Hello All! I couldn’t help but be inspired to address an issue stemming from a post on Anne Rice’s Facebook page. And this is it: A reader giving an author a one-star review because the reader determined from the author’s past written content, that the author is somehow unworthy of writing on a new, entirely different subject matter. (I’ve included the snippet and link at the very bottom of this posting).
Let’s face it ladies and gentlemen, AUTHORS ARE NOT THEIR CHARACTERS!
Now many of you will say or think that surely an author’s works or genre reflects them. There could be an element of truth to that, perhaps. But there are so many pieces of the puzzle making up one’s personality, belief system, and interests, that it should hardly come as a surprise when an author decides to make a change and write something totally different than what they’ve been known for writing previously.
Writing a different piece of work in a new genre helps keep things spicy for a writer. Some do well with the change, others not so much. But I have to personally admire an author for branching out. It lets me know there’s more to them than just what I read in their novels–that they’re unique human beings with all kinds of perspectives on all kinds of subjects.
This is my personal stance: Readers need to be thoughtful in their reviews, even if they’re negative, and discuss the work and other nuances of the book: not the author or their worthiness in tackling a new area of interest.
I’d be interested in learning how some of you feel about this. Do you think erotica writers are sexaholics or do you think practicing detectives can write nothing but murder mysteries? Could they write a good steampunk novel, maybe?
