The many faces of writers today have changed from days of old. Now writers are expected to have an audience and a platform before before they even publish a book. Do you think that now the writer has become as important as the work. I know that this is the case with some writers in the past, but it used to start with the work. It used to start with the reader reading the book, liking it, then liking the writer. Now the reader reads a website or an article or a facebook page, and gives the author a chance. What do we think of a world where the reader judges the book by its writer?
Richard Everywriter (pen name), founder of EveryWriter, is a publishing industry veteran with 25 years of experience. He holds degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology, and Education, and has taught writing and literature for 20 years.
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In my opinion I think the work should come first. It should be about the story not the writer.
I think this is an excellent discussion point. I think having a presence before the book is released creates a hype around the work. I write book reviews and love nothing more than connecting with an author, especially of a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I admit it is harder if you really like the author but not the book being able to write a review without offending at the same time if you really like the book and the author doesn’t acknowledge your review doesn’t work for me either. There are authors who I have found ignorant and therefore avoid there new up and coming work. I don’t review for recognition from an author I review for others to enjoy and want to read the book but when you actually take the time out to review acknowledgement is greatly received from an author bearing in mind that review could sell 10 more books. A quick tweet is priceless. I do believe authors and their novels are interlinked. Just as artists and their paintings and songwriters and their songs. My opinion is they are valued as a whole but sometimes we do prefer one more than the other.
In the tough world of publishing now, I think we all need to support each other. I’m not sure we have to give each other great untrue reviews, but I think we should buy each others books and magazines……based on knowing each other and what we know of each other and not always on quality of work….
For a social animal, such as humans are, cronyism is an acceptable, even laudable, survival strategy. On the other hand, I believe talent should be rewarded. If it’s a question of bang for the buck, that’s a question that can be decided only by the person whose hot little hand holds the money.