The fact people think that when you sell a lot of books you are not a serious writer is a great insult to the readership. I get a little angry when people try to say such a thing.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.
My experience is that books take on a life of their own and create their own energy. I've represented books that have been sold for very little money and gone on to great glory, and I've seen books sold for an enormous amount of money published to very little response.
Personally I don't like it when writers become excessively proscriptive about the way that people read their books.
Even the people who have had success and made money writing these books of fiction seem to feel the need to pretend it's no big deal, or part of a natural progression from poetry to fiction, but often it's really just about the money, the perceived prestige.
I don't write for an audience, I don't think whether my book will sell, I don't sell it before I finish writing it.
When I write a book, I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader. It's not my business whether people like or dislike it.
I'm such a fangirl when it comes to other writers. I read 250 books a year, and I'm always talking up books by other authors.
There are people out there who genuinely love literature, who genuinely love to read and read widely, who will never like, or even necessarily get, my books. That was a hard one to swallow, to not feel slighted by.
Writing is a way of living. It doesn't quite matter that there are too many books for the number of readers in the world to read them. It's a way of being alive for the writer.
Sometimes, I'll hear from other writers or folks in the publishing industry that my books are rule-breakers, which I take as a compliment.