Unreasonable Expectations

This is going to be a rant. I usually refrain from doing these sorts of things out of a preference for decorum and also because it has been beaten into my poor head so many times that expressing strong opinions in such a forceful way generally wounds one's position at work, relationships, etc. But screw that. It's something that's been building for a long time, both professionally and personally, and I thought I'd entertain perhaps a few dozen of you with this.

There is this growing sentiment in American (perhaps Western or even global for all I know) society that one is somehow privileged to have something delivered to them ASAP, clap two hands and they hop to it. Whether it be people bitching and moaning that the service is "horrible" because it takes an extra two minutes at the drive-in window for the fries to be cooked due to the regular ebb and flow of work or whether there's a delay in starting a sports program on time for whatever reason, etc., more and more on message boards and at the usual work gossip corners, people have just become so damn demanding and bitching.

I resigned my teaching position earlier this year in part due to the constant whining and bitching and yelling and demanding. I'm not anybody's servant and when I faced virtual daily beratement from some spoiled kids because it wasn't done their way, it just becomes a daily battle not to tell them to go pleasure themselves with a rusty piece of barbed wire up a certain orifice. A couple of times I came perilously close to crossing that line before I realized that it just wasn't worth putting up with all that shit.

But that's now part and parcel of the working conditions of my former (and perhaps future - I'm a glutton for punishment and time off makes me miss those ever shrinking moments where I actually was permitted to *gasp* teach and the kids didn't throw a fit because I wouldn't let them use their review sheets on their exams) profession. It's just something that's going to be stress-filled and full of burnout moments as long as those privileged attitudes persist.

However, it is saddening to see such demanding and spoiled brat-like attitudes seeping into our hobbies, into purported means of entertainment. Sometimes, it's those who've been bitched at who in turn end up being the worst complainers of them all, I know. I've seen it too many times with sports teams, with demands for someone to lose their job/livelihood because one group of so-called "fans" doesn't like how things are being run, regardless of the conditions that affect performance.

And now it's seeped all the way into internet book "fandom." Into that fairly small but yet rabid (emphasis on the rabid part) "fanbase" of people who seem happiest when they get to nitpick and bemoan authorial choices and especially if, heaven forbid, there are any delays in the book product reaching them. Customer is always right and all that shit, you know.

It's a bit old, you know. Those so-called "fans" who feel like because they want something that it has to be provided ASAP, no exceptions, no justifications for delayed gratification. Heaven forbid that there be more than a year's delay between authors writing/revising books. Damn those authors who are overly optimistic and believe that they could move mountains for these demanding assholes and get things done in a 9-12 month period. Sometimes, it just isn't worth putting up with the "fan's" shit, it seems.

If the average secondary-world fantasy novel contains about 200,000 words and if on average it takes about 3-6 months for the editing process before another 3-12 months goes before it can be "slotted" into a publication run that outside of maybe a few hundred books out of the tens of thousands published each year (doubtless with their own demanding assh...err, fans) will be no more than 20 thousand books....what sort of insane writing schedule would one have to be on in order to get a quality work done in that amount of time? Considering that the average royalty rate is only 10-15% on hardcovers and considering that having a print run of higher than 20K is rare, it's hard to imagine how writers could be expected to write full-time on less than $20K/book.

So most writers work other jobs, higher-paying jobs that doubtless are stressful and time-consuming as well. It always fascinates me to read Jeff VanderMeer's blog and see the number of freelancing/tie-in/editorial jobs he does while still laboring on his own original fictions. Or to read about the college teaching positions that a Jeffrey Ford or a David Anthony Durham do to support themselves while they continue to write. I cannot begin to imagine how they manage to write even hundreds of words a day while doing such positions. I know I wouldn't have the energy to do that.

But yet there are quite a few assholes out there who seem to think otherwise. Perhaps they believe that authors can crap out thousands of words a daily in their sleep. If that were possible, I wish I could have possessed that ability when I was in grad school. I was lucky if I could throw a 7,000 word researched paper together over a semester's time around my other grad school responsibilities. So I have quite a bit of admiration for those writers who can finish a 200K word novel in their lifetime, much less within a year's span.

Editing/revising is also a bitch, having been through that process on said 7,000 word (which ended up being almost 9,000 with the revisions) essay. Took me weeks to get that revised paper polished enough to get the A I desired. I can only guess that it would take at least 10 times as long, perhaps 50 times depending upon the complexity of the writing, for a revised novel to be brought up to snuff. Especially if that writer has other responsibilities that pay more.

But I suppose these are just facile justifications for someone to be "lazy" or to "break their promises" to the fans. It's almost funny reading the comments here about one particular author's book being delayed one year until April 2009. Note the outrage just oozing out of some comments there. The belief that they had been "lied" to, the belief that it "shouldn't take that long" for the writing/revising/editing of a 200K+ novel. That there's "greed" involved, somehow.

Now imagine being that poor schmuck (in general terms, not in the particular case of Patrick Rothfuss, the author referred to in that link) making at best around an entry-level sales position from the book royalties, if that. If said comments were made face-to-face, chances would run high that such a low-paid worker would just say "fuck it" and leave. It's just not worth dealing with that. And heaven forbid if anyone were to tell those asshats where they could go.

Sometimes, I think we just give too much importance to what we want and not enough consideration for the difficulties that others face. But then again, I'm not a "fan." I just read and enjoy what is available and leave the fantasies of speculation and the almost inevitable bitching and moaning about unfinished stories to others.

Maybe one day they'll remember what it's like to be on the receiving end of unreasonable expectations. But I'm not holding my breath.