I am very grateful to the
person who planned the new rota for An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. She gave me
the hard-to-forget day that is the “first of the month”.
Along with remembering the
blog-post comes remembering a rhyme, and making sure I’m there before himself.
PINCH, PUNCH! FIRST OF THE MONTH!
It’s gentle fun, the way
we play it, but it isn’t always so for authors.
Writers get plenty of
pinches and punches and have to get used to them or give up, I guess.
PINCHES are the tiny
moments when something nips at your confidence unexpectedly. They are the
moments that make you feel silly and/or needy for even having had expectations.
For example, there are the
following:
The Prod of the Poisonous
Pen: That negative phrase in a review that brands itself across the brain for
far too long afterwards.
The Pinch-You-in-Passing
Person: This is the librarian or teacher who dismisses your latest book while
oozing & enthusing about another book or author. “What we’re really looking
forward to . . . “ (And to dismiss a book is to dismiss the writer, my friend.)
The Nip of the
Book-Non-Buyer: This one picks up your book, sniffs, and puts it down. The
extreme version takes your book out of their child’s hands and offers them one
by a tv tie-in or celebrity.
The Sad Smile of the
Un-Chosen: There are lots of awards
around now, and I am very glad of that for many reasons. Occasionally comes the good moment: one’s
book is chosen and listed and one is very grateful and happy. Then comes the
down-side when one is not THE Chosen. Even when you didn’t expect to be, it
might have been nice to be Surprised.
Ah well. Just a
mini-pinch, because it was an honour all the same. Though pity that stoical
author whose serious novel on a heart-felt theme was pipped at the post by an
amusing book about a farting bear. To those who have to smile bravely in public
when such announcements are made: we salute you!
In lots of ways, pinches
are good for the writer as a person. They are the moments that remind us not to
get too grand or vain about our work, to think about others. The moment might
smart but the pain can be licked away.
PUNCHES are the serious
stuff, the blows that can knock a writer down.
The worst is when a book
that one’s heart and soul has gone into goes Out of Print. This news is often discovered by chance. It rarely comes from an editor or the
publishing house.
My toughest Out of Print
moment punched out at me from nowhere, just as I was setting off on a very happy
tour of school visits. The eager bookseller rang to say that, if I agreed, the
publisher’s warehouse would release ten of my last twenty “author copies” of a
title for her to sell at the event. I rang the warehouse, feeling sick in the
stomach, mumbled my agreement and smiled all the way through the tour.
Inside, I was hurting.
What I knew was that now that title had gone out of print, the rest of the
series would go too, like a run of dominoes.
The fact wasn’t anything special.
Lots of people go through it, sometimes as they are still writing the series.
The moment was just one of those re-shuffles, those occasional clearing of the
lists, aka the wiping of my entire backlist. That was a punch, that was, and I
wasn’t wearing my iron corset that day.
I’ve learned to have that
trusty garment ready more often. Even in the fine world of kindle and e-books
and being in charge of your own publishing destiny, I’m sure pinches and
punches happen.
“Courage!” is all one can
say, and perhaps remember that at least we mostly live where many of our words can be
published without truly serious or vicious reprisals . . .
Enough. End of this
rambling. The sky grew darker than I expected when I began.
Meanwhile, back to more
comfortable territory.
I’m ready for tomorrow, as long as himself doesn’t read
this post over my shoulder and as long as Blogger scheduling works around
6.30am.
For what I’ve found out,
while researching this saying, is that the words should be delivered between dawn and
noon, and with an extra line for luck.
A PINCH AND A PUNCH! THE
FIRST OF THE MONTH!
WHITE RABBITS AND NO
RETURNS.
Wishing you No Returns,
especially from your books.
Penny Dolan
www.pennydolan.com
