As this is posted, it’s been 121 years since Arthur Conan Doyle resurrected his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes. His original plan had been for Holmes to meet his end in a climactic battle against his nemesis, Moriarty, at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. That fight duly took place in The Final Problem. But Conan Doyle likely hadn’t reckoned with fans’ reaction. In fact, readers were so upset at the loss of Holmes that they demanded he return. The outcry was great enough that Conan Doyle brought Holmes back in The Adventure of the Empty House, which appeared in the collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes’ return shows that readers can influence what writers do, and that impact can be considerable. When readers aren’t happy with an author’s decisions, they may boycott that author or contact the author or publisher and make themselves heard. And authors pay attention to reader feedback. Sometimes, as in the case of Conan Doyle, they make changes – even major changes – that readers want.
And Conan Doyle is by no means the only author who’s responded to reader pressure. Agatha Christie is said to have gotten thoroughly fed up with her creation, Hercule Poirot. But fans loved him and didn’t want her to stop writing Poirot stories. Christie comments on this in Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, through her character Ariadne Oliver, who was said to be a caricature of Christie. In the novel, Mrs. Oliver is working with playwright Robin Upward on an adaptation of one of her stories for the theatre. This is what Mrs. Oliver says about her protagonist Sven Hjerson:
‘If I met that bony, gangling, vegetable-eating Finn in real life, I’d do a better murder than any I’ve ever invented.’
So, why does she keep writing Sven Hjersen stories? In Cards on the Table, Mrs. Oliver says,
‘Of course he’s idiotic. But people like him.’
Like her creator, Mrs. Oliver knows that when readers love a character, they will not be shy if that character dies or the series ends. And editors and publishers put pressure on authors to accede to readers’ wishes.
Patricia Cornwell also got her share of reader reaction in her Kay Scarpetta series. The series is very popular and has been since Postmortem, which was released in 1989. Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist who gets involved in unusual and complex murder cases. Over the years, a number of characters have come and gone. One character in particular was very much beloved, so when that character died in one of Cornwell’s novels, fans were very upset. The reaction was so strong that that character actually returned in a later book. Even though the explanation for the return might not have been realistic, fans were glad to have the character come back. Yes, I’m being deliberately vague – no spoilers here!
Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow was originally a character in her novel Fangirl. But her readers really loved the character and wanted more of him. The pressure was enough to induce Rowell to write a trilogy with Snow as the protagonist. Beginning with Carry On, the stories focus on Snow, who is a powerful mage at the Watford School of Magick. It is a fantasy series, but Snow solves mysteries as well. The series is intended for YA audiences, but it shows how reader response can influence an author’s decisions. If readers love a character, they want to see more of that character, and that can influence the author’s decisions about a series.
Fictional fans, too, can have a real impact on a fictional author. Just ask Paul Sheldon, a well-known writer who’s the protagonist in Stephen King’s Misery. He’s driving through a heavy snowstorm when he has a car accident. He’s rescued by Annie Wilkes, who, as it turns out, is a major fan of his work. At first, Sheldon is very grateful to Annie, and she takes good care of him. While he recovers, he’s looking forward to getting back to work on his latest manuscript. As you’d expect from a fan, Annie takes a real interest in the new novel. As she finds out what’s in the story, she decides it’s not going in the direction she wants. So, she finds her own way to make sure the story comes out the way she wants…
Fans of novels and series sometimes have very strong feelings, and they make those feelings known. Not every author acquiesces to fans, but it’s interesting when it happens. Have you ever made your feelings known to an author? What’s been the result? If you’re an author, how do you react to fans’ feedback?
*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capheart’s Summertime Blues.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 