To Be or Not to Be (transparent, that is)

Those of you who’ve been to my Facebook fan page know that I’m incredibly open about my writing process, my life, my daily schedule, etc.  Sometimes I even chat after I’ve had too much wine.  It’s a part of my day that I really look forward to, interacting with all of the wonderful readers who come there and spend a few precious moments out of their days to be with me in my world.  It’s an absolute privilege for me.

But I’ve recently been made aware, somewhat painfully, of the darker side of this practice; and now I’m wondering if I should continue with it.  You can tell me what you think.

Anyone who goes to my Amazon page knows that I’m an incredibly prolific writer.  I write on average 1.3 books a month, and truth be told, I am physically capable of doing even more.  I type over 100 words a minute and can develop a story on the fly with zero outline from start to finish – and the resulting book will entertain readers and suck them in (or so it’s been said in hundreds of reviews).  I have written as much as 23,000 words in a day, and the quality is about 97% final draft.

Is this normal?  No.  Not even close.  I’ve been accused of being a cyborg.  I think a professional might call it “obsessive personality disorder” or something, but I consider it a gift from the universe.  Regardless, I have learned that some people view me as a godsend (voracious readers) and some will view me as a freak who must be up to no good.

I’ve read posts in writer’s forums and news articles that claim it’s impossible to turn out a good book in less than six months.  Some say a year.  Some say two.  But the fact is, my work has a higher-than-average review rating than most YA books out there, and all of my books (the full-length novels) were all written in 10-20 days.  My 40,000 word novella was written in 3.  My serial shorts of 10,000 words each were all done in a day.  I edit as I go, reading through each chapter written at least three times before sending it off for proofing, beta-reading, and editing.  And then I edit one more time to be sure I didn’t miss anything.  My last book, Clash of the Otherworlds, had a new form of editing done as well that I really like and will use again.  I think it caught another 20 errors we all missed.

Now for that dark side I mentioned.  For my last book, COTOW 3, I was very visible on Facebook, talking about my process, how tight I was to the deadline, how I was going to be late because I needed more time to get it right – much more so than ever before.  Readers for the first time were totally immersed in my day-to-day writing, my fears, my work output, etc.  And now, as the reviews come in, I am seeing a few low-star reviews from people who loved the book, but felt it was rushed, and didn’t like the “timeskip” device I used in the last chapter, making the assumption it was put there as a way to save me time from writing more.  I know they assume this because they actually say it in the review.

This upsets me on several levels.  First, I suspect that they are prompted to feel this way because they were privy to my writing process as shared on Facebook.  They knew how hard I was working up until the end, and like many, think it’s impossible to do good work as fast as I do.  What they don’t know is that it’s like this for me every time.  I may have written on average more words in a day on this book, but my process didn’t change, and the ending was exactly how I wanted it to be.  I took an extra three days to make sure of it, and missing a deadline is something I’ve never done, in a year of writing over 15 titles.

Additionally, there’s this fallout effect on Amazon with the stupid stars that has nothing at all to do with me liking 5 of them instead of 2 on a review.  If an author’s book has a high star average, the book can qualify to be in the “Top Rated” bestseller list.  It gets additional visibility there and as a result, additional readers.

Maybe I’m assuming incorrectly – and only the reader knows whether I am or not, so I cannot and will not disagree with someone about their opinion – but I suspect very strongly that if I had maintained radio silence on Facebook about this last book, I would not be seeing those comments on the reviews about a rushed ending, and my star average would be higher.  En essence, now I may not qualify for the Top Rated Bestseller list for this book because I was so forthcoming with my readers.

So my question to myself is:  Do I keep interacting with my readers and involving them in my process?  Or do I go black and just send out notices when things are finished?

I’ll be really, really sad if I have to go with the latter just to save my writing career, but it may be my only choice if I want to keep doing this.  I hate having to make choices like this.  It’s a lose-lose … the classic Catch-22 … rock and hard place … to be or not to be a transparent writer … situation.