I saw a post the other day from a children’s book writer who said she loved making (doing?) school visits. I don’t. Or rather, if you arranged the visit and got me there and plonked me down in front of the kids and they started to ask questions, I’d be more than happy to answer. I’ve done that once and it was fun. But organising it myself, making arrangements: no. I don’t enjoy that at all.
Just as I don’t enjoy the whole business side of ‘being a writer’. Selling myself is not a talent I possess, and I don't think that after all these years, it's one I'm ever going to learn. What I like, and what pulled me into writing, is the writing itself. When it’s going well, there’s no feeling like it. But the ‘business’ side of it.
I can’t tell whether this is a comfort or a confession of failure.
2 comments:
I think many writers will sympathise with your thoughts on this, Nick!
Thank you, Penny.
I once had a chat with a best-selling children's writer who was relentlessly business-oriented (and who didn't have much time for the schoolkids we'd come to talk to: "They ALL ask ALL the SAME questions!") that it was hard to reconcile her talent for writing funny stories with her attitude. Perhaps she was just having a bad day, but it was more fun talking to the other, less well-known - authors there that day.
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