Hey Everyone!!! Lets discuss our point of view on this topic and analyse the important and most discussed ones...

 

"In competition"?
Do you mean staying relevant? Or keeping up their sales?
If it's either of those, I imagine there are two crucial elements:
a) Write well.
b) Write often.

 

c) Pander.

 

Above all, correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and word selection.

->

 

Writers need to write.

To produce and push product.

If I can't get my hit from King I'll shop around for some Gaiman or Nix. In a pinch, I'll manufacture my own dust.

 

They need honest critics, and they need to be able to not cry about it. Many authors never improve because they've found a fanbase that doesn't care and will continue to throw money at them regardless of the quality of their words.

 

Funnily enough, in my experience, I've found fanfiction readers to be the harshest of critics.

That criticism hit a plateau, of course, and became smoke up my ass. But this community, DLP, keeps me honest. Stretches me toward better. We could be kingmakers, should we so choose.

 

I think it's the perceived equality. When someone reviews a peer they tend to be honest and voice their small concerns and hang-ups without too much concern at being called out. After-all, they're peers so it's a meeting of equals in theory.

Once someone has real recognition factor and they've been raised up onto a pedestal that equality falls away. People are less willing to judge harshly in case the person they're judging is right. And because that person is on a pedestal is stands to reason that they're more likely to be right than the person not on the pedestal. It's mostly bollocks of course, but people have a tendency to assume that a known author knows what they're doing and it is they, the reader, who's doing it wrong if they don't get it.

When people actually make a job out of writing it's pretty much guaranteed that this will happen. You basically end up with polarised feedback along the lines of "AMGADSOGREAT" or "You're a terrible writer and person and you should feel bad."

Or, at least, that's my impression of things.

 

Yes. Even in my amateur experience in fanfic and original fiction, I'd agree with the sentiment here.

I'd add that the writers themselves are harmed by that polarised feedback. It produces false expectation and, at the same time, exacerbates the self-doubt. Perhaps I'm being a little bitch about things, but that pedestal is a razor-sharp double-edged sword.

 

Pretty sure that's just the Iron Throne.

 

So the story idea is a Joe self-insert into ASOIAF? I'd probably read that. Maybe he and Tyrion could consume alcohol and come up with drinking songs together.

 

I wanted to ask that what a writer should do so that he is always in demand by readers, publishers...

 

gav

You literally quote a post that answers your question, then triple dot your own words as if the answer hadn't been given. Wat.

I guess you could add to it finding a genre you feel comfortable in and hope that it'll gain a loyal fanbase.

 

But, if they have a loyal fanbase, they should stay competitive.

Edit: Keep selling books.