Joseph Flynn said:
I write because my muse keeps giving me story ideas, and because I have such a good time writing. I think of my novels as smart entertainment. Not the loftiest of descriptions, but if I provide a reader with hours of enjoyment I feel I've accomplished something worthwhile.
Locke says he writes for fun, and I believe him. I read "Vegas Moon," at his suggestion; I emailed him and asked which of his books might be a good starting place. "VM" reminded me of the old Destroyer series by Sapir and Murphy, paperback originals that were also cheaply priced back in the day.
About 88% of my novels' reviews are either four or five stars, but marketing is the weakest part of my game. I need to do better there so my sales numbers can reflect a larger number of people I'm making happy, including me as I head to the bank.
I don't know that Locke's particular ideas are that horrible. I think his books are meant just to be fun entertainment, and obviously he's found a successful way to market them. I read through part of "Wish List" the other day at Sam's Club, and there's nothing that terrible in it. I could certainly imagine wiping it out in two hours and not feeling like I completely wasted my time.
Yes, we write when our muse hits us, but like Faulker said, his inspiration was always at 9 in the morning. He has a certain businesslike attitude toward writing and marketing his books; so do a lot of other writers. At a certain point in his career, Mickey Spillaine would only write a new book whenever he decided he wanted to buy a boat, or he needed to make quick money and he knew he could sell the book (no, I'm not holding the creator of "Mike Hammer" as an arbiter of high art, BTW). Chandler started writing essentially because he had so mucked up his previous career no one would hire him anymore. Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" just for the money.
Patterson has an even more driven sense of marketing, and he doesn't even really even WRITE his books, and yet people eat 'em like they're peanuts.
None of us set about to write a bad book, and I doubt he does either. There seems to be more than enough room for Herzog AND the latest popcorn action flick.
