Writers: Would this annoy you to death?

[Joss]

I see that the more popular writers with rabid fan base deal with a lot of fans nagging them constantly about the next installment of their series. For example, George RR Martin. I've seen some of these authors willing answer fan questions and sometimes they get requests about side projects (maybe a game, for example) and other fans will chime in and say "no, don't bother him, he should be working on the next book," comments similar to that. I was even on an author's facebook page and he has as his facebook tagline that constantly telling him he should be working on his next book only annoys him.

Hey, i'm not even published, and I see these comments and they annoy me, haha. It's like the author should be holed up in their house, at their desk and shouldn't even call a friend on the phone for a non-book related conversation because that''ll just push the timeline for the book's release back. Sure, Martin took 5 years to write his most recent novel, but sheesh, I think some fans are still way too fanatic and demanding, hahaha. That's my opinion.

If you were a published author of a very popular series would you welcome these comments to keep you on track or to help you relealize that you have some awesome fans who love your work or are you like me and would be so damn annoyed that you'd (nearly) stop socializing on facebook/twitter/tumbler/etc just to avoid those pesky demanding fans, even if they are the very few?

[Gryphon]

I would enjoy a little help to keep me on track, but I wouldn't want to be nagged at 24/7 either. I tend to have 'writing spells.' I'll write myself out, as much as I can, for a few days. Then stop. I'll have another writing spell maybe a week or two weeks later. That's just the way it is for me. Its not that I hate writing, I just can't seem to write EVERY day. But it would be nice to know you have fans, otherwise, whats the point in continuing?

[Cody]

I'm sure that at first, I would be a bit excited about that, because it would be just...I don't know! As a new author, if that happened to me, it would be something of a blessing to me, knowing that they wanted more and everything. But, like you, it wouldn't take long for me to get annoyed by that.

I'm not a huge people-person anyway, and I'm annoyed by people in general, so getting nagged like that, and hearing or reading comments like that, would make me mad and maybe a bit spiteful. Writing should be a very deep and personal thing, not measurable or to be categorized. And no one can tell you what to write, when to write, or anything like that. People should be more patient and understanding of writers. For me at least, as a reader, anticipation is part of the fun of reading a series of books. I'll never forget those long nights of finishing a Harry Potter book and instantly obsessing over the release of the next one, whenever it was going to be.

Cheers!