This was not a comment on the speed of my typing, which can and does lock up word processors. I learned to touch type on a manual typewriter, then I graduated to a Selectric. I have to use a special mechanical-switch keyboard when I write, because otherwise the keyboard gets migraines as it tries to keep up with me. No, I am talking about a well-meaning writer’s reason for why a younger writer was not breaking into the industry. Keep in mind, the older party had made a local name for literary fiction in the 1960s-70s. The younger party wrote genre fiction, I think romance but I didn’t catch all of the conversation.
“You write too fast.” At the time the Older Writer broke into the market, literary fiction authors were encouraged to give lots of care and attention to language and style, taking a great deal of time to ensure that everything was perfect before submitting the manuscript to the editor. To produce too quickly was a sign that you weren’t that good, because real literature took long thought and effort, and was crafted with meticulous care. Genius could not be rushed, and neither could novels, poetry collections, and short fiction. Every five years or so, or longer between books, was quite OK in the literary fiction field. Too, traditional publishers planned months or years in advance for book release slots, so there was not room for, oh, two or three books per year from a literary fiction writer. Slots had to be found, or made, and if the publisher knew that Great Writer would have something ready in April of the next year, there was no way he was going to bump Great Writer (with guaranteed readers) for some newcomer who had “churned out” two books the previous year.
Genre fiction was always a little different, but slots and shelf constraints still applied. That Which Sold always got priority, because Dick Francis and Danielle Steele had fans who would scoop up the hardbacks as fast as the book stores unboxed them. So they got slots guaranteed, one a year or one every-other-year. Second tier writers also got a slot. That didn’t leave much room, and after all, if Great Genre Writer could only do a book a year, to do four or five made one a hack, or a “pulp writer.” Go talk to Harliquen, kid.
Then along came Amazon, followed in terms of number of users by Smashwords, Nook, Kobo/Rakuten, and a few other digital publishers. You could “shelve” as many books as you could write, format, and find covers for. And readers discovered that they did not have to wait years between books. And that fast writing did not automatically mean “tripe,” as one of my English teachers declared a certain fiction writer (whose name rhymes with “ring”) to be.
After a few years, readers got used to writers who could release two-three-four books a year. They were not as long as the tomes of the 1980s-1990s, epic fantasy aside, but new and available. Then the advice became “release at least three a year.” The pendulum had swung, sort of, and those who could produce quickly prospered. I actually heard someone announce that if you couldn’t publish a decent book every quarter, you weren’t a real genre fiction writer. Literary fiction remained and still is different.
“His stuff is too easy to read.” That one threw me for a bit of a loop. Apparently the reader had grown up on Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, and older writers, and modern genre writing style seemed too breezy and light. That meant, for this reader, that it couldn’t be any good. I’d have directed the individual to some of John C. Wright’s books for style and vocabulary, but I was not asked. The criticism was aimed at someone I do not consider light and breezy, but epic fantasy is not my usual reading these days, so I could be behind.
What is the oddest complaint you have heard about another writer or a book? Nothing personal, please. “The author has a purple and green glitter-infused mohawk” might just mean that the individual lost a bet to an LSU fan, or is getting ready for Mardi Gras.
Mad Genius Club 
5 responses to ““You Write Too Fast” and Other Odd Complaints”
Probably the people who act offended by Tolkien’s lack of interest in his characters sex lives.
Yep! Look to complain about something unrelated to the story just to complain.
Getting really mad about the life mentioned in the bio- I know it’s marketing, but who cares if one angle didn’t hit with you?!
I write what I write, and I don’t really care, but I’m not likely to put out 3 books a year. Just not what I write. We shall see.
As to silly complaints though, my wife’s novel China Harbor: Out of Time mostly got rejected because it was too long (180,000 words), but the one that annoyed me most was a small publisher who had 3 people read the manuscript. They all raved about it and recommended he buy it, but he had one problem with it. The novel is a time-travel thriller whose protagonist is an American physicist living as a refugee in China after China has nuked the US, so all the other characters are Chinese. To show the language barrier since the American speaks only a little Mandarin, some of the Chinese characters use less than fluent English grammar (not pidgin, just typical ways sentences come out odd when one is learning a new language). That’s meant to add authenticity to the setting as it demonstrated the American’s limited understanding of Mandarin, rather than any speech problem on the other characters’ part. The publisher refused to buy the MS because he thought it was wrong to have Chinese characters speak in less than perfect English.
I wanted to ask him if he ever read any Amy Tan, but refrained.
Well, there was the review of The Dragon’s Cottage where the reviewer was deeply indignant because the dragon really loved the princess, and because the hero got help from a witch.
Leaving aside whether either one was a reasonable interpretation of the story — why on earth is getting help from a witch bad when marriage to a dragon is not?