Quotes & Sayings About Readership

Readers would email me and say, 'Please write a novel about so-and-so,' but it has to come from yourself and not so much from your readership. — Susan Vreeland

I'm sometimes sort of in touch with the readership, and they seem to have perceptive questions, for the most part. — Bryan Lee O'Malley

The folks who read my books are so passionate about each one of them that the people making my movies are more afraid of my readership than they are of me. — Chuck Palahniuk

The breadth of the potential readership is also a factor. — Mark Millar

Never change the URL of your blog. I've done it once, and I lost much of my readership. It took several months to build up the same reader patterns and trust. — Robert Scoble

Obviously Feministing is kind of a women's space in a certain way, even though we have a lot of male readership and people who don't identify as women. — Jessica Valenti

I wanted to think about ways to get an American readership concerned with what is happening in Mexico, but also to reframe it as a problem Americans share. — Sarah Stillman

The reason I was successful in launching my first book with bloggers is this: I assumed that I should spend as much time on a blogger with a million-person readership as I would pitching an editor of a publication with a million person subscription-base. — Timothy Ferriss

The hardest thing in the world for a writer is to amass a readership. So many good books come out, and so many good books disappear. — Patrick DeWitt

When my head is in the typewriter the last thing on my mind is some imaginary reader. I don't have an audience; I have a set of standards. But when I think of my work out in the world, written and published, I like to imagine it's being read by some stranger somewhere who doesn't have anyone around him to talk to about books and writing - maybe a would-be writer, maybe a little lonely, who depends on a certain kind of writing to make him feel more comfortable in the world. — Don DeLillo

Readership is highly dependent upon format and distribution as much as it is on content. — Sara Sheridan

I've always said that Watership Down is not a book for children. I say: it's a book, and anyone who wants to read it can read it. — Richard Adams

I try to write stories that will attract younger readers and make them feel part of a wider readership. I do not feel able to write books that are about, or even for, teenagers; and I am inclined to be suspicious of books which 'target' them. — Mal Peet

It used to be, if you wanted to have a strong, influential voice in the feminist movement, you really needed to be part of this New York/D.C. elite group of feminists, or part of a mainstream feminist organization. And now it's kind of an amazing thing that you can just start a blog and put your voice out there and build your readership. — Jessica Valenti

I realized early in my career that precisely what one reader
doesn't like is what another reader loves. Collectively, any writer's audience presents a mishmash of expectations that can never all be met. What one-tenth of my readership may not be crazy about the other nine-tenths savors. The moment you start altering a book or a painting or any type of art as if it's a public collaborative, you crucify its soul. I'd rather irritate a few people and delight a lot than touch no one." ~ Karen Marie Moning — Karen Marie Moning

The literary establishment in England was stunned, shocked, and scandalized by an event of millennial significance when a major bookstore chain innocently polled English-speaking readers, asking them to choose the greatest book of the twentieth century. By a wide margin The Lord of the Rings won. Three times the poll was broadened: to a worldwide readership, into cyberspace via Amazon, and even to "the greatest book of the millennium". The same champion won each time. The critics retched and kvetched, wailed and flailed, gasped and grasped for explanations. One said that they had failed and wasted their work of "ed-u-ca-tion". "Why bother teaching them to read if they're going to read that? — Peter Kreeft

Newspapers abound, and though they have endured decades of decline in readership and influence, they can still form impressive piles if no one takes them out to the trash. — Jon Stewart

The idea of harnessing the intelligence of the readership has been lost in the quest for Facebook likes. For many, readers have become synonymous with hateful commenters. It's time for a renewed push to realize some of the original dreams of the web. — Nick Denton

They have increased readership, which is good, but I personally am not very turned on by e-books. The physical book has always meant something to me. I'm like the horse who goes back to the stall. I'm not that adventurous. — Robert Loomis

The concept of the Web is of universal readership. — Tim Berners-Lee

Readership was high, and very attentive. It was people's only source of knowledge about the world. — Ryszard Kapuscinski

A newspaper that reduces its coverage of the news important to its community is certain to reduce its readership as well — Warren Buffett

The diversity revolution [in the news media] was supposed to increase readership and enhance credibility. Just the opposite has resulted. How long will it take the business to figure this out? — John Leo

It's different in Scotland. People who come to readings are more interested in literature as such, but the readership in general is really quite diverse. It's a cliche, but it's said that people who read my books don't read any other books, and you do get that element. — Irvine Welsh

I think it's the next thing, getting out of the comfort-zone readership, that at some point you have to try and break out of that and see if you can go in new directions. I wanted to do something that felt a lot bigger than a book that's going to sit on a toilet. — Drew Magary

