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#WritersCoffeeClub March 14: Do you think readers want new experiences in structure or narrative, or do they prefer what's familiar?
What an editor ever says to an author after a successful novel: "that was great! Write me another just like it, only different."
Some readers want the thrill of the new, other readers want the comfort that comes from the familiar. But the Marketing Department tilts towards the latter because they know how to sell it—and they're the gatekeepers.
@cstross Last year I had one of the most interesting sudden twists in a novel when what had been for a chapter or so at the beginning of the book a somewhat standard third person omniscient narrator was suddenly revealed to have been first person robotic.
@cstross that makes me wonder what the conversation with the editor was with, say, Banks' "Feersum Enjin"…
@fishidwardrobe By that point Banks was a guaranteed sure-fire bestseller. At which point marketing got orders from their boss, not polite suggestions from editorial.
@cstross I wish I could say myself. I never know in advance what's going to click for me. So I say let writers go and do whatever they want.
I heard an editor put that somewhat differently ... one of the things that goes into the first pass is whether he knows what he is going to tell the marketing department.
(This particular editor has published some notably weird stuff, so I take it he has found adequate flexibility in the system.)
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