Let's Discuss: Authors' Personal Lives & Readers

Then a second idea struck me midweek as well! It was when I was reading an author's Instagram post where they got personal. I am always completely fine when authors like to share their personal lives with readers and give them an inside look. Showing the reader that they are a regular person too at times! 

Authors' Personal Lives & Readers

It was at the start of one author's post where she mentioned (I guess she gets notifications on certain Google searches for her name, I wasn't clear on how she got that part of the info) who her life partner is. It was sort of an introduction of sorts. I guess she was tired of people just wondering. I can't recall if she said there were emails/letters kind of thing where people were like legit digging into her personal life looking for proof of her past partner or something like that.

And at first I was like...why would readers do this? I mean, I don't know. It just seemed weird. Like why do you need confirmation of this author's spouse? What purpose does that serve for your life? What purpose does that serve for you reading her books? It made no sense to me. The author was doing nothing wrong, nothing illegal, nothing immoral. So I was like, why are these other people hounding her wanting proof of her spouse? It kind of disgusted me almost that people were so nosy and self-serving. 

I feel like an author's personal life is theirs to share however much or little they want to. I follow quite a few authors on Instagram. Most of them use it for their career and promotion purposes and that's totally fine! Sometimes some will get personal and show their family pics or holiday spreads or you know something outside their writing, and that's fine too! I love whatever they want to share. But ultimately, it's the author's choice how much they share of their personal lives and I feel like readers need to respect that. I mean, are they also writing "invasive" fan letters to celebs asking for proof of their spouse or children's lives?

And then in another twist, I also just read a personal essay one of my other favorite authors just wrote. She hasn't been in the actual publishing scene in a few years and when I read her essay, it shook me. She went through so much. Some of it was quite shocking, like I never would have guessed it of her. I met her a few times at the RT conventions when they were still hopping. She was such a lovely person and I adored her books! But omigosh, this poor woman had quite a dark history at times. I still follow her on Instagram and I've noticed her posts have been fewer in between lately and this essay...man, it just left me shaking almost.

I mean it just goes to show that you never really know anything unless someone point and blank tells you. Her Instagram posts that I remember from year prior were Instagram worthy. They were happy moments, and they probably were happy moments of the time. But just wow. And the thing is...she chose to share that information. She decided it was something she wanted to do to help herself heal. No one went digging into her life and pestered her for this information. She willingly chose to share it. Which is the way it should always be.

So yeah...I guess this was more of an opinion piece more than anything. But the first author's story made me so upset on her part that I felt like other readers were just pestering her for information on her personal life. Again, this is just how I inferred things from reading her post. The second author's story made me want to cry for her. I truly hope she is healing in the way that she needs to as well.

I guess in this sense, what's your opinion on authors sharing their personal lives with readers? Do you think readers should expect to get that information or should authors maintain a professional appearance and not get too personal with their readers? And obviously age is a thing to consider, both authors I mention were big in the YA sphere about 10-12 years ago, so original audience members would be a bit older now as well. As to what audience was doing the hounding, I do not know that information obviously, again, I was just commenting off of what I read from the one author's post.