And further to that, if the bigshots think it's too much work, I'll gladly do it. Hell, I'll write two a year.
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| Pressure On Writers? http://www.horrorworld.org/msgboards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4602 |
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| Author: | ttzuma [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:35 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Pressure On Writers? |
The Boston Globe has a story today about how best selling authors are pressured to write a book a year. New authors are required to sign contracts that if their book is a best seller, they have to write one a year. The big time authors are grumbling saying that they have no life if they have to write one a year. But the publishers are saying that with dwindling sales they need the big authors to put out product. They also say that even the big authors sales are down and the only way to get those up are to have more product. They interviewed a bunch of name authors who were split on the demand. Some said it was no problem, others said no way. One author who had sold millions writing medical thrillers admited that he did sign a new contract that said he would write a book a year. His sales were down because he was writing one every 2 - 3 years. His first two books under the contract were big sellers and he is writing the third now, but he says there is a ton of pressure and he doesn't know if he'll do it again. Tt |
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| Author: | DGM [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:10 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
One book a year? How busy could they be? You sit down for two hours a day, every day, and write 2000 words, you have a novel length work in about two months. I fail to see the problem, myself. |
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| Author: | TMLCrow [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I would suspect that some of the writers who had no problem with one book a year have a couple of things going for them, primarily that they trained themselves to write a certain amount a day to achieve that and that they are doing series with the same characters, which they don't have to create from scratch. And I would suspect that a lot of the writers who objected have made enough for themselves that they can afford to take their time with a project, or that their output in a day just isn't as much as someone else's. (As an aside, after the story on the Leisure board, I wrote something that had been brewing for awhile. I wrote it in fits and starts, sometimes going ten days between putting something on the computer screen. Compare that to DGM, who in the writing update thread said he was doing something like 2,000 words a day. Different styles of writing.) I can see the arguments from both camps, and as a reader, I usually don't care too much how long it takes a writer, just as long as it eventually comes out. One thing I didn't see adressed is whether those who didn't want to do a book a year felt that doing so would compromise the work. Did they mention that, Tt? Thad |
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| Author: | DGM [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
And further to that, if the bigshots think it's too much work, I'll gladly do it. Hell, I'll write two a year.
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| Author: | TMLCrow [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:17 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
And I'll gladly buy them, D. See, problem solved. It took us, what, 5 minutes?
Thad |
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| Author: | DNiallWilson [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:18 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Sorry...I don't see that as a problem at all. |
I know I am MUCH faster than most but still. If you are a best-selling novelist...you write for a living. That means (at least in theory) they expect you to write every day and maintain your market share ... and seriously. If you have to write one book every 300 days (give them 65 for administrative things...then you have to write (for an average book of 100,000 words - about a page and two lines - double spaced - every day. Most writers I have interviewed or talk to claim between 1k and 2k words a day. At that rate it takes only about 3 months to do a rough draft. The last two new books that I wrote and sold took 30 days or less to write the first draft (not counting time to outline - or the revision process) If someone can't bring themselves to write a page a day, maybe they chose the wrong profession? I'm just saying - a book a year doesn't seem out of line at all... D |
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| Author: | DGM [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I guess I should cut them some slack. But a year is a long time. What the hell else are they doing with their time? I get the writing out of the way, and then I have the rest of the day to do what I want. If I don't write, then I feel horribly guilty until I do it. I don't know, to each his own I guess. But if it's something you love, it shouldn't be that hard to find the time. I realize some writers are insane perfectionists, but you can write the novel in two or three months then have the next 9-10 months to dick around with it. Anyway, I've said my bit. And thanks for the commitment to buy, Thad. I appreciate your business.
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| Author: | ttzuma [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thad, they didn't admit to that, the closest they came to it was one author said the pressure of a dead line made him write quicker than he wanted to. Tt |
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| Author: | DNiallWilson [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | It's hard to be too sympathetic |
| Author: | horrordude [ Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | writers. |
| Author: | DGM [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:40 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
I wrote drunk once, and it actually turned out pretty well. I had to do a little spell checking after (once the hangover was gone, haha), but I liked what I wrote. And it was kind of fun. Writing with little to know inhibitions is quite liberating. But I wouldn't recommend doing it on a regular basis. |
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| Author: | Hero Killer Id [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Speaking clearly as a reader and having no input from the writer's end of things. I must say that honestly if I have a book by an author and I want more from them unless you have a pretty good back log I hope you have plans in the not too distant future. Not much longer than a year I dare say or quite simply I will probably forget about you. I don't mean this to be insulting but this is especially true with fantasy authors who take more than a year or so between sequels because I generally don't want to go back and reread the first book. Needless to say I try only to read finished series but some books are just too damned intriguing for me to wait. It just doesn't seem to be overly demanding to me. But I can't say I'm not a writer. |
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| Author: | DNiallWilson [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:27 am ] |
| Post subject: | Just for perspective |
If you wrote your 2,000 words a day (as King says) that's 730,000 words a year. Even as long as his books tend to be, that's more than one book...for me it would be six or seven.... When Nanowrimo rolls around every year, I do it...but it's not a challenge. You only need 1,677 words a day to do 50k in a month...I do that almost every month. |
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| Author: | horrordude [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | dgm. |
DGM, I never would have thought you'd write drunk; you're a bad influence on the rest of us good boy writers. When DGM has had a few too many, he bangs his cowbell for inspiration. 
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| Author: | DNiallWilson [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | It's not the writing drunk |
| Author: | Alan Draven [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
| Author: | DNiallWilson [ Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | That's what I was thinking |
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