When A Writer Gets His Audience Totally Wrong

Before I go further, let me say I admire the work of David Farland, aka Dave Wolverton. I have several of his books on my bookshelf or on my Kindle. He was Stephenie Meyer's writing instructor long before she launched Twilight. And because David's an excellent teacher, I subscribe to his Daily Kick in the Pants newsletter.

The subject of last Thursday's newsletter was Audience Analysis. Dave has a lot of experience with Hollywood as well as New York, so I was really excited to see what bits of wisdom he had.

I was with him until he said, "A woman at forty is nearing menopause, and the male at fifty is reaching a hormonal crisis of his own. They lose interest in sex."

O-o-k-a-a-y...

On one hand, I'm glad women weren't the only ones slammed in that statement. It's a switch from the usual snide crap spewed at any of us ladies over thirty.

On the other hand, I laughed my ass off. You see, everyone I personally know who writes erotica is over forty. Their significant others are the happy recipients of the moods and emotions aroused while these folks are writing.

I really don't think David meant to be insulting, but if I were a troll, I'd send him scathing e-mails and burn/delete his books. Since he also says that only children under eleven are interested in fantasy and that's the genre he writes, then he's obviously never grown up.

But that would be a totally rude thing to say, wouldn't it?

Classifying the parameters of your audience too narrowly does a disservice to you the writer, your current readers and your potential readers. I may not have been in the entertainment business as long as David, but I know enough not to insult an entire segment of my potential audience.