who has written a book can publish it, and charge as little as they like. In this we may have been our worst enemies but even if I like a bargain as much as the next person, I’ll stay pay a publisher’s price for a book I really want to read, especially if it’s by an author I already know.  I think this aspect of the market will eventually shake down. Occasional freebies or specials will be legitimate marketing tools (I bagged Donna Tart’s The Goldfinch for 0.99 – high-five!) but the reader will make his own choices and if a free book doesn’t please, he won’t go to that author again.

Joanne Harris’ manifesto, however we might quibble over the details, is still a good thing. We can’t turn the clock back on the ‘publishing revolution’ and it’s only right that readers should be reminded of the kind of job we do and the difficulty of earning a living from it. If some of it is overstated or only applies to her own situation, it casts light on the world of the writer and I do hope it becomes part of the ‘national conversation’ it hopes to engender.

A Kettle of Fish by Ali Bacon
contemporary Scottish fiction

available as e-book or paperback