{"id":604,"date":"2008-01-21T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2008-01-21T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/2008\/01\/21\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/"},"modified":"2008-01-21T00:00:31","modified_gmt":"2008-01-21T00:00:31","slug":"is-it-a-matter-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it a matter of failure?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I read this comment over at DA.  (&#8230;yes&#8230; again&#8230;.  *G*)<\/p>\n<p>Snarkhunter commented:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/dearauthor.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/20\/the-meaning-of-a-fan\/#comment-124465\">If he\/she writes a book we don\u2019t like, is that the writer\u2019s fault? (Sometimes it is, but not usually.)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And it got me to thinking.  Since I&#8217;m thinking (always dangerous) I decided to ramble here instead of hijacking the DA thread.<\/p>\n<p>Is it a failure on the writer&#8217;s part if a reader can&#8217;t connect with a book, or doesn&#8217;t enjoy it, or hates it and wans to hurl again a wall?<\/p>\n<p>These things I think we can blame on an author&#8230;including me:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A plot so riddled with holes I could use it as a colander<\/li>\n<li>Blatant contradictions to previous worldbuilding information<\/li>\n<li>A ridiculous amount of type-os, grammatical errors, etc.  Yes&#8230;the editors are the next line of defense, but it&#8217;s the author&#8217;s name on the book, right?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But if you can&#8217;t click with a character?  The storyline didn&#8217;t work for you?  It wasn&#8217;t the way you thought the story was going to turn out?<\/p>\n<p>I think that will boil down to personal taste and on matters of personal taste, can we really assign blame?   I used to gobble down every LKH book the minute it released.  I&#8217;ve praised endlessly how much I adored her book, <i>Nightseer<\/i>. But right now, I have four of her books sitting unread on my shelves.  I haven&#8217;t read Merry since the second book.  I can&#8217;t find the enthusiasm to read the last two or three AB books.<\/p>\n<p>Did she fail?  No~because she has a ton of readers who&#8217;ve loved these books.  What failed, for me, were the stories.  It&#8217;s a matter of personal taste.<\/p>\n<p>Lora Leigh is one of my closest friends.  I usually get her books within a day or two of her putting the punctuation on the last sentence of the last page.  I love her Breeds.  The Bound Hearts books?  I don&#8217;t like them as much and it has nothing to do with her failing me.  It has to do with personal taste.<\/p>\n<p>I was doing a Q&amp;A in Indianapolis last year and one of the readers asked about the menages in some of my books&#8230; she didn&#8217;t care for them.  But she never once gave me the impression that <i>I<\/i> had failed.  It was the stories, plain and simple, that didn&#8217;t work for her.  They worked for plenty of others.<\/p>\n<p>Am I disappointed she didn&#8217;t care for them?  In all honesty, no, because they didn&#8217;t throw her so much that she decided to never read another one of my books&#8230;and if I recall correctly, she did read the menage books, just because she wanted to read the story itself.  In all honesty, I&#8217;d say that is a compliment, that she wanted the story enough to buy it and read it, knowing there was likely going to be something that didn&#8217;t appeal to her.<\/p>\n<p>So the way I see it, it&#8217;s not really a matter of failure when a book doesn&#8217;t work for somebody.  It&#8217;s a matter of personal taste.  Because for every person that hated a book, there&#8217;s at least one, or more, that adored it.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s your take on it?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you haven&#8217;t take the <a href=\"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/2008\/01\/18\/who-reads-romance\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;who reads romance&#8221; survey&#8230; will you<\/a>? Got a lot of answers&#8230;but I want a lot more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read this comment over at DA. (&#8230;yes&#8230; again&#8230;. *G*) Snarkhunter commented: If he\/she writes a book we don\u2019t like, is that the writer\u2019s fault?<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Is it a matter of failure?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10161045129738658_54762468447":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,44,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-romance","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is it a matter of failure? - Shiloh Walker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is it a matter of failure? - Shiloh Walker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I read this comment over at DA. (&#8230;yes&#8230; again&#8230;. *G*) Snarkhunter commented: If he\/she writes a book we don\u2019t like, is that the writer\u2019s fault? &quot;Is it a matter of failure?&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shiloh Walker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorShilohWalker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-21T00:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/shiloh_logo-2-e1410738561344.png?fit=100%2C115&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"115\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shilohwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shilohwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shilohwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"shilohwalker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"shilohwalker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da\"},\"headline\":\"Is it a matter of failure?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-01-21T00:00:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":585,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"Romance\",\"Writing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is it a matter of failure? - Shiloh Walker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-01-21T00:00:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is it a matter of failure?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/\",\"name\":\"Shiloh Walker\",\"description\":\"Let Me Tell You A Story\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shiloh Walker\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1\",\"width\":49,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Shiloh Walker\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AuthorShilohWalker\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/shilohwalker\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/shiloh_walker_author\\\/\",\"http:\\\/\\\/pinterest.com\\\/shilohwalker\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da\",\"name\":\"shilohwalker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"shilohwalker\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/author\\\/shilohwalker\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is it a matter of failure? - Shiloh Walker","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is it a matter of failure? - Shiloh Walker","og_description":"I read this comment over at DA. (&#8230;yes&#8230; again&#8230;. *G*) Snarkhunter commented: If he\/she writes a book we don\u2019t like, is that the writer\u2019s fault? \"Is it a matter of failure?\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/","og_site_name":"Shiloh Walker","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorShilohWalker","article_published_time":"2008-01-21T00:00:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":100,"height":115,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/shiloh_logo-2-e1410738561344.png?fit=100%2C115&ssl=1","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"shilohwalker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@shilohwalker","twitter_site":"@shilohwalker","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"shilohwalker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/"},"author":{"name":"shilohwalker","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/person\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da"},"headline":"Is it a matter of failure?","datePublished":"2008-01-21T00:00:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/"},"wordCount":585,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Books","Romance","Writing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/","name":"Is it a matter of failure? - Shiloh Walker","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-01-21T00:00:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/01\/is-it-a-matter-of-failure\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is it a matter of failure?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/","name":"Shiloh Walker","description":"Let Me Tell You A Story","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#organization","name":"Shiloh Walker","url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1","width":49,"height":50,"caption":"Shiloh Walker"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorShilohWalker","https:\/\/x.com\/shilohwalker","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/shiloh_walker_author\/","http:\/\/pinterest.com\/shilohwalker\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/person\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da","name":"shilohwalker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg","caption":"shilohwalker"},"url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/author\/shilohwalker\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}