What's your view on fans who say, "I'll read anything Gail Simone writes!"? Oh, and just so you know....I think I might be one of those kinds of fans...lol. But, seriously, are you completely flattered, or do you think to yourself when you hear statement

I take what readers say at face value. In the past, I would sometimes be skeptical, or if they were critical, I would think there was some reason beyond what they were saying, and all of that is simply insecurity. It’s better just to listen…some readers, I get maybe one minute talking with them at a con or a few minutes reading an email or tumblr post, and that’s all I get. It seems silly to not just trust what they are saying, especially since (this took a while to learn), assuming someone is being less than truthful when you don’t even know them is just douchy behavior.

As for am I flattered, absolutely, but ‘flattered’ might not be the right word. It took a long time for me to learn how to accept a compliment and even now, it’s very hard to believe there are readers out there who seek out all the work I do. It just feels, forgive me for waxing rhapsodic, but it definitely feels unreal in some way. I was a hairdresser a few years ago, you know?

Readers have been lovely to me. It’s so easy to hyperfocus on the negatives, no matter how few they might be on an issue. I have friends who can get a thousand compliments on an issue, but then freak out like a cat with a laser pointer over a single negative comment. I don’t want to be that person. It took a while, but it’s very freeing to be able to say, “I’m sorry you didn’t care for this story,” and genuinely mean it. It’s liberating and it seems to me to be a lot more respectful of the readers.

If I pause to think too much about how kind the readers have been to me, it gets overwhelming very quickly. It’s often very personal, and often very moving, so I do keep most of that private. I have to kind of simply be joyful and grateful for the readers I have and accept that they will like what they like, and purchase what they want to purchase, and that’s really how it should be.

The final thought on this is, I always want my books to have a tone. One thing that amazes me about the early Marvel stuff, is that even with similar creative teams, each book had its own worldview and tone. That blows my mind. DC had a bunch of writers doing what Stan Lee and his artists did all by themselves, and each book was its own thing…FF was a family, X-men were outsiders, Iron Man was cold war adventure, on and on. That was just a tiny handful of guys, but they made it feel like a different pov for each book. That’s something I want, as well. I never wanted ATOM to feel like TRANQUILITY or for BIRDS OF PREY to feel like ACTION.  So it’s perfectly understandable if some books appeal to some readers, even very loyal ones, more than others.

I’m fortunate to have the readers I have, that’s all.