Flexibility

I'm sitting in my car outside Brownies - waiting to be allowed in (*giggle* my nine year old thinks she has  power) - and am mulling over a lovely conversation I had with one of our librarians this afternoon.  They're a cheerful lot (no grumps at all) and I tend to get asked "have you heard yet?" the minute I walk in the door.

Of course, I haven't heard yet - it's only been a few weeks - but I tell her I'm sure it'll be soon.  Then she asked me "what if they like it but don't."
My expression must have shown a little confusion because she went on to elaborate.
"What if they want changes - like - a whole chapter or character." (We've previously had indepth discussions about characters-we-hate so I knew what she meant).
I very quickly said "not a problem, I write to sell."
then she asked "but isn't that sacrilege? It's your baby."

The Highschool students demand attention before we can get into the topic but it made me think. So often, that's how readers/fans/followers react when a change is made they don't like. When an author takes their character on a tangent the fan thinks is plain WRONG - and then the word sacrilege comes into play.

Weird.

I think that the majority of authors (at least the ones I listen to at RWNZ) WRITE to sell. They may love something the editor hates, but in the end - both parties do what's best for the book - to MAKE it sell. Sacrilege possibly needs to stay in the domain of the readers/fans/followers - those that LOVE or HATE. Authors, in the real world, who want to make a real GO of it - don't have that luxury.

I love my real world - so I'm flexible.