A Writer's Contract with Readers

Admitting to what you are reading on Goodreads is an interesting experience - as is abandoning a book without finishing. I recently abandoned yet another book by an author far more famous than I'll ever be, and who's books have sold more copies than mine ever will. And I had to ask myself why. The writing and the plot started out brilliantly, but around page 225, for me, it died.

Which brings me to the point of this blog today. A writers has a 'contract' with a reader. That contract goes something roughly like "If you spend your precious time reading what I have written, I promise to entertain/inform you." The reader has many books to choose from. That is why a writer needs to deliver the absolutely best product he/she can as far as craftmanship and plot in fiction is concerned. For non-fiction, craftmanship, organization and accuracy reign supreme.

Before I got published, I always finished every book I started whether I was interested or not. I don't know why I did that, to be honest. Respect maybe. But the writer should respect the reader's invested time. For that reason, I now will sometimes abandon books. I still feel a twinge of guilt, but it is accompanied by the notion that the writer didn't hold up what I perceive as their end of the bargain.