I’ve been watching a client struggle with something that I went through myself a few years ago. She can’t currently read for pleasure. Or at least, not just for pleasure. I remember when I woke up one morning (figuratively) and realized it had happened to me. It had been some weeks since I’d actually attempted to read something that was already published, and, you know, sporting an actual cover designed to snare my attention. In that moment, I realized that somehow I had fallen away from myself. I panicked.
I had always been a reader. As long as I could remember, I’d been snitching time with a flashlight beneath the covers, or hiding my paperbacks inside textbooks during dull classes. All so I could get a few more minutes or hours with favorite characters on adventures that left algebra in the dust. But there I was actually dreading picking up a book that I’d been saving for when I felt I was caught up enough to savor it. Because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to turn off that part of my brain that was now constantly picking away at what made a story work. Looking for how to sort out the saleable from those that weren’t quite there. Or finding things that I could use to help my own clients improve their work and increase their sales. The worst part was that it turned out I was right. And for a couple of years, reading stopped being an escape – a journey – and became simply another part of my job. The sense of discovery was gone, and I didn’t know what to do.
For a while, I gave up and just pushed through. I read very little published fiction and kept to the manuscripts that needed replies and editorial feedback. But I knew I just wasn’t myself. Eventually, the Inner Reader (perhaps, something of an Inner Child at times) threw a tantrum. I began to look for a way to soothe her pain and to maybe take back a little of my self. The first thing I actually did was try non-fiction. I figured it would be different enough from the day job (ironic, isn’t it?) that it would get me back into the habit of reading on my own time. It didn’t quite work, but it put a chink in the wall. A little bit of light must have shown through, and I found myself studying the piles of books with a speculative gleam in my eye. Because – of course – even though I’d stopped reading them, I hadn’t stopped accumulating them. But I wasn’t quite sure where to start. So I drafted someone to help; or perhaps they volunteered. I’m no longer sure which it was. My best friend went through some of the books, and chose one, bought a second copy, and we read it together. And then we read another and another. It’s been going on for about four years now. I don’t think I’m cured. Or at least, not entirely. I may never be; it could just be a hazard of the position. But I have, in that time, read books until 3am, swearing it would just be one more chapter and then lights out. So, I feel better.
I don’t know how many other people — whether writers, editors, or agents — have had a similar experience. I suspect that there are quite a few. And I don’t know if all of them could be lucky enough to have a best friend like mine. Or if having a reading partner would work for everyone. I’d certainly be interested to know if anyone else has ways of dealing with this. It can’t hurt to have another method in case it should happen again. At this point, I’ve only put a dent in the pile (and I’m still buying!), but now I’m looking forward to choosing the next book and to that sense that I’ve rediscovered myself and my joy in reading. And if I can’t have that, how would I make it in this business anyway?
No related posts.
I’m happy to say I don’t really have this problem. Yes, my internal editor does pick at the books I read a bit, but it doesn’t bother me enough to discourage me from reading. I hope this never happens to me, because I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I couldn’t read for fun. My problem is the opposite– I read so much it cuts into my writing time!
I have heard this same thing from others in the industry, but I always wonder the same thing, if you aren’t reading books that have sold, how do you know what is selling? Are numbers enough? Don’t you run the risk of missing some really key element that makes those books “hot”? Isn’t reading what is selling almost like research? Or doesn’t it matter because you have to stick with your gut and what appeals to you no matter what?
if you aren’t reading books that have sold, how do you know what is selling
This would be another really good reason for a publishing professional to panic in the scenario I described above. However, I think there is a difference between reading books currently published in an effort to research the market and reading for pleasure (though it is *really* nice when the two endeavors can be combined). During the time period I’m describing, I often read books that were selling well or had been sent to me by editors in an attempt to help me understand what they were looking for. I just wasn’t enjoying it.
I do think it’s important to be familiar with the market and with the things that are popular. But there are other considerations. For instance, most of what has recently been published was generally acquired many months or even years previously so it’s not an entirely accurate measure of what editors are currently seeking. I think it’s almost more important sometimes to be sure that you stay an active part of the publishing community.
And I do also feel that an instinctive reaction when reading manuscripts is very important. I don’t think it’s easy to effectively represent a book you don’t feel passionately about. And, unfortunately, a large portion of what is received on submission isn’t really publishable. I hate to say it, but, sadly, the good books really stand out. So, often, I find marketability is a secondary consideration to readability.
I know we’ve talked about this at cons, since I’ve struggled with the same issue. It’s very hard for me to read for pleasure in the genre I’m currently working on, especially when I’m deep in the throes of writing. In these past months as I’ve been busy with the lizard book, I haven’t been reading epic fantasy for pleasure. But I have read mysteries, space opera, urban fantasies and general fiction, which don’t seem to trigger the same internal editor processes.
