Why the Novel Matters

Re:Why the Novel Matters by Animats on Sunday October 20, 2019 @09:33PM (#21308681)

Summary: Why novels are important, by a novelist.

Arguably, novels have been superseded by series. A single fiction book today is a trial balloon. If it sells, sequels, trilogies, and more trilogies follow. Book tours. Merchandise, and a movie or TV deal may follow.

The goal today is to create a brand. The brand may survive the author, as Tom Clancy(tm) has done.

Shakespeare wrote for the box office. Dickens was serialized in newspapers. Real authors sell.

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Re:Why the Novel Matters by thomascgalvin on Monday October 21, 2019 @01:25AM (#21309543)

I might amend that to say "professional authors sell."

I don't think someone who labors over their darling story for a decade, self-publishes it, and only sells a dozen copies is any less a "real" author than Tom Clancy or Stephen King ... she's just not as professional. Writing to her is a work of love, a hobby, a passion.

She doesn't just sit down at the keyboard and hammer away until she has her thousand words for the day. That's what makes the professionals professional: they see writing as a job.

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Re:Why the Novel Matters by keiferski on Monday October 21, 2019 @07:29AM (#21311017)

This is what happens when you let the businesspeople determine societal values.

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Re:Why the Novel Matters by clSTophEjUdRanu on Monday October 21, 2019 @09:38AM (#21312080)

Business people don't determine societal values. Societal values determine the values of business people.

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Re:Why the Novel Matters by alberto_ol on Monday October 21, 2019 @07:02AM (#21310869)

so Melville and Kafka are not real authors

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