How Not To Behave As An Author Page 3

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 9:47 PM BST

You've said yourself that people don't generally write and star in TV shows on their day off from the office. It's the same for novelists. Make a list of your five favourite writers and see how many of them wrote your favourite books in their spare time from their day job. There are a few. But not many.

View original

I'm not sure what you think it is I'm saying that you're taking issue with. Whether, in this suggested future, they wrote full time or not, as it was no longer possible, there would still be the talented writers who produce decent stuff, and the not so good.

And yeah, most people who write TV shows don't do it in their spare time, because they don't have to, they get money. If the time came when they did have to, then people would.

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 9:51 PM BST

View original

Sorry Griff.

Quote: zooo @ March 29 2011, 9:36 PM BST

It'll sort itself out somehow.
I don't believe that ebooks will take over from physical books, though. They'll coexist.

View original

I agree with Zooo on everything, always. Especially this.

As for the 'Author' behaving badly, she seems a tad delusional but I hope she has got family and friends checking up on her. She got alot of stick in the linked thread. I suppose that happens when you tell everyone to F off - twice!

Quote: jacparov @ March 29 2011, 9:59 PM BST

I agree with Zooo on everything, always. Especially this.

View original

I always knew I liked you, jacparov.

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 9:58 PM BST

Well yes there will be talented people in the future. But when there is no income for authors anymore, there won't be much opportunity for them to develop or exercise that talent. And while I look forward to the 21st century bringing me lifelike holograms of Kelly Brook every time I open my laptop I will at some point remember that there used to be this thing called literature which I rather miss.

View original

*Shrugs* Let's see, we don't know. I'm sure, either way, there will still be very good books released, even if we get them for free through a plug inserted directly into our brains. I'll probably still buy the paper versions, though.

I think you should have a bit more faith in humankind, Griffster.

Quote: zooo @ March 29 2011, 9:59 PM BST

I always knew I liked you, jacparov.

View original

The feeling is mutual oh Globally Moderating One.

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 9:58 PM BST

Well yes there will be talented people in the future. But when there is no income for authors anymore, there won't be much opportunity for them to develop or exercise that talent. And while I look forward to the 21st century bringing me lifesize holograms of Kelly Brook every time I open my laptop, I will at some point also remember that there used to be this thing called literature which I rather miss.

View original

All creation will be by writers sharing their imaginations without concern for profit,
So in the future all books will be like critique?

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 10:03 PM BST

I'm not sure where these very good books are going to come from or who is going to write them

View original

Writers? You honestly think that without publishers, there would never be a really good book written ever again?

Quote: sootyj @ March 29 2011, 10:03 PM BST

All creation will be by writers sharing their imaginations without concern for profit,
So in the future all books will be like critique?

View original

You take that the hell back.

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 10:03 PM BST

I'm not sure where these very good books are going to come from or who is going to write them but I agree, I'd prefer my pisspoor books on paper given a choice.

View original

I can help you out there.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ March 29 2011, 10:04 PM BST

Writers? You honestly think that without publishers, there would never be a really good book written ever again?

View original

And without TV companies to broadcast it there would never be a really good Doctor Who script written agin?

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 10:21 PM BST

(I now confidently expect a deluge of counter-examples of great novels written during lunch breaks at Rymans etc, of which I shall TAKE NO NOTICE).

View original

I think there's a Ryman's Dictionary.

It's all mute anyway, after the impending doom of 2012(mayan prophecies(sp?)) the world shall be reshaped by the second coming of JC....And Earth shall be renamed.. Cotters World.

P.S. James, sorry for the slight dig, its meant in jest and you are something of a BCG pin up. ;-)

Quote: Griff @ March 29 2011, 10:21 PM BST

My point isn't publishers, it's income. (Although publishers provide more than money).

Of course there will be some. There are good books written by people in the most extraordinary circumstances, and also lots of great books go unpublished during the writer's lifetime, like A Confederacy Of Dunces.

But most really great books are written by people who have managed to devote their whole lives to writing. You can write a Doctor Who New Adventure on Thursday nights and wet weekends. A properly researched historical novel is less likely.

Also, a revenue stream means that a good novelist can produce a series of decent novels not just a couple over a lifetime, and get a lot better at doing it as a result.

(I now confidently expect a deluge of counter-examples of great novels written during lunch breaks at Rymans etc, of which I shall TAKE NO NOTICE).

View original

Great novel written in a lunch break, two words ....Harry Potter.

Quote: jacparov @ March 29 2011, 10:28 PM BST

It's all mute anyway, after the impending doom of 2012(mayan prophecies(sp?))

Probably will be mute if the world has come to an end but the word in context here is moot.

Great novel written in a lunch break, two words ....Harry Potter.

View original

It wasn't. She was a single parent who sat in a relative's cafe and wrote. I would also quibble with it being a 'great novel'. A publishing phenomenon I will grant you but Rowling is not a writer of great literature.

All first books by authors are written in lunch breaks.
Not all first books are crap!

I don't think ebooks will ever destroy real books.
They will indeed coexist.

All the crap authors who will never get a publishing deal will simply hang about on those writer's peer review websites that are popping up everywhere. Which is good coz at least you know where all the numpties are.