Gravity must be caused by an Agent acting constantly according to certain laws, but whether this Agent be material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of my readers.
Well, it’s a humor strip, so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader… But if, in addition, I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me, so much the better.
I hope to be with you as a writer for a very long time, and I hope that you will enjoy reading my work, because readers are the highest form of life on this planet.
Librarians have always stood up for writers and readers in every kind of community across this country.
I don’t inflict horrors on readers. In my research, I’ve uncovered truly terrible documentations of cruelty and torture, but I leave that offstage. I always pull back and let the reader imagine the details. We all know to one degree or another the horrors of war.
Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.
With so many millions of titles available, the books that will get talked about are the books that make readers talk about them.
The only pressure I feel is to write good books. And to not replicate the previous book. Whether you have a thousand readers or a million readers it doesn’t change the pressure. I never feel tempted to give the reader what I think the reader wants.
In judging other people’s work, particularly short stories, I have noticed how novice writers tell the readers everything about their characters in the first paragraphs, disclose their motives, reveal their recent activities and their future intentions.
I get letters from readers who say that they have always hated reading, but somebody suggested one of my books, they actually finished the book and enjoyed it, and they’re going on to read another book. I’m thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun.
Master storytellers like Jeffrey Archer and Arthur Hailey use simple language. But they manage to grab the attention of the readers right from page one. I’ll consider myself a good storyteller the day people believe it’s OK to be late for work or postpone deadlines just to finish reading my book.
The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse.
I think you tell the story that has to be told. You tell the story that’s the truth. You tell the story that readers will be interested in and should know about.
In the post-Watergate atmosphere of 1975 and 1976, the just-plain-folks personalities of both Ford and Carter seemed the perfect antidote to Nixon’s arrogant, isolated presidency. But as alert history-minded readers know, Ford and Carter were both rebuffed by voters in their efforts to hold on to the presidency.
I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.
Don’t hire anyone – no matter what they offer – who promises you they’ll sell ‘X’ copies of your book. Every book is different. The best any marketing company or PR firm can do for your book is make potential readers aware of it.
Readers are made by readers – it is so obvious it is almost banal to say it.
The main thing is to think strategically about what will engage your readers. Trust me when I tell you that few people are eager to read a story whose opening lines sound like a dissertation on giant bugs.
Let’s say I find a lot of current American fiction too overwritten for my tastes, too self-conscious; I like something that’s simpler and more direct. The story is what matters to me. I hope to make it seem real to readers, as if it happened just like this – so I don’t want fancy descriptions getting in the way.
With the ‘Old Kingdom’ trilogy, at least half the readers were older adults rather than younger adults. I wrote them for myself with no particular audience in mind.
Readers should aspire to what is excellent. They should refuse to read a substitute Bible. They should want a Bible that calls them to their higher selves – or to something higher than their current level of attainment.
I feel that historical novelists owe it to our readers to try to be as historically accurate as we can with the known facts. Obviously, we have to fill in the blanks. And then in the final analysis, we’re drawing upon our own imaginations. But I think that readers need to be able to trust an author.
Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Lee Child and George R. R. Martin write wildly different books. Their writing, plotting and styles have little or nothing in common. But they all write books and characters that readers find appealing.
My hope is that each of the villains I write will have his or her own motivation that readers can understand, whether they agree or disagree.
The reason I choose the stories I choose – and it’s why it takes me so long to find ideas – is that I’m looking for that very thing. I want an idea that begins, I want a middle that is compelling and will bring readers along, and I definitely want an ending.
I have to tell you, I’m a happy man. I’ve lived the life I wanted to live. I’ve written the books I wanted to write. No publisher has ever even suggested that I change so much as a phrase – commas and periods, yes – and I suspect that I have a lot of serious readers; in fact, I know.
The best thing about being a writer is it gives you readers who understand your deepest feelings and fears.
Readers let me know that they like books that have more to them than meets the eye. Had they not let me know that, I never would have written ‘The View From Saturday.’
‘ The Lucky One’ is at its heart a romance novel, elevated however by Nicholas Sparks’ persuasive storytelling. Readers don’t read his books because they’re true, but because they ought to be true.
Readers of novels often fall into the bad habit of being overly exacting about the characters’ moral flaws. They apply to these fictional beings standards that no one they know in real life could possibly meet.
I want ‘Vogue’ to be pacy, sharp, and sexy – I’m not interested in the super-rich or infinitely leisured. I want our readers to be energetic executive women, with money of their own and a wide range of interests. There is a new kind of woman out there. She’s interested in business and money.
Romance readers love a wealthy hero, and why not? There’s value in a man able to hire a helicopter, a coach and six horses, or a collection of werewolves to do his bidding – and the bidding of the lucky woman on his arm.
I think we in journalism were really late to social networks. We had a built-in network already in terms of our readers, and we didn’t capitalize on that.
I have been writing for 50 years and readers still read my first book from when I was in the Marine Corps.
You can’t believe anything that’s written in an historical novel, and yet the author’s job is always to create a believable world that readers can enter. It’s especially so, I think, for writers of historical fiction.
I really am a believer that 99.99% of all the stories we need, not only as artists but as human beings, not only as writers but as readers, haven’t been written yet. Certainly haven’t been published yet.
I think all writers are mainly writing for themselves because I believe that most writers are writing based on a need to write. But at the same time, I feel that writers are, of course, writing for their readers, too.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
Readers embrace all kinds of characters as long as they are written with emotional truth.
The more readers use the Bible app, the more valuable it becomes to them. Switching to a different digital Bible – God forbid – becomes less likely with each new revelation a user types into the app, further securing YouVersion’s dominion.
‘The Observer’s Very Short List’ is another example of how the Observer Media Group offers its readers the most cutting-edge information, available in a variety of platforms and written by an editorial staff known for its distinctive and discerning style and wit.
I think that some books are more successful than others to certain readers. People who read my books for the humor, they’re going to love one book. People who read my books for the mystery, they might not like that book quite as much.
In terms of characters I wish I had created – just because I haven’t dealt with anything like them – I’m really impressed by characters who can endure over time, whether that be a long series run like a Harry Bosch, or a character who endures over generations and continues to please readers: Sherlock Holmes.
I think it is important for readers to know that it is possible to bring intellectualism and idealism to the White House and still be political enough to advance an agenda.
The novelist in me is probably hiding behind all the stories I write, looking for ways to connect them and continue the conversation with readers. Maybe I’m writing one long narrative, and each book, however different from the last, is just a chapter.
Among my books, the ones that sell best are for readers between the ages of 8 and 12. According to a study by the Association of American Publishers, the largest area of industry growth in 2014 was in the children and young adult category.
I write with a sense of my future readers being ever on the verge of setting down the book and pronouncing it a bore. Fear and insecurity are great motivators.
