How much do authors owe their readers?

Readers can become very proprietorial about books, but authors’ imaginations need to remain their own
It’s only natural for readers to feel a certain possessiveness over the characters with whom they spend so much time – but what exactly does an author owe his or her audience? And where does this responsibility start and end?

April 17, 2009 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:
    April 17, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    I think that readers have a
    I think that readers have a legitimate beef when a particular series makes an abrupt change in tone, style, subject matter or plot. For instance, as a youth I was a huge fan of Ender’s Game, but I was befuddled (to say the least) by Speaker for the Dead, which was an entirely different book with an entirely different tone for an entirely different audience. And, as much as I like the whole series, I think Harry Potter is guilty of this as well. I don’t think the average 10 year old for whom the first book is appropriate can read straight through to the last book. I realize that authors grow and change over time, and that for marketing reasons it is attractive to flog popular IPs along, but at some point I think there is a betrayal of sorts. I think authors do lose some creative rights when they share their creative work with the world. Especially in the case of serial fiction, there is an implicit agreement between author and reader that the story “means” something and that there will be internal consistency in the future. Otherwise the serialization would have no value.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    April 18, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    There’s only one thing an author owes to his readers
    That is respect for their intelligence.

    Reply

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