With the debut of HBO’s “A Game of Thrones” miniseries and a new article in The New Yorker, the strange story of George R. R. Martin and his fans has been on my mind. So, in this episode of Lost in the Stacks, we examine the weird, often dangerously codependent relationship between the Writer and the Readers.
What does the writer owe to his or her readers, if anything? What can the readers honestly expect of their writer? What promises, implicit or explicit, have been made, and what happens when they’re broken?
Join me for an interesting conversation, and let me know what you think!
George R. R. Martin’s homepage
Finish the Book, George
Is Winter Coming?
The Labyrinth Library 
Pingback: Lost in the Stacks 4: Writers and Readers (via The Labyrinth Library) « Pilant's Business Ethics Blog
I worked in a leading indy bookstore where sci-fi was sold by the ton (litarally). We did a million+ per year in mass market books as a sideline. All I can say is these authors are all screwed royally. They don’t ever get to know the true sales figures. Like the music industry they just receive a fraction of their royalties.
Plus the big houses push mediocre authors on an unsuspecting public. They print and promote big shots who work in-house as “editors” and get to push their trash on the public with pre-sold junk that has to be bought with no sales back-up. The mob runs paperback distribution =sigh= … it’s all mobbed up!