Letter to a Reader

I get a fair bit of fanmail.

Not so much that I can't keep up with it, but enough to let me know that my work is being read and discussed and appreciated. That's validation for a writer. Sure, we all want, need, and appreciate reviews, but there's something about a reader taking the time and trouble to personally contact you that is different.

For one thing, the reader is risking something. Possible rejection. Suppose the writer is offended? Or just...well, ignores the letter? For another thing, the reader has nothing to gain. There is no audience to be impressed by the reviewer's way with words or clever insights. There is no one to fill in the silences. It's a private conversation. Taking the time to personally write a letter to an author whose work you enjoy takes effort. It's like going that little extra step of sending a small gift to your hostess after a wonderful weekend stay. It's kind and it's generous and it's gracious.

So I thought I'd address some of the comments that typically pop up in letters from readers.


Dear Gentle Reader,

No need to apologize for "disturbing" or "bothering" me. I don't want you to think that I'm sitting here shooting paperclips across the room, but I'm never too busy to hear from you. The day that I am too busy to hear from you, my dear reader, is the day I hang up my quill pen and ink well.

I do not think you are being "too forward" by approaching me or offering your thoughts on my stories. To be honest, I always find your thoughts interesting. Yes, you do sometimes get it wrong, but so (apparently) do I!

(That's where you chuckle, dear gentle reader, 'cos I'm teasing you.)

I often say that we writers write for ourselves, but we publish for others. It's my pleasure to share these stories with you -- I'm glad you're reading my work and that it's moved you enough to want to talk to me about it. And I mean that whether you liked the story or had some problems with it. I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to change the stories I write just to please you, but I am genuinely interested in what worked or didn't work for you. No, I'm not going to be mad at you because you write to tell me you didn't understand something or something bothered you or saddened you.

By the way, dear reader, it's okay to gush. Almost every single one of you apologizes at some point for "gushing." I have a feeling we authors define gushing differently from you readers.

Dictionary definition of gush: to express oneself extravagantly or emotionally; talk effusively: I LOVE your work!

You know, just as you had to work your nerve up to write me, so it takes me effort to put my work out there for others to read. Writers, like everyone else in this world, get a lot more rejection than they do gushing praise. Even after we convince an agent or a publisher to take a risk on us, we still have to win over reviewers and booksellers and...you.

So it's nice -- really, really nice -- to hear that you liked my work. And you don't have to qualify that because I know my work isn't perfect (only too well) and that everyone doesn't love me all the time. Sometimes the best medicine in the world is simply to hear what I'm doing right.

Don't apologize. Really. I think I speak for all writers when I say feel free to gush.




Finally, dear reader, you don't have to apologize for liking the books you like. I don't care that you're a middleaged married woman or a seventy year old man in the midwest or a college kid in England. I'm not judging you, and if I was judging you, how harsh a judge could I be when I'm the one writing the stories you're enjoying so much? I'm writing for myself, remember? I'm writing the kinds of stories I would love to read, so apologizing for liking my work is really not necessary. In fact, you're...er, making me laugh nervously because if you're uncomfortable, what should I be feeling for writing this stuff?

Anyway, that's it, dear reader. Thank you again for writing. For going to that little bit of extra bother, for taking the trouble to say something positive and encouraging to me when you could probably use an encouraging, friendly word yourself. It's funny the way your letters always seem to come when I need them the most. You're very good about that -- and it's one reason I keep publishing my stories.

Yours sincerely,
Josh