It wasn't until I started to do 'Poison River' that the readership started falling. 'Poison River' started out very slowly and simply, but then it got really dense and complicated. I don't know, I think the readers just got fed up or burned out. They started dropping off. — Gilbert Hernandez

I have no precise idea of who makes up my readership. I'm surprised when I discover people have read my poems at all. — Cate Marvin

While I'm critical to the Bush presidency, it's been enormously beneficial for Salon because we're seen as kind of an aggressive watchdog on the Bush White House. Particularly since Florida, our readership hit a whole new level, and we held onto those readers. — David Talbot

People assume that because I'm a girl and my blog is hot pink that my readership is 90% women, but it's not. It's probably only about 65%. When I do tours, it's pretty much the same thing: it's about one-third guys. — Jenny Lawson

It's all about the integrity of their characters. They [Marvel] care so much about the loyalty and integrity of each and every character and all of their stories. They trust and love their readership. They're the ones who have invested in these stories. — Ray Stevenson

The first time I opened one I felt indecent. I love the feel of a book. I love the touch and smell and sound of the pages. I love the handling. A book is a sensual thing. You sit curled in a chair with it or like me you take it to bed and it's, well, enveloping. Weird I am. I know. What the Hell? as Bobby Bowe says to everything. You either get it or you don't. When my father first took me to Ennis Library I went down among the shelves and felt company, not only the company of the writers, but the readers too, because they had lifted and opened and read these books. The books were worn in a way they can only get worn by hands and eyes and minds; these were the literal original Facebooks, the books where faces had been, and I just loved it, the whole strange sense of being aboard a readership. — Niall Williams

I think about the reader. I care about the reader. Not "audience." Not "readership." Just the reader. That one person, alone in a room, whose time I'm asking for. I want my books to be worth the reader's time, and that's why I don't publish the books I've written that don't meet this criterion, and why I don't publish the books I do until they're ready. The novels I love are novels I live for. They make me feel smarter, more alive, more tender toward the world. I hope, with my own books, to transmit that same experience, to pass it on as best I can. — Jeffrey Eugenides

I am glad to have found a readership, but one can't write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper. A writer creates an imaginary world that he transmits to others. — Tahar Ben Jelloun

Keep in mind that in 1985, I had a potential readership of over 50 million Americans. At that time, a good portion of those were under 30. — Berkeley Breathed

Heat magazine - the tittering idiot's lunchbreak-pamphlet-of-choice -
has caused a bad stink by printing a collection of comedy stickers in its latest issue. Said stickers are clearly designed to be stuck round the
fringes of computer monitors by the magazine's bovine readership in a desperate bid to transform their veal-fattening workstation pen into a miniature
Chuckle Kingdom and thereby momentarily distract them from the bleak futility of their wasted, Heat-reading lives — Charlie Brooker

I'd like to emphasize that when a reader finishes a great novel, he will immediately begin looking for another. If someone loves your book, it increases the chance that he or she will look at mine. So there is no competition between writers. Another writer's success helps build a larger readership for all of us. — David Farland

Authors whose books were selected as ASEs were rewarded with a loyal readership of millions of men. Word spread quickly about the titles that were perennial favorites, even reaching the home front. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which was written in 1925, was considered a failure during Fitzgerald's lifetime. But when this book was printed as an ASE in October 1945, it won the hearts of an army of men. Their praise reverberated back home, and The Great Gatsby was rescued from obscurity and has since become an American literary classic. — Molly Guptill Manning

The fuzzy boundary lines between different readership ages have always puzzled me, so these days I just write what comes, and assume I can fix the mess later with an editor's help. — Julie Berry

How many times in life have I been advised to "toe the line," to "tone it down," to stop "pushing the envelope"? As a journalist, I had to keep my opinions to myself for 30 years. I thought that, as an artist, I'd have the liberty to express my views. Now I'm told that doing so might hurt my readership.
I'm so idealistic, as I said elsewhere on FB today, that I think people ought to read my books because they're good. Period. — Sherry Jones

More people have more access to more readers for less money than ever before in history. It means a lot of dross; but it means a lot of very talented people can find and nurture a readership in ways that were not possible twenty years ago. From a creative perspective, that is all that writing is about. — John Hodgman

I have to trust that if a story is strong, it can find its readership, and good editors can steer me well. — Julie Berry

For example, most editions of the Old Testament, intended for a Christian readership (obtained from a Greek translation of the original Hebrew), will translate Isaiah 7:14 to state that "a virgin shall conceive . . ." The English translation of the original Hebrew, used in the corresponding passage in the Hebrew Bible, states that "a young woman shall conceive. . . . — Anonymous

I always say these two things: Begin the begin, and don't take anything personally. You have to start to finish! There will always be a reason not to write; find your "why" and keep it in front of you. It's also important for authors to understand that someone somewhere is going to hate their work. You aren't writing for every reader; you're writing for the right reader! All of that being said; if your right readership is really small, you need to decide you're okay with that. — Liv Hadden

