Need not apply...

Most of us have seen similar handbills and postings from the past. Signs hung in shopkeepers windows for example, advising the reader just what kinds of people should stop in to ask about the offered job, and what kind should not bother. Even here in New York City, in the mid-1900s it was common to see signs ostracizing both Italian and Irish immigrants. Seems very strange given that those ethnicities make up large portions of modern populations here. I recall laughing as a child, seeing old tavern signs from the river towns along the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers telling both Horse Traders and Lawyers to take their trade elsewhere. Seems that many upstanding communities simply did not wish to share their towns with such rabble.

Over the past few years, there seems to be a new group of people making themselves unwelcome in the evolving communities of the internet. It struck me as an unusual group to scorn, and not just because I'm a member. I grew up having a great deal of respect for authors. Really, for writers of all kinds. Wordsmiths whose raw materials filled the dictionaries and whose results became stories that transported me away to new worlds, or made difficult concepts crystal clear, or explained how an odd twist of historic fact still affects life all these years later; all of these and more were my heroes. Writers were to be respected. More than that, their conversation and notice was to be proudly discussed and proclaimed.

Those days of childlike naiveté seem to have vanished with the last of the morning fog. In their place comes the flinty, cynicism of our present times. It's supporting entire communities of interest and discussion in what is rapidly becoming the streets and marketplaces of our communities: the internet. In many of those communities, I am seeing more and more, expressions of a general feeling that those who write are not welcome or are barely tolerated.

Now, if it were true that every writer was a non-stop self-promoter complete with drumbeat and straw hat, constantly hawking their goods, I could certainly understand that, but since those are not in my own experience at least, all that common, there must be additional reasons why authors are not engaged in focused interest discussion online unless they keep a very low profile. Has the very profession become distasteful?

One place where it still bothers me to see a general distaste for writers, are online reading interest groups. In some places online, if a writer dares to reveal their pursuit of letters, they will be virtually tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail to the shouts and jeers of mobs of trolls. Seems counter-intuitive somehow, that groups of readers don't want to discuss reading with those who provide the words on the page, but it seems to be rapidly becoming the norm. Goodreads, for example, hosts several active groups whose main raison d'etre seems to be to bash writers who make the unforgiveable mistake of reacting and responding to bad reviews. I made the mistake once of wading into that murky sandbox, intending to offer explanation of some regrettable behavior other writers have engaged in, and was dispatched quickly and completely. In addition, my own books now rest in several "Won't Read Until Hell Freezes Over" lists. Another good example is the recent furor over a UK author's terrible stalking of a reviewer who left a bad review. Salon covered this in some detail: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/21/battle_of_the_trolls_kathleen_hale_reveals_the_war_raging_between_authors_and_readers/

Some say that all writers have now been tarred by the same brush. The brush, I expect, that was dipped specifically for the exploding crop of self-published authors. True, that there are more writing voices out there competing for readers' time than ever before. True also that not all of the new volume of work is of a high standard, but that alone is not new. I grew up in the waning days of the pulp novel. For a couple of bucks, you could buy a gripping tale -- at least given the lurid cover -- that by the middle had so infuriated the reader with cliched flatfoot jokes and big hearted dames, that you just had to either put it in the trash or laugh out loud. Entertainment it was. Not always top drawer.

Even then, a writer's life was for most, not a relaxing, wealthy one of constant acclaim. When John Lennon's song Paperback Writer got airplay, I was old enough to understand the kind of scramble for fame or even rent money that the song exposed. I guess my own belief in the glamour of the profession had faded somewhat. After some of the assigned reading in high school, I was convinced that writers were either hacks or geniuses. I saw little room for those that fell in between those two poles.

But. looking back, I realize that I expected quite a lot from a writer. I expected each book I opened to reveal scathing Truth. To peel scales from my eyes. To carry me bodily into worlds I'd scarcely imagined. To inhabit my heart of hearts with incontrovertible meaning. That's a lot to ask from any story, I know, but I suppose it took a few more years before I realized that writing stories was a talent that some people had. Some of them were able to earn a living doing it while others either could not, or did not even attempt it. There's always more to making a living doing something than there is simply in pursuing that discipline for the joy of it.

Despite what many seem to believe, writing is hard work, even without the solemn Spectre of Publication hovering above you at the keyboard. More attempts end up going exactly nowhere than actually get spun out into a tale. I have a friend whose first book is selling well enough, but it took him fourteen years to write it. He'd have to make a huge pile of lucre to offset the low hourly payback rate. In my estimation, he should earn a ribbon for his effort and confidence alone, but those are things that are rapidly losing their perceived value.

Today, it seems to be strictly the results of selling your product, in monetary figures, that is the determining factor as to whether you are worthy of respect. The bigger the bucks, the bigger the respect. Since there are so many writers now taking the risk and doing the work; and so few reaping the big bucks, maybe that is enough reason for the public view of the profession to have declined.  I don't know, but recently in a focused interest group that I had joined primarily to see what was "happening" in this research area (a lifelong interest of mine);  a post about an upcoming seminar specifically mentioned that book authors were not welcome to attend as it was for those actively engaged in ongoing field studies.

Okay. I get it. Authors need not apply. In the interest of our continued evolution as a species, we writers need to get a grip on those behaviors we exhibit which so annoy readers. They may love our books, but for some reason, they seem to hate us. If we wish to survive, we better wise up. Fast.