Unfortunately, people are also writing her 10,000 letters a day demanding to know when the next one is going to come out, and why it isn't here yet, and is Hermione really going to hook up with Voldemort, and why not, waah waah waah. Fan letters are easy enough to dodge, for the most part — you can get a service to handle them — but then there are the hack journalists wanting interviews, and the fan sites, and the library associations that want to be stroked nicely, and the wackos who think the spells in HP actually work and were personally dictated by Satan, and the stalkers, and the earnest young kids wanting advice on how to become a writer, and, and, and . . . .bossk wrote:I'd bet Rowling's books are easier to write. She certainly doesn't have to do as much publicity - people are lining up to buy them the minute they come out.
All of which comes under the heading of PR, and is far more work than merely publicizing a book that needs publicity. (Actually, except for nonfiction books on exceptionally hot and trendy topics, it's just about impossible to sell a book with publicity. This has a truly remarkable effect on the emotional health of both authors and publishers, and is an important reason why those occupational groups are so effective in stocking Bellevue with clients.)
It's amazing, actually, that anyone that famous gets anything done at all. SRD has had the comparative luxury of spending a few years in the shade, and the fans who have stuck by him throughout tend to be (I think) a little less rabid and more respectful of his privacy than Rowling's fans are on average.