Of course I’ve purchased stacks of fantasies, including a batch from the last time I saw Larry Smith. These books are in my to-be-read pile, and I’m hoping to get to them sometime after June 1st.
And since my reading time is so limited, I do find that I toss aside books that lose my interest, rather than struggling through them the way I would have ten or fifteen years ago.
What Jennifer said. The books on the shelves now were often bought at least a year ago – if not more. Lots of times, marketing has moved beyond that “trend” and editors are seeking things totally different. Reading for pleasure is one thing. Reading current releases for market research . . . I’ve never understood that one – unless you read for the voices that are standing out. There’s a huge expansion going on at Blaze right now, for example. If authors targeting Blaze were reading past releases, they’d miss out on this new window of opportunity. IMO, it’s more important to know what’s being BOUGHT now, not what’s on the shelves now.
Reading current releases for market research . . . I’ve never understood that one – unless you read for the voices that are standing out.
You know how sometimes when you read a mystery, the things that aren’t in a scene are often as important as clues as the things that are? Sometimes I think reading books for market research is like that. I don’t think any of my clients have told me that – after a book has been published – they like it exactly the way it is and there’s nothing they would change. So, I think that part of reading a genre may be to see what’s missing as well as what’s there — both from the point of individual books which perhaps could still be improved, and from the point of the genre as a whole.
But I have read mysteries, space opera, urban fantasies and general fiction, which don’t seem to trigger the same internal editor processes.
Working in multiple genres simultaneously as I do, that can be a tricky proposition — finding a book that doesn’t correspond to what I currently have in the manuscript TBR pile. That’s why one of my first attempts to get back into reading for pleasure involved non-fiction, which I don’t tend to get as submissions or end up representing (though I do have at least a couple projects that are the exceptions to that rule).
Ah, good point. Which ties back to my own reading dissatisfaction. Thing is, I need to be able to enjoy what I’m reading, LOL, no matter the reason I’m reading it. So when I find books that to me are unsatisfactory (and usually missing that “something”), I don’t have the patience to finish them. At that point, it becomes work instead of entertainment.
I don’t worry about what’s selling when I write though – the important thing is the story itself, I can worry about the marketing of it later, after it’s done.
I think it’s something of an accepted wisdom in publishing that one shouldn’t attempt to write to marketing trends. Unless one can write *very* quickly. They are often over before they can be capitalized on after they’re recognized. So, one needs to either have been the lucky beginner of the trend, or happen to have a manuscript already ready and waiting to take advantage of it.
However…. I also think having a healthy understanding of the market in general lurking in the back of the author’s mind during the writing process is a big help. Though, as I said in another comment, readability can often be a consideration before marketability, the latter is still one of the deciding factors in whether an agent or editor is going to pursue a book. So, it may not be entirely constructive to worry about the marketing aspects after one has invested the time and effort in writing the story. If one wants to be a much-published author of popular, commercial books, that is. A good story is the thing. But being able to sell it is another thing.
At that point, it becomes work instead of entertainment.
I agree, Alison. Which is why I struggled so much with this when it happened. Being an agent who already loved reading before I came to the job, I needed to find a way to balance the career with the hobby, essentially. And it’s tough.
That’s not to say that knowing what’s on the market isn’t a good thing; but one can obsess too much over the marketing instead of the writing and not get anything accomplished.
That’s not to say that knowing what’s on the market isn’t a good thing; but one can obsess too much over the marketing instead of the writing and not get anything accomplished.
Agreed. As with many things. I’ve met many a writer with either this or some other inwardly-generated obstacle (like rewriting the first chapter until it’s perfect and never really getting around to the second, for example).
I know when I was editing romance (often as many as seven or eight a month, and more) I couldn’t read romance for pleasure anymore. Just not possible — I was drowning in it on a daily basis. And truthfully I was just reading so much, volume-wise, that if I hadn’t been commuting a fair distance each way (one must have a book on a train — I’m pretty sure it’s a law) I wouldn’t have read much at all, which is scary. I love to read. Now it’s sometimes difficult because writing eats up a lot of the time that isn’t spent baby-wrangling, and I find myself trying to squeeze in another few pages at night before my eyes shut.
I hate when I go through times like this. Being a reader is so much a part of who I am it totally freaks me out when I can’t find a book that grabs me. I’ve been going through something similar lately, but I don’t think it’s for the same reasons. Lately it seems like I can’t get through chapter two of a book because the story is so flat or so similar to everything else out there or so completely unbelievable it drives me crazy. As a reader I’m suddenly craving something different, and I can’t exactly put what that something is into words because I don’t know what it is until I see it. I read Karen Templeton’s new book and loved it because of her incredible story-telling. I reread an old Margot Early and loved it because that woman understands the power of words!
