Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Somebody’s going to find this piece insulting even if it’s right. Especially if it’s right. My favorite quote from this piece from the Guardian is, “The reading public in private is lazy and smutty.” This article does raise the question, “Am I busting my brains too hard writing a literary apocalyptic novel from the point of view of an autistic child with a fondness for Latin phrases?” Or should I relax my literary aspirations and ape The Road Warrior instead? Doesn’t matter this time. I’m already in love with my book and it’s almost done. But how much should we consider the market before we start out? I mean, baby’s gotta eat, too. Click the Scoopit! link below to check out the Guardian piece and let the outrage mixed withplacid agreement commence.~ Chazz
Via www.guardian.co.uk
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Filed under: publishing, self-publishing, Amazon Kindle, Arts, downmarket books, E-book, erotica, fiction, genre, Genre fiction, Guardian, Literature, Print culture, publishing, smut
C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m 
It’s unfortunately true, in pretty much any creative medium, that hard work and quality are only rarely rewarded. It’s based more on luck than anything you can actually control.
The solution? Write smut under a pen name to make a living, and write your opus in your spare time. Best of both worlds, and it works for me.
I’ve certainly considered your suggestion and I might do that at some point. Right now I’m focussed on bringing three opi to fruition, so I’m in the mode of writing the stuff I’m most moved to write first and we’ll see how that flies.
Oh Chazz you’ve done it again. Hit my nail on the head. What it looks like to me is that people want to escape what they perceive as the reality of this world, and then re-create somewhere else in genre fiction, but so obviously unreal – zombies, vampires, etc – that it doesn’t scare them as much as their own life does. It is as if we’ve lost our belief that this mess we live with can ever be understood and changed. But am I going write fiction I otherwise wouldn’t read – no way. I’ve had too many experiences in my life realizing that when I follow my heart, I get to live my dream, to think about writing for for any particular group or era other than those who still retain curiosity about the human condition and how it could evolve differently.
I’m open to writing stuff that isn’t my first love while I’m waiting for my first loves to be found in the market, as long as the mercenary work is short and manageable time wise. But yes, I really don’t think there’s a lot of point doing it if your heart isn’t in it. That’s what non-artistic jobs are for. I might end up stocking Coke machines at 4 in the morning while I wait for the market to find me. I’m in a race to get my books found before the money runs out.