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Guest Post: I love my fans… by Hans Hirschi

Family Ties

Performance artists live for the applause, or so it is often said.

As a writer, I rarely get the opportunity to be applauded, particularly not as an English writing author in Sweden. Here it seems you need to be a subversive poet without ambitions of any kind, preferably writing about obscure topics like the the healing power of your placenta to be taken seriously…

Photo by the extremely talented Jakob Jurkošek.

I had an interesting moment this summer when I met a teacher at an American University and he immediately invited me to a reading at his school, something that would never happen in Sweden.

To be taken seriously by Academia here you need to have been certifiably dead (i.e. preferably 25 years or longer) and subversive (i.e. socialist or to the left thereof. nihilist also works) Or at least so it seems, because otherwise there is the suspicion that you might want to earn money from your writing, and we all know that any serious artist wants to starve!

The other alternative is to be extremely commercial and make millions on your art to be taken seriously, and then you’ll cruise from TV couch to radio studio and book stores.

There is no in between here, and the mere suspicion that you might write to make money is enough to bar you from entering any public scene. Weird, but that’s what it feels like.

Instead, as an author, I thrive on the feedback from my readers. A while ago, before I had published my first novel, I wrote a lengthy review of a book and – while talking to the author – mentioned it to him. I was stunned when he said that he didn’t read reviews. While I see his point (he was afraid of trolls), I was also saddened that he would disregard such a valuable tool of communication with his readers. Sure, there are trolls out there, who will say nasty things about you and your work. Of course I’m disappointed by a 3* review, but then again, who am I to assume that everyone will love my work? I don’t like everything I read either…

We have to learn to live with that, but most readers really try hard to be constructive and when they talk about how a text has ‘touched’ them, I’m always amazed at how many different layers there are to a piece. What I see as critical may not be what others see. They may see elements I hadn’t seen myself or layers I may have regarded as secondary.

When I put a story out there, it lives its own life, I wrote about this earlier.

But what really amazes me is the conversations, the dialogue I have with my fans. Grant you, I don’t have that many yet, but the trust they put in me, the kindness they show me for enriching their lives is incredibly endearing. How could I disregard it?

I understand that it must be impossible for a big star to communicate with their fans. If I got tens of thousands of e-mails a day, I’d be hard pressed to reply to them myself. Rest assured, for now, I manage, and I love reading your e-mails, your messages of encouragement, even your stalking (just kidding).

A fan mail is like a standing ovation, a written review on Amazon means so much to me, not just in terms of a seal of approval and recommendation to other readers, but how it touches me, on a very personal level. A good and constructive review is like nectar to the gods, and I would be stupid not to take that extremely serious.

I won’t call you any names, not warriors, not ‘beliebers’ or what have you. My fans are adults from all walks of life, who share their life stories with me with regard to my books, and that is a good thing.

So keep them coming… I thrive on your feedback. It’s what drives me to write the next story! And who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself in one of my future books… 😉

Have a great week!

Love,
Hans

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