Is your favourite author a big, fat sell out?

I hear so many people bitterly complaining when their favourite author ‘sells out’. Selling out can refer to a range of things, from writing mainstream books for the sake of money, to ruining the plot/characters/world they have created in previous books. I know exactly what people are complaining about. I can relate. Some of my favourite series have been BUTCHERED by the very authors who created them.

Damn those corrupt bastards to hell, right?

Wrong.

I would like you all to picture this. You are a big name author (We should all be so lucky). Your books have sold in eight countries and you have hundreds of fans, all clamouring for your next book, sending you fan mail and crowding around you at writing conventions. You write professionally and your writing is your only source of income. That isn’t a problem though, you are doing quite nicely for yourself, despite the fact you have two teenage kids and a mortgage. All sounds pretty nice, huh?

Now imagine you have a problem. The genre of novel you have been writing for the past ten years is starting to bore you. You’ve run out of plots for that genre. Those tried and true characters you have been writing for years you now hate. You want a change. In fact, you have a wonderful idea for a book in a new genre! You, excited and passionate about this new idea, pound out 400 pages and send it off to your publisher.

Now one of two things happens: One, the publisher says, ‘No way’. People know your name and associate it with your old genre. If you publish this, your sales will go down and they aren’t willing to risk thousands of dollars trying to sell your name on a new genre. Or two; The book is published, but only gets a lukewarm response. Readers want your old characters and genre. The book doesn’t sell and suddenly your publisher isn’t impressed. They start pressuring you to go back to your old genre and your fans are burying you in letters and emails begging you to go back as well. (Okay, maybe you do really, really well and never look back. That’s also an option, but bear with me.)

Now let’s not forget those two kids and your mortgage. You have bills like everyone else and your daughter wants an expensive dress for her prom. What do you do? Go broke for your passion? Ignore your publisher and fans?

No. You sit down and write a novel you couldn’t care less about. Because then your publisher will be happy, your fans will be happy, the debt collectors will be happy and your daughter will look wonderful for her prom.

Is the book a crappy sell out for the sake of money? Yes.

Did you have a choice? Perhaps, but anyone willing to put their own passions before the happiness and wellbeing of their family and friends is an asshole.

Okay, I admit, it’s not always going to go down like this. However sometimes it does and you have to put yourself in that author’s shoes to understand why. So think twice before slamming that sell out author next time.


Copyright Talitha Mitchell. 2003.