I think some of us have lost it. Yeah. I do. What we’ve lost is the perspective of being a reader. And I don’t think it’s particular to us alone. I think there are professionals in the publishing business who’ve also lost touch with their readers.
The majority of readers do not write novels. Some of them might want to or wish they could, but they never will. What they will do is continue to read. Some of them stick with their favorite authors and genres and take serious convincing to slip outside of their comfort zones. Others jump from fantasy to historical romance and don’t miss a beat, just as eager for a horror novel once they finish their current literary masterpiece. Some readers use the New York Times Bestseller List as their infallible guide—and consequently miss out on a lot of better books. Few of them spot dialogue tags and become incensed or snicker and shake their heads in disbelief at passive verbs or multiple adverb usage. Really, they don’t even notice.
Publishers, professionals, and authors all caution wannabes not to underestimate their readers, and to a point I would agree. But I don’t agree that most readers notice average writing and wish it could be more “excellent”. If that were true, well . . . let’s face it: a good number of novels on that bestseller list wouldn’t be there.
The potential for underestimating readers is in their ability to just enjoy a story. Of course some readers are more sophisticated than others and yearn for and recognize literary excellence, subtlety, symbolism, and low-key themes woven into stories. Some readers want short novels, others prefer sagas. Some like Hemingway-types. Others enjoy Dostoevsky-types. Some want to be taken in by the first five sentences. Others love to meander through the development of a story. There are all kinds of readers, and certain requirements won’t satisfy all readers. Literary types keep insisting the “average reader” will in fact notice those things the rules cite as essential, but really it’s debatable. However, the agent and if you get there: the editor no doubt will, branding you as an amateur with potential.
However, it is an editor’s job to make a book as readable and attractive word-wise as can be done. Problem? This is the subjective part. While most professionals mentally travel within a certain framework for “good” writing, some deviate radically from others as to how a story should be written or whether or not it will sell well or sell at all.
It’s impossible to predict what will provide the razzle dazzle that sells mucho books. Every now and then we hear of the huge advance paid to an author who writes an absolute dud. And then there’s The Shack to confound all rule writers and professors.
Readers are not necessarily writers and until those that matter quit pretending readers’ requirements are the same as their own, books that “shouldn’t” sell well will and others that “should” won’t.
Father, you’re the only judge that matters to me. You know the heart and soul of writers. May my work bring you glory somehow, some way. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Into the Fire 
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