"At present I answer about 100 letters a month, and read 300 emails"
About this Quote
A throwaway statistic, delivered deadpan, that quietly redraws the map of author-reader intimacy. Piers Anthony isn’t bragging about productivity so much as signaling the shape of his working life: the real labor of being a “reachable” writer. The split between “answer” and “read” matters. He’s not claiming omnipresence; he’s establishing boundaries while still projecting goodwill. In a culture that treats access as a right and silence as a slight, numbers become a diplomatic tool: evidence that he’s trying, proof that he’s outnumbered.
The line also captures a generational hinge. “Letters” and “emails” sit side by side like two eras stacked in the same inbox, and Anthony places himself in both. That matters for a career built in the long tail of fandom, where readers can age with you, but the channels of contact keep multiplying. The math hints at triage. A hundred replies a month sounds generous until you do the arithmetic: it’s also a limit, a reminder that attention is finite and time is the only currency that can’t be scaled.
Subtextually, it’s an author managing expectations and managing reputation. Anthony has long been a lightning rod in speculative fiction circles; being responsive can be community care, but it can also be narrative control. The sentence frames him as diligent, reasonable, human. Not aloof. Not consumed. Just busy enough to be credible.
The line also captures a generational hinge. “Letters” and “emails” sit side by side like two eras stacked in the same inbox, and Anthony places himself in both. That matters for a career built in the long tail of fandom, where readers can age with you, but the channels of contact keep multiplying. The math hints at triage. A hundred replies a month sounds generous until you do the arithmetic: it’s also a limit, a reminder that attention is finite and time is the only currency that can’t be scaled.
Subtextually, it’s an author managing expectations and managing reputation. Anthony has long been a lightning rod in speculative fiction circles; being responsive can be community care, but it can also be narrative control. The sentence frames him as diligent, reasonable, human. Not aloof. Not consumed. Just busy enough to be credible.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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