> On Fri, 14 Feb 2003, David Rodemaker wrote: > > BTW: Does anyone have numbers to back up the 'she's lost a lot > of readers > > over this' or are we waiting for the next book to actually see? > I've heard > > it, but I've heard darn near as many people say that they > really like her > > books still and it also seems that alot of people are picking > them up now > > when they hadn't before. > > Well, my figures wouldn't exactly be universal or sound like all that > much, but just in the friends that I have, 40% have said they're not going > to read her next book and another 20 or 30% have said they're hesitant or > will use the next book to decide whether it's worth continuing with. This > is probably out of a friend pool of 50 or 60. So like I said, not that > much, but I do have some numbers. I was thinking more like actual sales/publishing numbers. My wife's rather interesting comment on the whole discussion was along the lines of how many of the lost readers are men (and women), who hate the fact that Anita is moving away from a strong character who nontheless relies upon the even stronger men in her life to protect her and is sexually insecure to becoming an even stronger character who is sexually confident and treats the men in her life the way most men treat women *and* who is rapidly becoming somebody who is truely an equal of the men in her life (if not more powerful). We all know it's all right for men to have harems, but for women to have (what her writing group evidently calls) hisims just doesn't go over well. For every person lost because of this, LKH will probably gain 1.5 strident feminists, she'll lose out on the bull dykes only because Anita is staunchly het. This is not a losing game. David