: Re: How can I determine the public opinion of an author? I recently asked a question which cited a book by Orson Scott Card, How to Write Fantasy & Science-Fiction. Orson Scott Card is the

@Heady158

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If an author is a best seller, presumably the general public's opinion of his writing is high. Even if someone was taking polls on "Do you like the writing of X?", I think books sales are a much better indicator. People are actually willing to pay money for his books. They must think they're worth reading.

I suppose there's the caveat here that many people may buy a book with terrible writing because they think it is "important". Mostly I think this would mean books by influential people on controversial subjects. Like if the president wrote a book on politics, I'm sure lots of people would buy it even if the writing is terrible.

And books written by celebrities often sell well even if the writing is terrible, just because the writer is already famous.

But in general, if a book sells well, that usually means that lots of people think the writing is good.

Any given reviewer may, of course, have a different opinion. But the fact that one reviewer says a book is terrible when 10 million people bought copies of it ... the reviewer may, of course, be right that the book is terrible, but clearly the consensus of the reading public is that that reviewer is wrong.

You don't link to the specific post about Orson Scott Card and I haven't bothered to find it. I suspect the author is referring, not to the quality of Mr Card's writing, but to his opinions on controversial social issues which she disagrees with. It is, of course, perfectly possible and reasonable to say, "X is a brilliant writer, but I disagree with his political/social/religious/whatever views." I've had many occasions when I've been reading a book and thought to myself, "This book is so interesting and entertaining, the writer has such skill at story-telling ... too bad he's using that skill to push this foolish and/or actively evil philosophy. I wonder how many people will fall for this bad idea just because this great writer presents it in a way that makes it sound so appealing." And there are surely many times when an author writes a great book that has absolutely nothing to do with his positions on controversial issues and you wouldn't even know that he's a [fill in group you hate].

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