You may hear people use words like “legitimate” when speaking of art, including writing. And, of course, I mostly hear it used when speaking of literature, especially as an indie author. Some people could be using the term to intentionally present themselves as elitist (maybe it just makes them feel better about whatever hard things they are struggling with in their own writing career or personal life), but others seem to use it without any sort of malice. They appear to me to have (somewhere in the back of their mind, I guess, since they don’t spell it out) a set of criteria for what they believe “legitimate” is when it comes to writing. However, I’m not really sure what people mean when they use the term in a phrase like “legitimate author” or “legitimate book.” I can’t define what an “illegitimate” piece of writing is, so I certainly couldn’t tell you what a “legitimate” one looks like. Same goes for other forms of artistic expression like sculpting (what does an illegitimate statue look like?) or musical composition (what’s a legitimate score sound like?).
Who gets to make that call? I would think it would be the reader, but I normally hear it when people are simply speaking about writing that they look down on for some reason or another.
It could be genre-based, such as believing that erotica or children’s books are not “legitimate.” But, again, that’s about the judging person’s preferences and biases, not so much an objective or universal measure of legitimacy.
It could be an issue related to demographics so that anyone writing a story featuring a non-white, non-heterosexual, non-trans character is not writing “legitimate” literature. More biases and preferences.
It could even simply be that a particular niche makes the person criticizing it mildly uncomfortable (dinosaur erotica would be an example), so they don’t consider it good enough to be called “legitimate.” But that’s still just an opinion, no kind of rule or law. I haven’t seen any hard and fast rules in literature. We all have strategies that work for us or methods that have given us the results we want, but what works for Writer A may be catastrophic for the career of Writer B. Writer C could use some kind of hybrid of both methods to finally find what works for their writing. And I wouldn’t label any of these writers as being “wrong” or “bad.” They’re just different (as all humans are). They figured out what worked for them, and I encourage that for any writer. Be flexible and open to experimentation, then just hold on to the techniques that you think are most helpful for you based on your brain chemistry, lifestyle, writing preferences, and literary goals.
In my experience, in the world of literature, “different strokes for different folks” pretty much sums up the industry. There are authors making six figures from books a copy editor has never laid hands on, and people with on-market books that have been heavily professionally edited and barely sell a copy a month. People make a living in niches I’ve never even heard of while books that have been on multiple best seller lists still result in an author having to hold a full-time job in order to maintain themselves financially. And, of course, various situations in between these extremes.
But does a piece have to sell well to be considered legitimate? Many films have cult followings even though they were never hits at any box office. Are they “illegitimate” movies? Does legitimacy come from traditional publishing as was done so heavily in the old days? If so, does that mean every one of this century’s indie authors is doing something wrong?
Making judgements about the legitimacy of someone’s writing, or stating that their genre or niche “shouldn’t exist,” or that someone isn’t a “real writer,” are all things that I’d encourage you to be careful with. My major concern is that newbies who are just starting to explore the beauty of writing their own books will start to become anxious and fearful instead of writing in a confident way that allows them to love the process and maintains that spark of excitement that made them start writing in the first place. Since I want as many people who are up for it to join this awesome global community of writers who create in a multitude of spaces and styles, I do what I can to be inclusive. Bring your sexy Santa Claus romance novel, share your mutant puppy superhero premise, give me all of the workplace revenge thrillers you can throw at me. If you’re writing and you’re enjoying it, chances are there is a group of readers who would love your work. As far as I’ve seen, as long as there is an author who loves what they create and an audience who loves to read their pieces, a literary career can begin (illegitimate or otherwise!).
