An author friend of mine wrote something to me tonight that has given me something to think about. He wrote that he has been invited to speak about his new book at a retirement community. They do not pay authors to make appearances. He's okay with that. However, they also do not allow authors to sell their books at their appearance. So, essentially, they have invited an author who has spent countless hours writing a book, proofreading and editing the book, and who has invested time and money into getting his book published to speak for free and entertain the residents, and not make a dime from any sales either. Okay, it's a little bit of free publicity for the author, very limited to that venue and those people. Plus the author is paying for his own gas to get there, and is donating (apparently) his time as well.
When an artist paints, you can stand behind them or to the side of them and watch them work. You can see the work of art being created, coming to life right before your eyes. The same goes for most artists in various mediums. You can see a sculptor chisel away at a block of marble and bring a human being, a creature, or whatever forth out of that block of stone. It emerges right before your eyes and you can instantly admire it. Hugh Nagger is a glass artist friend of mine. You can watch him draw a shape from his torch flame and a rod of glass and create something. He made me a camel and a blue glass heart. A musician is also an artist. He can compose a song and you can sit in the room and listen to the notes and chords played on the piano or guitar. If there are lyrics, you can hear them being sung.
But, most people would be bored to borderline insanity sitting in a room listening and watching an author type incessantly n a keyboard, or write in longhand in a notebook. However, art is being created just the same. Books do not get written overnight. Sometimes they can take years to be written. A good book can move you to tears, laughter, elation, or sometimes they can be a bitter disappointment. A good author can elicit a brad spectrum of emotions from a reader. The difference between writing and other art forms? Writing is entirely cerebral. It comes out of the authors head, gets printed on paper, and is silently read (in the majority of instances) by a reader, the words flowing into their brain and being processed. It's a curious little tenuous and temporary relationship, that between author and reader. It's one on one. The artistry of the book can only be seen as it is read. Anyone can pick it up and flip through the pages, but to appreciate it, to understand it, to comprehend what the author has created, a reader needs to read it and absorb it. Mull it over. Feel its impact. Accept it or reject it.
You can't hang a book on the wall and expect company to appreciate it. You can read a few lines aloud from it, but those excerpts are mere dabs of paint on a canvas that is rich and lush with imagery.
Other art forms offer the viewer and listener instant gratification. You can sit and study a work of art for as long as you like. Your thoughts can wander, but you can command your attention to return to the painting or drawing, sculpture or whatever and it's right there in front of you all in one place for your interpretation. Not so the book with its myriad pages. If you skim through the pages you miss things that are most likely vital and essential to the plot, the story, the sequencing of events. You can't see a book as a whole work until after you've finished reading it. You can talk about it, but you can't really show it to someone else. You can lend them the book, but then you have to wait for them to read it before you can discuss it together. Instantly gratifying, it is not.
A book takes time and effort to write, just like any other kind of work of art takes time and effort. Yet, whereas musicians, singers, and bands are paid to make appearances, and artists' works may catch the viewers eye triggering a desire to take the piece home...a book has only three shots at capturing a reader- the cover art, the back cover copy/blurb about the book, and the first line or two of chapter one. A book may be the best book ever written, but if it has a boring, uninspired cover eyes will skim right over it, dismissing it. If the back cover copy doesn't entice the reader to want to buy and read the book, then it has failed to do its job. If the first line is flat and dull and it doesn't hook the reader and reel them in...strike three! You're out!. It's hard work to nail two, never mind all three.
I guess what I'm saying here is that it isn't a piece of cake to write a book. It's a cerebral exercise with a lot of self discipline and sacrifice of personal time involved, especially if you work a regular job and have a family since writing historically doesn't pay unless your name is Stephen King, Nora Roberts, etc. Most of us self published authors spend disproportionately more creating and printing our books than we will ever earn trying to sell them. So, if you invite an author to an event to entertain other people...it would be thoughtful and considerate to offer a token compensation for their time. I was happy to be fed a marvelous dinner in exchange for a talk at the Women's Club once. And maybe it would be nice to allow the author to sell a few books while they're there...that's why they publish them after all.
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