I don't like to think of my readership as 'fans,' a word which has always suggested a kind of power relationship I'm uncomfortable with. — Grant Morrison

I had a blog for many years. Once you develop your readership on your blog, and you can put something out there or direct traffic or get attention - it's like a super power. — Evan Williams

I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you're writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have. That way, you'll never dumb things down. You won't have to explain things that don't need explaining. You'll assume an intimacy and a natural shorthand, which is good because readers are smart and don't wish to be condescended to. I think about the reader. I care about the reader. Not "audience." Not "readership." Just the reader. — Jeffrey Eugenides

No other serial publications carry a number on them that is of any weight to their readership. The number is there to serve a function, but it has no intrinsic value in and of itself. It's comfort food and nostalgia at best. On this, we follow what you and your fellow readers do more than what you say. We hear complaints about renumbering every time we do it, but every time we do it it results in higher sales, which is the whole ballgame - so if it were your time and your effort, what would you do? — Tom Brevoort

I'm a cult writer now. I have a cult readership. — Michael Gruber

I'm interested in the Gothic novel because it's very much a woman's form. Why is there such a wide readership for books that essentially say, 'Your husband is trying to kill you'? — Margaret Atwood

I'm not one of the people who has a kind of scholarly hat and writes in a certain way for an academic audience and then puts on a public intellectual hat and writes a different way for a different kind of readership. I generally write the way I write, no matter what and it seems to have worked for me. — Louis Menand

It's a cinch that if you read it in an occult periodical or paperback, everyone's doing it. That should be your cue to avoid such stuff, lest you be relegated to the same readership level. — Anton Szandor LaVey

An artist without an audience is like a jar without jelly. There doesn't always need to be much jelly in the jar, nevertheless a jar without jelly would feel jealous and empty. — Kevin Focke

Newspaper readership is still growing in India. — Bill Gates

Newspaper readership is declining like crazy. In fact, there's a good chance that nobody is reading my column. — Dave Barry

Most blogs have very low readership - perhaps only the blogger's mother or best friend reads them - but even writing for one person, compared to writing for nobody, seems to be enough to compel millions of people to blog. — Dan Ariely

A readership crisis is really a leadership crisis. — Michael Hyatt

You write to suit some sense in yourself and trust that that will resonate with a certain wider readership. — Anna Quindlen

Mythopoeia has taken off in the Indian diaspora because there has been a change in readership from a mature audience to a younger one. This lot has a desperate yearning to reconnect. They want to consume mythology but in a well-packaged and easily digestible way. — Ashwin Sanghi

A blog is a message in a bottle, both in purpose and likely readership. — Robert Breault

[The public intellectual] will also describe how she can work a pop culture reference into her essay, comparing the Supreme Court to the creature in the number-one box office movie of the moment. Editors like this sort of mass-media integration, first, because it gives them a way to illustrate the piece, and second because they are under the delusion that pop-culture references will propel a piece's readership into the five-digit area. — David Brooks

Internationalism' is a way of reading, and not a demography of readership. — Amit Chaudhuri

While editors and newspaper owners currently fret over shrinking readership and lost profits, they do the one thing that insures cutting their own throats; they keep reducing space for the one feature that attracts new young readers in the first place; the comic strips. — Elayne Boosler

If it were not for the fact that editors have become so timorous in these politically correct times, I would probably have a greater readership than I have. — Pat Oliphant

I try to be careful about wording. One of the things I've tried to combat in my blog is the notion that journalists are arrogant and unconcerned with the readership. — Nicholas D. Kristof

That ideal had become as ossified as the statue of Benjamin Franklin up there. From New York to Los Angeles, American newspapers were yellow and stale before they even came off the press. Dog-beaten by a dwindling readership, financial losses and partisan attacks, editors had stripped them of their personality in an attempt to offend no one. And so there was no more reason to read them. Safety before Truth. Grammar over Guts. Winners before Losers. My eyes traveled down from Franklin to the iron sconces above the entrance. — Charlie LeDuff

I got married, other people went off. We had sort of another public-we were our entire readership for many years, and we were very excited by each other. — Kenneth Koch

'Faith and Will' is aimed at the same readership as 'The Artist's Way.' The book is for spiritual seekers in all walks of life. — Julia Cameron

Few writers in history have ever been 'politically correct' (a notion that rapidly changes in any case), and there's no reason to imagine that gay writers will ever suit their readers, especially since that readership is splintered into ghettos within ghettos. — Edmund White

'City of Fallen Angels' ended on a cliffhanger. That was equally loved and hated by my readership. — Cassandra Clare

