The “Hamster Wheel” of Writing a Book A Year

The Boston Globe’s David Mehegan highlights one of genre fiction’s truisms, and perhaps one of its key problems: the expectation that writers must deliver a book a year:

“It’s no problem, as long as you don’t have a life,” said Patricia

Cornwell, the Massachusetts-based author of the enormously successful

Kay Scarpetta crime thrillers. “The Scarpetta [manuscript] that’s due

out Oct. 7 is due in a few weeks, because they have to reserve the

storefront real estate and pay for it. If I don’t get the book turned

in on time, they’ll be freaking out. If I miss my deadline, I miss the

entire year. Sometimes there’s an overwhelming feeling of panic. It’s

like a rock ‘n’ roll concert, and what if I don’t show up?”

Cornwell

isn’t the only one. There are signs of a growing resistance among

suspense authors to becoming factory producers, even if it costs them

sales and readers.

“There’s pressure to treat authors like

Coca-Cola

,”

said California thriller writer Brad Meltzer, who was asked to publish

once a year but refused. “Every time you get a bunch of writers

together, this is all they complain about. The trend is, ‘How many

books can you put out?’ From building your reputation to get on the

best-seller list, it’s gone to trying to get to the tippy-top of the

list. It’s not worth it to me.”

Of course, this argument is hardly new and hardly earth-shattering, but additional comments, be it from Dennis Lehane or Alison Brennan, illustrate that there cannot be a uniform pace to writing, and those who are able to write several books a year should – and those who write a book every several years should, as well. Never mind that it seems weird we expect, say, Lee Child to deliver a Jack Reacher novel every summer, but when John Updike writes a book a year, he’s called out for writing too fast?