Writers & Readers

A new series about audience... and what putting a book into the world does to a writer's brain

Dear friends,

It’s been a little while since I’ve popped into your inbox, but we’re back again with a new mini-series: Writers & Readers.

In the next few letters, we’ll hear from different authors on how they think about their audience (or don’t) and how publishing a book changes a writer’s brain.

But first? A little background on where this idea came from.

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The day my debut novel Loneliness & Company came out, we had a launch event in Brooklyn and I had no idea what to expect. I hardly spoke about my book when I was drafting…

I think, at the time, it was a bit of a protection mechanism. But I also loved getting lost in a world that not many other people knew about. I loved getting to know the awkward loveable narrator, her eccentric boss, and her outgoing roommate. It was magical, entering a story and following the characters around, seeing who they might become.

So years later, after keeping the book close to my chest, it was a shock to the system to sit in front of a crowd on publication day and be asked questions about it.

I remember looking out at everyone while feeling overwhelmed with awe and gratitude. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I was also overwhelmed with nerves.

Would people like it? This thing that I’d been carrying around for years. Would they be able to imagine it? That funky strange near future world? Would they be able to access it? Take something from it? Would it linger in their minds?

I was face-to-face with a room full of potential readers and slowly, with this realization, I understood I’d probably never write the same way again.

Photo credit: Emily Lin

“Audience” is an interesting thing to think about as an artist and most writers I talk to have a different take on it. Should you hone your story for a specific group of people? Is it better to have the readers you want to connect with in mind before you start? During? After?

Stay tuned for interviews with authors I deeply admire exploring some of these questions.

Charlee

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