What's the point ?

[helen black]

I read this morning that out of 1.2 million book published in 2007 only 25,000 sold more than 5000 copies.
200,00 sold less than 1000 copies and 950 000 sold fewer than 99 copies.
In the UK the average salary of a writer is £4000.

I just wondered how many crime spacers knew these ststs when they started out and if they would have bothered had they known?
HB x

[Pate Grantwell]

I know you're being facetious, but many people won't know how close to the truth your reference is. Sherlock Holmes did not do crack, be he did do cocaine. Now the vintage Bentley in Victorial times? That one I'll have to leave alone.

[Dennis Leppanen]

Yes, Pate,

That was a stretch. It was intimated that Sherlock was 'doing' something. I haven't read any Holmes in years. It may be time to do so.

[Tom Cooke]

Yeah, I knew them. I went ahead anyway. It's because we are morons who are obsessed with getting our own message out there. Maybe I'm the worst because I think it's fun to get across ideas and tweak the noses of the people I feel like need tweaking. We all need to take a more active part in the aggressive marketing of our own product though.

[Pate Grantwell]

I definitely agree with those who believe we write for the attention. I read in another forum about a member who said she wasn't really trying to impress anyone. So why was she publishing her work on the internet, I wondered? Why not just read it to yourself and keep it from the public? I write to impress people. I won't deny it. Nor should any other writer. In the community of creative people, writers still maintain a reputation of restraint and reserve. We do not rip up hotel rooms, we do not assault innocent citizens and we do not increase the workload of paramedics by dying of overdose. We do not think the sun rises and sets because we write. We are doing okay. It's not a sin to aspire to profit from your ability.

[I. J. Parker]

I may be splitting hairs, but I've never written for the attention. I love the attention, true. And I'm frustrated when there isn't enough attention. But I write for the sake of telling the story and telling it as well as it can be told. With every new book, I hope for that moment of complete satisfaction and for the knowledge that it was done well. And with every new book I look for a break-through of some sort.

Stories are silent when told to oneself. They are mere day dreams. Stories, by definition, must be shared.

[Pate Grantwell]

Ah, but what does "telling the story and telling it as well as it can be told" do? Well, it brings you attention. When I said I write to impress people, I didn't mean to imply that I am not passionate about my writings, or that they are motivated purely by the hope of gain or adulation. Not at all. I am just as passionate about my stories as the next writer. However, I believe writers should structure their stories and prose in a way that excite their audience. You believe that "Stories, by definition, must be shared." I am not sure I agree with that completely but I'll go along for the sake of discussion. If a writer tries to share a story in an uninteresting way (i.e. if he or she makes no attempt to impress the audience), the story will likely fail to attract readers. This is why I consciously write to impress, to improve the chances of finding an audience for the drivel that I write. I write the way I do to complement substance, not to compensate for a lack of it. At least that's what I hope.

[I. J. Parker]

But our audience is not homogeneous. Different readers look for different things and are impressed by different things. And knowing your audience may not be a simple thing. My fans have surprised me as much as people who I thought would like my books have disappointed me with their lack of interest.

In the end, it's just best that I write to the standard that satisfies me and hope for the best.

[Pate Grantwell]

"But our audience is not homogeneous. Different readers look for different things and are impressed by different things. And knowing your audience may not be a simple thing. My fans have surprised me as much as people who I thought would like my books have disappointed me with their lack of interest."

True indeed. Reminds me of the times I told jokes I was so sure were the funniest things ever uttered by a human being, and not a soul laughed. Then there were times when I made what I thought were mildlly interesting remarks at best, and everyone went into fits of laughter. There is just no accounting for tastes. As long as human beings are wired differently, that will always be the case.

"In the end, it's just best that I write to the standard that satisfies me and hope for the best."

Hoping for the best is what I think every creative person does. It's what the people in Hollywood, who make the decisions as to which movies go into production or remain in development limbo, ultimately do. Oh they'd like you to believe that they have a system of course. But the truth of the matter is, they are largely guided by intuition and very subjective formulas. If any of us were given the opportunity, we could probably achieve the same success rate at picking hit movies.