In a posting here the other day, I responded to a newsgroup discussion in which my friend Pat O'Neill was advancing what I considered illogical theories of comic book marketing. The discussion in that newsgroup continues and, in a subsequent message, someone else was discussing protests when your favorite comic book gets cancelled. That person, Ron Saarna, wrote, "…fandom can make a difference to the bean-counters. It just needs to be focused, or organized for those that have the desire." I don't disagree with this but I wrote the following in response…
For whatever it's worth, I don't think it needs to be all that organized or focused. If your favorite comic book or TV show (or whatever) is cancelled, express your unhappiness via polite letters. And I would add that I think one paper letter has the impact of 100 e-mailed letters and 1000 names on e-mailed petitions.
Someone has made the decision to cancel the comic or show. It's possible that this is an overwhelming decision with which most of the involved parties concur. In this case, your letters will bring warmth and comfort to the folks who brought you the comic or show but it probably won't reverse the cancellation.
It's also possible that the cancellation is still at an arguable stage, and some folks within the organization are still debating it or aren't certain what to replace it with, yet. In this case, the letters give ammo to those arguing to reinstate, and they provide moral cover to those who would have to change their minds. If you advocate canceling a project and you're looking for a way to reverse your position without losing face, it can be helpful to be able to say, "We're bowing to an avalanche of mail."
To clarify the differences here: I believe that when Star Trek was cancelled by NBC after its second season, Paramount and Gene Roddenberry still wanted to keep it going, and NBC really didn't have anything to replace it about which they felt that confident. So in that case, a pile of mail helped the network to decide they might as well keep it around. (It also probably convinced them that the audience might be loyal enough to follow it to a rotten time slot. The network had one that then needed filling.) After the third season however, I believe not only did NBC decide the show would never catch on but both Paramount and Roddenberry had decided it was a lost cause and that they should invest their time and deficit financing elsewhere. So in that case, all the protests in the world probably would not have made a difference.
Actually, I think the main reason people write letters is because it makes them feel less helpless. But that can also be a good reason.