THAT BOOK BIRTHDAY THING by Penny Dolan

I’ve been thinking about birthdays recently and that led me on to the whole idea of Book Birthdays.

First Book birthdays are

a)     a joyous occasion when the manuscript that a writer has worked on for ages is finally published  - i.e. birthed - and sent out into the world as a real BOOK, and celebrated all over the media with interviews, lunches, parties. Or tea in your favourite mug with cake, and a friend.

and

b)    a busy patch when your book baby will want as much attention as you can give it, taking the cute creature out and about in its pram and showing it to people. For free. For the publicity. Because you're worth it . . .

and - sshhh! - also

c)     another author’s announcement on Facebook which - while you are personally glad for the author and their festivities - rubs salt into the wound of your own raw hopes and dreams. However, the same thing may work in reverse when you celebrate your own book's birthing day. Swings and roundabouts and the splinter of ice, and all that.

But why, I wondered, should only that new-born Book’s Birthday be mentioned?

In the future, as your book grows older – sorry, sadness might be involved – you might discover book birthdays like the ones below. Please, however, note that my choice of Book Age is approximate. not certain. 

Book Birthday One. Your title is buzzing. Yay! It has been long-listed for such and such an award, even if copies no longer live on the four-week-turnaround shelves in many bookshops. You are full of energy and social competence!

Book Birthday Two. A quieter celebration. but your editor has exciting news. Your cover is being re-jigged to improve sales so it can be sent out through travelling Book Fairs for half-a-farthing profit a time. And – possibly, with this cheering information - the plot of your second book totters a little around you. Take hold!

Book Birthday Three. Hooray! Schools have picked up that your lovely/stunning/amusing/brilliant title is around and although it isn’t one they’ve actually read because they just love Walliams and Dahl , they want you for paid school visits. Upside: your finances improve. Downside: no time or energy to write. Your dreams fill with motorways and railway stations rather than characters and plot resolutions.

Book Birthday Four. Good news. Your book’s been boosted by your cunning  - if, at the time, unconscious - choice of a topic that’s suddenly dear to an educational guru or government minister. Behind your back, other authors wonder how you know/are related to such an Official, while wishing they’d worked a bit harder on their similar idea too. . .

Book Birthday Five or Six or More. You are, by now, carting boxes of books about, trying to sell remaindered copies in schools that forgot to send letters home. Your main joy is in the personal letters from children and parents saying how much they loved your book. You are working on several ideas, but is your heart still alight? Yes/No?Maybe.

Onwards, onwards and . . .

Book Birthday Ten or Eleven or Twelve. You change the subject if people mention your now o/p title. What else can you do? It’s too long and complicated to explain. 

Besides, your editor, re-placement editor, publicist, publicity assistant and even your agent have long moved on. You are an orphan, lost and alone, rather like your once beloved book.  Sigh.

And then, and then . . .

With luck, there will be a later Book Birthday, when all the children who loved your books are adults or even parents and suddenly wistful for their own childhood – and start searching for your book to read to children they know. You are a small classic!

And, perhaps, a small publisher approaches you again suggesting a reprint. Or you start to investigate the indie route . . .

So it goes, time after time, book after book. Don't lose heart!

 

Keep birthdaying on, dudes!

By Penny Dolan