Saturday, August 22, 2009

If you're going to give me advice....

Like a lot of writers I know, I read books about writing and/or promotion. Yes, I've been at this a long time, but there's often something new and interesting to consider.

Today, I opened a book that was about digital promotion. However, right away my alarm bells started ringing.

Here's the sentence that made me sit up and go, "Oh oh."

"Seasoned authors usually crank out books faster."

Why does this trouble me? Because I find that both condescending and disrespectful.

I sigh and try to ignore it when non-writers say this sort of thing, but in this case, when this author is presuming to give me, Seasoned Author, advice? I'm thinking, if you think I just "crank out" a book, why should I listen to you?

So here's a tip for anybody who's writing a how-to book for genre authors: please pay attention to the words you're using and ackowledge that we write books.

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