Not Confluence report, but something that occurred to me there

[msagara]

1. Every author wants everyone to read and love their books.

2. This will never happen.

3. The world's nicest people sometimes write books I don't care for

4. While I am not, sadly, the world's nicest person, I also write books that people simply don't care for.

5. If you don't care for my books--or even actively dislike them--I don't want you to duck out of sight anytime our paths cross. Unless you actively dislike me, in which case, go ahead.

6. I don't expect everyone to like my books. I've spent many, many years working in a bookstore where one of my chief joys is to match people with books they will actually like. This has caused me to develop certain reflexive habits. For instance:

Young boy at Confluence: A lot of my friends say your books are really good. Which one should I start with?

Me, standing at Larry & Sally's very fabulous display in the dealer's room: Well, what other authors and books have you read? What other books have you enjoyed?

Him: I really liked Old Man's War, by John Scalzi. Oh, and Ghost Brigades, and the Last Colony (which I once again mistyped as the Lost Colony, gah). (He then mentions a few more books--all SF).

Me: Well, those are all science fiction, and all of my books are fantasy novels. I'm not sure that you'll actually like them. But there are a number of authors I do think you'll like if you liked the Scalzi.

7. I don't expect everyone to read my books. Any of them. I am happy when people read them. I am grateful. But I am not conversely angered, irritated or depressed when they don't.

Not only do I not require you to come up to me and preface our first conversation with "I'm really sorry I haven't gotten around to reading your books yet…" or "I'm really sorry I haven't picked up your books yet…", but sometimes it's a little awkward to start said first conversation with reassurances that you haven't offended me. I know I can be a bit of an ogre--but not so much of one that I feel you've no business speaking to me at all if you haven't read my books--or if you've read them and hated them, or worse, were bored to tears. I haven't in all likelihood listened to your music, seen your art or inspected the electrical work you did on the construction site in your real life job -- and I don't want to have to feel horribly guilty for that, either.

Comments

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

That was a great post, Michelle!

I loved how you handled the young man's questions at Confluence. Having a career in the IT industry, I can relate to that.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

*nodnodnod*

Your books

[(Anonymous)]

Books, I didn't know you wrote books. Forget about having someone like them, the fact that they are written at all is a wonderous thing. So suggest a book you wrote that you'd like someone to read.

Alex

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

So, so well said! (sartorias linked to your entry, so here I am!)

[karenhealey.livejournal.com]

Ditto!

[holmes44.livejournal.com]

great post even if i do have all your books.

[madrobins]

Here, here. What you said!

In fact, I'm always a little surprised and overwhelmed when someone says they have read my books. And then delighted. But first, surprised.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I always find it interesting and enlightening to hear people talk about what books they like, and how those are associated. If they do like my work, that tells me more about what other interests those fans also like; and if they don't, I know something more about connections in fields I am less familiar with. Fishing, history of European wars, and suspence-type murder mysteries, for instance--who knew??

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

And this would be why you are, in fact, the bees' knees.

[estara.livejournal.com]

or - as a matter of preference - the dogs' bollocks.

[johnlevitt.livejournal.com]

That's a brilliant post. I feel exactly the same way, but I couldn't have written it so clearly.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that you should be ready to jump to the assumption that SF readers don't read fantasy. I read both, and even the odd mainstream book from time to time. If the boy knows that you're a fantasy writer and is asking about your books, then mentioning one of them wouldn't be out of order, I think.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that you should be ready to jump to the assumption that SF readers don't read fantasy

I don't generally--but I do ask what they've read that they like, and if it's all SF, I tend to start recommendations in that direction. I did mention my own, because he was very politely persistent, but given that all of his answers were SF titles... and, well. I did say it's an ingrained response...

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

Preach it.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I always kind of wonder why a stranger who hasn't read any of my books would want to engage me in conversation anyway, and I suppose that announcing they haven't read them at least stops me grasping for that as a conversational gambit. Better to get it out in the open than stumble on it in the middle of the interaction. But maybe I just think that way because I am awkward around strangers.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I always kind of wonder why a stranger who hasn't read any of my books would want to engage me in conversation anyway

Sometimes at conventions people will say or do things I think are brilliantly funny or really thought-provoking or even heart-breaking on panels. I often haven't met them and don't know who they are otherwise--but I could see myself wanting to speak with them after.

Sometimes they want to introduce themselves because other people have said reasonable things about me. Sometimes they just like my dress. I don't know -- I can think of a lot of reasons why, at a convention, people who've never read my books would want to be social. And since part of the reason I'm out and about is to be social, I don't want them to somehow feel they don't have the right to even speak with me without apologizing for not reading the books, if that makes sense.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

It makes perfect sense. And I'd rather just have the conversation and not get into the whole declaration of not-having-read. I think I am just out of the habit of meeting strangers generally. I need to get back into the swing of conventions!

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

In 1990 I went to a convention (Westercon?). On one of the days I wore a (ahem) short dress (not that short, but you know), and I happened to be on a panel up on a dais with no table, just chairs, and Roger Zelazny was on the panel so the room was PACKED, certainly 100-150 people. And me up there, trying to carefully sit in my short dress.

