The hubristic perqs of being being a best-selling author:
After the publication of the The Queen of the Damned, I requested of my editor that she not give me anymore comments. I resolved to hand in the manuscripts when they were finished. And asked that she accept them as they were. She was very reluctant, feeling that her input had value, but she agreed to my wishes. I asked this due to my highly critical relationship with my work and my intense evolutionary work on every sentence in the work, my feeling for the rhythm of the phrase and the unfolding of the plot and the character development. I felt that I could not bring to perfection what I saw unless I did it alone. In othe words, what I had to offer had to be offered in isolation. So all novels published after The Queen of the Damned were written by me in this pure fashion, my editor thereafter functioning as my mentor and guardian.
“Let her edit cake.”
Quelle twit. I remember people like her in my writing groups – more ego than talent.
Well, if talent is reflected in sales figures, she’s right up there with Danielle Steele and Jacqueline Suzanne (“Ah — the Giants”).
That Ms. Rice would blather on and on about the perfecting of her work (she does admit the need for a bit of copy editing, to be sure) does, though, seem to say something about the “ego” part. Especially since it’s in a “Letter from Anne” on her official web site.
I never said no talent – and I did enjoy the Taltos books I read. I’d definitely rank her above, say, Jilly Cooper (snicker).
It was more of a comparative – a breadbox of talent, a grain silo full of ego.
Hm…I quit reading her after Queen of the Damned.
I noticed when Stephen King got too big for his britches…the books got too big to be read…
Everybody can use a little guidance from the editor now and again.
Given the **thud** with which Neal Stephenson’s tome landed on the floor when I got home with it, well, I’ll see if he’s suffering from “bloatware” (I’m more interested to see if the second and third volumes are as big as the first, and if the publisher actually sticks to the schedule they are listing!).
Oh yes, I gave up on Ms. Rice a very long time ago. The last King book I read was “The Stand”. I’d rather read a Patrick O’Brian novel where the author has carefully considered each sentence and packs a lot into each one, rather than meandering aimlessly for endless hours…
Like me!
🙂
I quit reading her halfway through The Vampire Lestat.
I have to confess, that’s when she lost me, too. Or maybe it was Interview with the Vampire. Whichever. Way too florid for me.
I’ve noticed, though, the tendency of many super-star authors to write longer and longer (and usually not-as-good) stories, as they grow too big for their editors. I’d be inclined to put Rowling in that category, along with L. K. Hamilton.