I am glad I have found a readership, but one can't write only what is likely to sell. A writer is not a shopkeeper. — Tahar Ben Jelloun

It's so much easier to write for a person in your life than to write for some imagined readership, so you write something that's more intimate and true. — Jonah Peretti

I was incredibly lucky that my first book found a large and loyal readership. It changed my life - from being a very withdrawn adult to living in Paris as a full-time writer. It has also given me enormous confidence. — Daniel Tammet

If you write a screenplay that gets circulated, you have a bigger readership than any literary novelist. And it's an educated audience as well. — William Monahan

My publisher's been shipping me to comic-cons, and it seems that my readership overlaps perfectly with the comic-con crowd. — Chuck Palahniuk

My first book didn't even have a Canadian publisher. And that upset me, because I so wanted a readership up there. — Patrick DeWitt

I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media ... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start. — Anne McCaffrey

The media doesn't create narratives, really. They're not that powerful. What they do is they tap into narratives that are already bubbling amongst their viewership or readership. — Beau Willimon

In the 1950s we use to feel that television was taking away our comic readership; with today's exciting, powerfully visual movies I have to wonder about their effect on the kids' loyalty to the comic book medium all over again. — Joe Simon

The experience that a publication creates for its audience is the very essence of that publication's brand - and without deep engagement, that publication's brand will be weak. A good publication is a convener and an arbiter - it expresses a core narrative that becomes a badge of sorts for its readership. — John Battelle

Out in the wide readership,his younger brother was kicking an ice bucket in the woods behind the Marriott,
his younger brother who was missing that part of the brain that allows you to make out with your pillow.
Poor kid. — David Berman

Europeans still read rather than watching TV or listening to their clergyman tell them how to vote. The European magazines are far superior to American magazines in content and readership, but TV is taking a bite out of circulation now even in Europe. — Peter Menzel

I wanted to write a book that maybe had the potential to go beyond the Deadspin and KSK [Kissing Suzy Kolber] readership. — Drew Magary

It's never really easy to be successful as a writer when you're trying to write literary fiction. You've already limited your readership limited by that choice. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Starting the blog was a way for me to generate this nonfiction first-person voice naturally, gradually, without feeling performance anxiety. It felt a bit like keeping journals when I was younger, but connecting to an instant readership without having to wait for publication made it also immediately satisfying. — Kate Christensen

There is a wealth of readership for regional language literature in India that is not given importance. We must give respect to our own languages. — Amish Tripathi

My readership seems to be the sensitive people, for the most part. Then there are the occasional fans who are like, "Ah, video games!" — Bryan Lee O'Malley

I think it's important to recognise that 'The Da Vinci Code' opened up a vast new audience for a general readership interested in historical detective stories and research into history. — Elizabeth Kostova

The readership of Victorian novels, when they were published, was much less diverse. People were probably white, and had enough money to be literate. Very often, there are phrases in Italian, German and French that are left untranslated. — Eleanor Catton

It seems that the Parisian Oulipo group has recently constructed a matrix of all possible murder-story situations and has found that there is still to be written a book in which the murderer is the reader.
Moral: there exist obsessive ideas, they are never personal; books talk among themselves, and any true detection should prove that we are the guilty party. — Umberto Eco

If you take a print magazine with a million person circulation, and a blog with a devout readership of 1 million, for the purpose of selling anything that can be sold online, the blog is infinitely more powerful, because it's only a click away. — Timothy Ferriss

Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don't think so ... I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games. — Haruki Murakami

The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Tad Homer-Dixon is a rare kind of public intellectual, who combines real expertise with a commitment to communicate to the widest possible readership. In The Ingenuity Gap he wants us all to wake-up to the fearful possibility that our blithe trust in science and technology may be misplaced. Human ingenuity may not be capable of coping with two emerging crises of this century and the next: population growth and environmental despoliation. Read Homer Dixon's wake-up call and you will see the future very differently. — Michael Ignatieff

It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters, whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely. — John Le Carre

If words come alive on the page, the writer succeeds in connecting to the reader. — Aman Jassal

My blog readership grew steadily as I started to dump more of my inner self onto the page. I — Amanda Palmer

I have no idea what readership is of written editorials, but it doesn't come anywhere close to the readership of editorial cartoons. — Paul Conrad

Books themselves need no defense. Their spokesmen come and go, their readers live and die, they remain constant. — Lawrence Clark Powell

When you recite you're giving a performance, in the way that an actor or a singer performs, and some poets are not interested in doing that, maybe because they're writing for a readership as opposed to an audience, or because they see poetry as a very private art. — James Arthur

I would say that in my black readership, more of my readers tolerate the horror aspect of my work, you know. 'I don't usually read this kind of stuff, but.' — Tananarive Due