Quote of the Day

Publishers seem to want to compete with faster forms of media, but the fast turnover leads to poorer books, and publishers shoot themselves in the foot. And it's as if authors have to be celebrities these days. It's expected that authors do loads of self-publicity – Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forum discussions – but it's an author's job to write a book, not do the marketing. Just like celebrities don't make good authors, authors don't really make good celebrities.

- STEPH SWAINSTON, in an article explaining why she is quitting writing full time.

8 commentaires:

machinery said...

who the hell is she that i would care ?

Yona said...

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/uncle-sam/images/stop-whining.jpg

:D

yeahyeah she's probably right, but i didn't know celebrity was a profession.

Anonymous said...

She should quit because her first book was great, the second less so, and the third one terrible.

Tristan said...

She said the job she had sucked, so she is going to find a new one. She didn't ask for anything, ask anyone to feel sorry for her. She simply said that the job wasn't what she envisioned. But don't let that stop your childish anger.

INTERNET SMASH!!

Andystoteles said...

"who the hell is she that i would care ?"

Well, you´re obviously visiting a blog about books, maybe she´s a writer of some sorts? But i get the feeling you dont really like books, eh?

Sofie Bird said...

Having just spent the week reading posts from Dean Wesley Smith that 1 hour of writing a day = 4 books a year, and indies' complaints about how traditional publishing stifles prolific writers by limiting them to only a book a year, it's rather amusing to hear someone who apparently writes full time complain that a publisher wanting a book each year is too much pressure.

Her choice and all. And it can be a lonely life if you let it - but that's what writers groups and other social circles are for.

Unknown said...

It's not as if tight deadlines are a new invention or new demand from publishers. Many many novels of the nineteenth century were serialized, for instance...

Anonymous said...

erm - 1 hour of writing a day = 4 books a year?

That's a LONG way from standard, and while it's just about possible to get the 1/2 thousand words required in an hour, most people can't jump in all guns blazing and have days when writing really isn't possible or they're just not being that productive. Having never heard of the guy I've just googled him and seen he mostly does tie-in stuff, which makes it much easier if the world's already mostly created, but still, that's not how the vast majority can work so you can't expect most people to conform to the extreme.

Can't say I've ever heard of traditional publishers limiting someone to only one book a year either, as someone who works for a traditional publisher. Sure if you're banging out four original novels a year the bookshops would likely say you're hurting your sales by not giving anyone but the hardcore fans time to keep up - but at worst you'd get published under a different name or they'd stagger publication and keep a pool of finished stories for when illness/children/whatever gets in the way of productivity.

I do, however, have reservations about Swainston's assertion that a book a year was being forced from her. Being also published by Gollancz too, that's been nothing like my experience. I think her issue is more with the lifestyle writing full-time imposes, since it's an isolated way of existing, but she seems to have gone about dealing with it completely wrong.

 
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