It Peaveth Me

Ok, I was reading the "mailbag" in a book review magazine today and I read something that is uber irksome to me. After complaining for a while about the latest book in her favorite series taking forever to come out, Lillian DeMeritte of Silver Spring, MD writes
"I wish there was something publishers could do to encourage their authors to put limits on the amount of time between books written within a series. It's one thing to allow time to create suspense, but to leave your readers hanging by fingernails, teeth and toenails is a bit much."

I don't know at what point readers think authors become their own personal dancing monkeys, but this kind of attitude drives me crazy. I guess it happens with all "artists", like when music fans are ticked about a band's new album that "isn't like the real them at all" (... but who else could it be?). But it happens a lot in this particular genre.

ok, I'll spill it. It was a romance book review book catalog I was reading and the kicker about this letter was that the responding editor thought it was a perfectly reasonable complaint. If you don't know, the Romance world is a fascinating, if disturbing place. I don't mind saying that it is almost entirely devoid of artistic, organic endeavors. And maybe that's fine, I don't want to be too snotty. The Romance industry is completely based on marketing, and economics drives EVERYTHING about it; plot, character, length, quantity...quality. I'm not saying that's bad, ok, I think it is, but good for them for turning a buck if they can stomach it.

I guess my main point is what a shame it is when readers think they ought to have complete control over writers, and what an even bigger shame it is in the Romance world when they do! Is my idealism showing?