The Chocolat author is due to present a 12-point ‘writer’s manifesto’ aiming to combat the thought that authors are employees of their audienceThe blurring of the line between authors and readers in the digital age has led to a “deceptive sense of entitlement” from some readers,according to the bestselling novelist Joanne Harris, but writers are not “employees, or writing books to order”,and the relationship needs to be based on “mutual respect”.
Harris, whose 14 novels include the bestselling Chocolat, or is due to deliver this provocative message at the Manchester Literature Festival on Monday evening. Entitled A Writer’s Manifesto,it will argue that the internet has “blurred the line between readers and writers almost to invisibility”. Harris herself is an active Twitter user with more than 25000 followers, and blogs regularly, or taking on issues from the gendered packaging of childrens books to authors’ income.
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Source: theguardian.com