At first I was frustrated by this desire for difference. But now I’m looking at it as a gift. Hopefully it will help my own writing grow.
Great topic.
My TBR pile continues to grow exponentially. I can’t stop buying books I WANT to read, but end up not having time to read them.
I used to read 2-3 books a week; I’m lucky to read one a month.
I am more critical of books in my sub-genre (romantic suspense), but there are a few suspense writers I find little fault with. Tess Gerritsen is one. JD Robb. Dean Koontz. I’ve read two books this year, Gerritsen’s BODY DOUBLE and a romantic comedy by Jennifer Skully on a recommendation of a friend. I’m frantically trying to finish MURDER LIST by Julie Garwood before the end of the month so I can *say* I at least read one a month.
For pleasure, I prefer reading outside of the genre I write it. I have Janet Evanovich’s 10th Stephanie Plum beckoning to me right now. I have the new JD Robb in hardcover. I have the CURIOUS INCIDENT sitting very close to the top of my TBR pile (pile? Who am I kidding? PileSSSSS is a more accurate term).
Before I became a writer, I never once stopped reading a book because it was awful. I always got through it. Now, I find that if the author doesn’t grab me in the first few chapters, I’ll put the book down and never pick it up again. Now, I don’t have the time to “waste”.
I miss reading.
I’ve somehow regained the reading for pleasure mojo. It was gone for a long time (reviewing books did it for me — I couldn’t look at the pile without feeling some “I should be…”. I’ve been reading all over the map for the past year and have found that pleasure thing.
Maybe it’s just a matter of creating sacred reading space? A place where no work-related reading is done (though, in a way all reading is work-related…just something you don’t have to read unless you want).
My problem is that I can read for entertainment, but I have to read authors that write very differently from the way I do (or, at least the way I aspire to) or about subject matter that is very different from what I write about. It’s a shame, because there are books I really, really like that either put me into a panic to read or feel like work. Sometimes just forcing myself to start is enough to push me past the initial resistance and into the happy reader zone. Sometimes it isn’t.
Reading for pure pleasure. Ahhhhhh, those were the days. I do it a lot less now that I’m trying to join the ranks of sought-after authors. And I have to admit when I see an error now, I wince. It breaks me away from the story.
In the middle of a love story, if it breaks POV, you can forget about it. The magic is gone.
I love to read. But there are days when I can’t turn off the internal editor. And for those days, I quit reading. Those are the days I write. Because I haven’t reached the ideal of being able to do both.
I still read a lot, even in the subgenre I write. But I’m picky and I put down a lot of books after the first chapter. (Thank goodness for the library.) But if I’m not going to get caught up in the story, I’m not going to bother reading it with my internal editor blaring in my ear. That’s much too painful.
I am more likely to persevere in a book that isn’t romance though I still put down a lot of them, too.
Allison – I just finished Tess’s BODY DOUBLE on Wednesday. I LOVE that woman. What an author. I totally lose myself in her work!
Mary Beth – I’m a HUGE Margot Early fan, and heard she’ll have out more books in 2006!!! GREAT news!
I’m encouraged by reading some of the responses here. I thought I was the only one unable to get past Chapter Two of a book that doesn’t stir me. Alternately, I’ve read a couple stellar books this year that make me want to be a better writer. I LOVE reading a great book! But like a lot of you, I no longer have the patience or the time to read one that doesn’t hit my hot buttons right away.
As a writer, finding the time, let alone the enthusiasm to read is daunting. But it’s necessary, and my TBR pile is a truly frightening visual experience. But to find that one gem in that pile …that’s worth the angst.
LOL, Jaci. I quit trying to force myself to finish a book that didn’t engage me long ago!
For me it’s not so much being a writer as having grown increasingly picky over the years. One thing I did when I found myself with a bad case of the reading blahs was go back to childhood favorites; A Wrinkle in Time, Red Planet, The House on Pooh Corner. Kid stuff from an adult perspective gave me a whole new experience! I also started going through libraries from A-Z and picking out authors I’d never heard of or read before. I found Wodehouse this way.
Alison, I’ve read all of Tess Gerritsen’s books (I bought her backlist when I discovered her with THE SURGEON) and I think I love her so much because her characters aren’t perfect. There’s nothing that irritates me more than too-perfect characters. And not just looks, but personality. I want characters with human dimension to them, who make mistakes and deal with it the best way they can based on their individual make-up. So in addition to creepy plots and a high-level of suspense (and, let’s face it, that woman can WRITE), Tess has such a strong instinctive understanding of human nature that her characters, to me, are three-dimensional, real people. There are some things I don’t like that she does, but it’s usually a little plot point, and nothing that would stop me from buying her in hardcover.