Strangely, after the panel several men came up to ask me about my books.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

That'll work! :)

[marycatelli]

Conventiosn are a good place for finding authors. People who sound like they have interesting things to say sometimes say interesting things in their books.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I think that some authors really do shine in that way--they can capture the crowd at a panel or in the bar, hold several conversations at once and be witty and insightful in all of them.

[pentane.livejournal.com]

I actually started reading swan_tower because of a comment in another author's LJ when I had a conference call I needed to be dialed in to but not listen to (and hence a need to be entertained).

I find her LJ generally interesting, but I'm not a huge fan of her books (which I hadn't read until after about 8 months of occasional commeting in her LJ, at which point I felt somewhat of an obligation).

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I think we can overlap with some of an author's interests but not the ones where the books fall and that's okay. There is no obligation if the books don't move you. You can still participate in the parts of the LJ that aren't about the books.

[scott-lynch.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes doubleplus indeed.

I know people are usually just trying to be extremely polite when they introduce themselves with some variant of "I'm so sorry, I have to admit I've never read your stuff," but honestly...

it's a-okay! It's not a crime! We'll get through this.

After all, I don't walk around telling people "You know, I hate to admit it, but you've never filed any human resources paperwork for me," or "I feel terrible about this, but I've never actually had one of your colonoscopies."

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Totally off topic, but I hope you saw that there was a Discovery (?) channel special about sharks that jump out of the water. I didn't see it, but saw the ad, and thought of your book.

[book-wench.livejournal.com]

Yes! What you said. I am such a little-known author that I'm actually pleased if anyone's heard of my books, much less read them.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I never wish I'd written books that other people wrote, but DAMN I wish I'd written this post. ;)

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

YES! A wonderful post, and I too wish I'd written it.

[bondo-ba.livejournal.com]

Well said. I know most writers feel the same way - I just wish readers would take notice!

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Hello! I followed a link from mtlawson's journal and am adding you to my friends list.

There are definitely authors who are wonderful folks, but I'm not interested in reading their works. The only Stephen King book I've read is On Writing, because I'm not a fan of horror stories.

I also tend to shy away from the sort of science fiction books that focus on spaceflight, because I was traumatized when the Challenger was lost.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

It's not always a matter of not caring for an author's work either. There are so, so many books out there and only a finite amount of time for reading.

That has always been true and I'm pretty darn sure that will continue to be true. No one person can read everything.

Some of us can try, but it is really silly to go around apologizing to writers for not having read their work.

[blythe025.livejournal.com]

All of these points make perfect logical sense to me. Though bruised egos rarely like logic, and I often have to tell mine to shut up and stop complaining already.

[teenagewitch.livejournal.com]

I do like your books and was seriously excited to learn you had a LJ. I understand liking an author for one type of book and not liking everything they wrote. I read Nora Roberts romance extensively but won't touch her JD Robb series with a ten foot pole. I still adore her, just don't read OMG every single book shes ever come out with.

iconlove, redux!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

ahem. trying again from the journal I actually use:

ICONLOVE. :)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

That's a great attitude, and just how I feel (from both sides). There are several authors I like personally whose books I haven't read, because I know I wouldn't like them, and that would be an awkward conversation.

Every author should come out and say this to avoid the elephant!

[(Anonymous)]

Very well put!

[pgranzeau.livejournal.com]

I frequently like a large proportion of an author's books, but there's one or so that I decide I might not enjoy reading. I am extremely diffident about telling the author so. I guess it would be OK to say something like that to you, but honestly, I haven't read anything since the Sun Sword series--but that I loved to read. My only comment is that you were juggling too many threads all at once, and I never figured out the denouement of some of them. I guess I'm too dense to understand.

your books

[(Anonymous)]

I have this weird issue, where if I start a book, no matter how bad it is I must at least slog through that whole book. I suppose it is sort of like wasting food to me. Most times I am granted a sense of pride in keeping that streak going, other times I am rewarded with the fact that I ended up enjoying the work very much. I know this is sort of off topic but that is what your comment reminded me of. Specifically how I almost broke my streak twice with "The Sun Sword" the first book of your I had read at that point. It wasn't so much that it was bad. I was enjoying the dialog between characters and the emotions I could feel, but at about 100 pages in I was languishing and was thinking to myself, when is this going to pick up? By page 200 I was like, dear god, I have got so much info, when is it going to get anywhere. It took me around 6 weeks to get that far, which was unheard of for me. But when my mind went to giving up, I knew I would regret never having finished it. Not sure exactly when it changed but I recall it was about 200 pages from the end and it GRABBED me, didn't put it down the rest of the night. Since then oddly I have taken to reading the majority of your books out loud(mostly the dialog but other passages as well) not only does it enhance my enjoyment of the interpersonal dramas, but it makes finishing it take longer, so that I don't finish them immediately after receiving them. So while of course I am grateful to you for sharing you imagination with others, I am also glad that my stubbornness(not always my best quality)paid off so largely in this case.

[mercwriter.livejournal.com]

Excellent post, which I entirely agree with. Very nicely put!

(Here via kateelliott)