I don’t think she is underappreciated, certainly not among writers, but Alice Munro is the classic underappreciated writer among readers. It is almost a cliche now to wonder why this living legend is not more widely read.
You enter a state of controlled passivity, you relax your grip and accept that even if your declared intention is to justify the ways of God to man, you might end up interesting your readers rather more in Satan.
I’d been wanting to try a YA novel for years because I saw how exciting the genre was and how amazing, hungry, and curious the readers were.
I’ve never chased the dollar, I’ve always chased the reader’s heart. I love having more readers. The more people who read it, the more thrilled I am.
I have a lot of teenage readers and readers in their early twenties. My writing style appeals to them. And if they look at my picture on the back of the book, they don’t see someone who looks like their mother.
I have readers tell me that I must be bored, but that’s not true. I am never bored with the characters. I like them.
It’s not even my job to educate, but what I do is try to facilitate by creating a book that works on different levels. I do want to entertain and bring some joy to the reading experience. If it holds a little kernel of knowledge that readers choose to explore, well, that’s great.
Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.
Some people become passionate readers and fans of science fiction during childhood or adolescence. I picked up on SF somewhat later than that; my escape reading of choice during my youth was historical novels, and one of my favorite writers was Mary Renault.
To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.
Everything I publish is for my readers.
Teenage readers also have a different relationship with the authors whose work they value than adult readers do. I loved Toni Morrison, but I don’t have any desire to follow her on Twitter. I just want to read her books.
I love the fact that so many of my readers are intelligent, exceptional, accomplished people with an open-minded love of diversity.
Fortunately, I grew up in a traditional family where questioning was encouraged, particularly by my pandit grandfather. We are all voracious readers, seeking knowledge. I learn a lot from discussions with my wife, siblings and parents.
If we declare ourselves, as readers, to be on the side of life, the question has to be asked what sort of life we are on the side of.
I think a lot of readers are looking for a book they can talk about.
Readers probably haven’t heard much about it yet, but they will. Quantum technology turns ordinary reality upside down.
Young readers are the most challenging, demanding, and rewarding of audiences. Adults often ask why I write for the younger set. My reply: ‘I can’t think of anyone I’d rather write for.’
If there is any secret to my success, I think it’s that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel, and therefore I think my readers care about them.
For 500 years after Gutenberg, the dominant form of information was the printed page: knowledge was primarily delivered in a fixed format, one that encouraged readers to believe in stable and settled truths.
When I write a story, I have no idea what I’m doing. All I know is that I want to share something with my readers. The whole idea of writing is this place where you lose control, where you’re irresponsible – it’s a very liberating place.
The kids who speak well, are articulate and intelligent, are all readers.
It’s the publicity function of Amnesty that I think has made its name so widely known, not only to readers in the world, but to governments – and that’s what matters.
Among the letters my readers write me, there is a certain category which is continuously growing, and which I see as a symptom of the increasing intellectualization of the relationship between readers and literature.
I had this story that had been banging around in my head and I thought, ‘I’ll just see if there’s anything there.’ So I wrote a few chapters of the book that became ‘Year of Wonders,’ and lucky for me it found its readers.
In general, I write for ages 12 and up – although I’ve received emails from readers between the ages of seven and seventy. My books are science fiction.
All prizes have a role, if they are run with integrity and with a clear focus on reading and quality writing. I don’t think any of them is necessary, but they all play an incredibly important role in building a body of literature, in introducing new authors to new readers, and extending reading.
Digital-Original publishing embraces the non-conventional and genre-busting story. It allows me to share good stories with readers who will enjoy them, and at a reasonable price.
As a writer, it’s important to stay true to your story without giving a hoot about publishers, critics and readers. You should do your karma as an author the way you want to, and rest is up to God.
I have no interest in writing confessions, in deliberately baring myself to my readers. I prefer to remain behind a screen.
A good story, a story resonant and remarkable, can be remade endlessly to tell new sides of itself for new generations of readers.
There are many reluctant young readers who haven’t yet found books that make them laugh.
For many years I thought my job was to go to places where it would be difficult for most of the readers to ever get to. Now, in the more than 20 years I’ve been doing this, the concept of adventure-travel trips or expeditions by groups has sprung up. The places I went 20 years ago now have adventure-travel trips.
‘The Good Soldier’ is an odd and maybe even unique book. That it is a masterpiece, almost a perfect novel, comes as a repeated surprise even to readers who have read it before.
American readers are so polite; their reactions make it seem like I’ve received thousands of thank-you notes. It’s just lovely, and amazing the things people tell you that have touched them and related to their own lives.
I think maybe I might have to do what some other authors do, which is do a variation on my name, just to send readers the message that, ‘Yep, this is me, but this is a different part of me. So brace yourself.’
Shirley Jackson enjoyed notoriety and commercial success within her lifetime, and yet it still hardly seems like enough for a writer so singular. When I meet readers and other writers of my generation, I find that mentioning her is like uttering a holy name.
If you look at the history of how information flows, there was a time that newspapers were kind of in the place that Google and Facebook are now – how do we get more people to buy a copy? Then there was a shift in the early 20th century. They needed to do better, and readers and consumers demanded that of them.
I know what it’s like to be from an incredibly small town and the oppressiveness of it and the desire to get out. But I didn’t realize that readers in Seattle, New York, and San Francisco might not get that so instinctively.
Certainly the highest posthumous praise that can be conferred upon any writer is the assertion that his or her writing permanently altered the literary landscape for the better, opening new textual doors and engaging new readers. That the author’s oeuvre was essential and irreplaceable and transformative.
This will surprise some of your readers, but my primary interest is not with computer security. I am primarily interested in writing software that works as intended.
What most readers do not realize is that it takes a particular genius to write funny, to satirize.
In the worst memoirs, you can feel the author justifying himself – forgiving himself – in every paragraph. In the best memoirs, the author is tougher on him- or herself than his or her readers will ever be.
When it comes to your hero, what the readers really fall in love with are his flaws. No one ever falls in love with a perfect hero.
My writing is a very authentic journey of discovery. I’m going out there to learn who I am. My readers, consequently, take the same journey as my protagonist.
I’m proud of what I write and feel endorsed by my readers.
I’m an avid reader myself, and what any one reader accesses at any one time is very powerful and personal to them. Clearly you can’t even begin to touch that. A novel is a singular vision, and then a myriad of readers have their own experience of that.
I don’t want to waste my readers’ time ever. My readers are very important to me.
A lot of locked-room mysteries take time for you to pay attention and see the setup. They aren’t thrillers, and they don’t move along. The modern mystery story is really faster-paced, and I think modern readers tend to prefer seeing something happening on every other page.
If I was a soldier going to war, I’d be pretty scared the night before a battle. It’s a scary thing. And I want my readers to feel that fear as they turn the page.
I think, in a written novel, the way in which you play with the readers’ emotion or the way in which you engage the readers’ emotions can be very indirect. You could come at it through irony or comedy, etcetera, and you could capture people’s sympathies and feelings kind of by stealth if you like.