Okay, I’m over my Tess Gerritsen love fest.
I’ve somehow regained the reading for pleasure mojo. It was gone for a long time (reviewing books did it for me – I couldn’t look at the pile without feeling some “I should be…”). I’ve been reading all over the map for the past year and have found that pleasure thing.
Kassia…. I think this is part of what got to me too. I’d feel guilty for taking a paperback and curling up with it when the manuscripts were piled high and I knew people were waiting for responses or feedback. And I also find that reading a variety of things (the last book I read with my reading partner was a science fiction novel, and the next will be a mystery) helps me keep the balance.
I no longer have the patience or the time to read one that doesn’t hit my hot buttons right away.
Jaci, this might be why a lot of editors and agents tend to get very hard to please after a number of years. Because they’ve just read so many things that those first few pages simply must resonate with them.
I, myself, tend to be stubborn on the reading when it comes to books from the TBR pile. I’ll dig my feet in and stick with it for a while usually. Though I wonder how much of that is because many of the books arrived from friends or were bought on recommendation. Somehow, that makes me want to try harder. But I really fall in love with the ones that challenge me because they’re just that good.
Okay, I’m over my Tess Gerritsen love fest.
Allison — say it’s not so. *grin* I completely agree with you on the character angle. Perfect characters (like people who are perfect, or think they are) are often just not interesting enough or realistic enough. It’s a great talent to bring that to the written page.
What I don’t find enough of are books that I can’t stand to close when it’s time to go to bed and my eyes are aching from reading for so long. Or ones that I hate to finish because I want to stay with the characters forever. Or ones from which I can remember details a year later. To me, that’s a good book. One I don’t want to stop reading ever! And I find way too few of that type.
Alison, can you remember the last book that made you do that? I’m curious what it was (or if anyone has recently had that experience) — because I’d love to get some great recommendations, especially in the romance field. I had a manuscript recently that I ended up staying up to read until around 2am. But it’s not published yet.
Well, the Tess Gerritsen book because I just read it this week! Before that, Harlan Coben’s ‘Just One Look’, Jodi Picoult’s ‘My Sister’s Keeper’, Greg Iles ‘The Footprints of God’, and Ann Packer’s ‘The Dive From Clausen’s Pier’. I buy when books come out, but tend to not read them for awhile, LOL!
What a great topic to bring up. I’m not surprised to see so many comments and so many variations on this problem. What stands out to me even more than the problem, is the value that we all place on reading. Losing the joy we are used to getting from reading is a high price to pay to be a part of a profession that brings reading pleasure to others. I don’t have a solution to offer. I think the main thing that keeps me reading is that I feel the loss, not only in my real life, but in my writing life as well when I’m not reading. So, although, I too sometimes suffer from a sense of drudgery as I read–my brain working in high gear to analyze rather than enjoy–I need to read now more than ever.
Piles of books are, in and of themselves, attractive to me. If I buy it, eventually, I WILL read it. But I do read more critically and am more picky about buying now that I once was.
YOURS UNTIL DAWN by Teresa Medeiros was a book I stayed up all night to read. Loved it.
But that’s becoming more rare. I went back and read some of my old “keeper books” only to find that I didn’t like them anymore. The hero was a horrible guy, and I wondered what in the world ever appealed to me about him?
I’ve heard that this happens a lot in the movie industry, too.
The last book that kept me up reading — and I rarely do stay up because I am not a night person — was Laura Kinsale’s The Shadow and the Star. It is the most emotionally gripping romance I’ve read in a long time. (I know, it came out 15 years ago. I came to it rather late.)
Before that, Dorothy Dunnet’s Lymond series, the last two books.
I definitely stuggle with reading for pleasure since I began writing fiction.
I do read more non-fiction now, particularly biography.
Two things have helped me in the past two years. I began reading comic books, as balancing text and visual narrative is a different experience. Also, I took an Italian language class and continue studying on my one. Just coping with expressing thoughts in a language with new idioms and phrasing structure gives me a break from reading English.
Luckily, I’ve never experienced a struggle in reading for pleasure. It’s scary even thinking about it! Reading still rates high on my list of favorite things to do. There has been a slight change since I sold my first book. I used to finish reading every book I started, but reading for pleasure is such a luxury now that if a book doesn’t draw me in by the end of the first chapter, it gets consigned to the recycle pile. The strange thing is that although I don’t have time to read, the to-read pile grows anyway.
Alison, I loved “Just One Look” too! I’d never read Harlan Coben before, but that book made me a fan. Now I have to go out and buy others by him. In fantasy, the one author that keeps me up reading for hours past my bedtime, the one I can’t wait to buy in hardcover, the author who gave me the desire to start writing, is JV Jones. I so wish I could write like her!