Misadventures in the life of an author
August 2nd 2008 01:01
The life span of a butterfly is a day. Give or take a couple of hours.
Much like the publicity window for a book.
Mine, on Things Without A Name, has just about come to an end. And what a underwhelming experience it has been. With two (wonderful) reviews in the SMH and Marie Claire and a couple we’ve found on the internet, my publicist managed to get me a single radio interview on community radio. Truly. With all the domestic violence going on in Australia, you’d think there’d be an angle there.
Things Without A Name has been on the market for two months now. It is, I do think, perhaps the book I was born to write. There have been a few fabulous reviews on the internet review of TWAN, and another positive review and the emails I’ve received from psychologists, book sellers and readers from all over Australia have literally kept my spirits alive.
When you’re having a baby, you sometimes have to make the obstetrician understand that though he or she has delivered hundreds of babies and yours is nothing special, that for you, THIS is your unique experience of childbirth. Publishers are like obstetricians. They have long lists of authors to attend to and yours is nothing special. Of course pissing your publisher off is probably about as unhelpful as pissing your obstetrician off – the power relationship just doesn’t auger in your favour.
But this week has had its perks despite a crippling case of … ahem … writers’ block. (I know, I disavowed it in a previous post, but I am revising my opinion on the matter after a week of feeling like my brain was waterlogged). Blessedly, I have contacts. My friend Michelle Kline who organized my book launch at Bowen Library put me in touch with Joy Hruby who has a community television show Joy’s World. On Tuesday night, I made my way over to her home in the pelting rain, which completely ruined my blow dry. What ensued was a rather bizarre, but utterly enchanting evening with Joy (who is something delicious out of a Carry On movie), and an array of adorable young people in the media.
Joy has been making community television for years in her backyard. With a blue curtain as her backdrop and a table with a bunch of plastic flowers as the set, I was all made up and ready to shoot from 7pm. Unfortunately things took a little while to happen. All the people who make the show are volunteers and there was a lot of eating of the snacks Joy had so lovingly prepared and laid out on her dining room table. After a shaky start (the interview before mine of the young men in a band who are also saving whales turned out to have been filmed entirely without sound and it took a while before the ‘crew’ figured out what was the trouble) I was seated and ready to be filmed at approximately 9pm. But Joy lives in Botany and every time a plane flies over, the crew shouts ‘CUT.’ I am not joking when I say that I had to stop mid-sentence every third sentence or so. There were moments when I felt like Alice in Wonderland at a Mad Hatters Tea Party. But Joy gave my book such a wonderful rap.
Joy’s World goes to air Monday 7pm, Tuesday 1.30pm and Friday 8.30 am. Check out www.joysworld.biz
I then got a gushing fanmail email from a woman in Germany who literally begged me for the recipes in my book Secret Mothers' Business (Weiberabend), which of course has prompted me to be serious about a follow up I've been thinking about - a book of recipes from SMB - the secrets behind the recipes. I do love to write about food. And when I replied to her email, she responded with amazement that an author would actually, personally write back. Yes, well, I do abide by the golden author rule: never be too up yourself, too busy or too important to reply to fanmail. I never take it for granted.
And to cap the week off, I got the only kind of email you want to get from your publisher:
Dear Joanne
Good news from Deutschland! SECRET MOTHERS' BUSINESS seems to have developed into a favourite summer read there, climbing steadily on the bestseller list, and due to reach Number 10 next week.
Congratulations!!
Spiegel best seller list
This raises a number of questions for me:
1. What did the German publisher do that my Australian publisher didn’t do?
2. Should I be writing for the German market?
3. Should I learn German?
In the meantime, I have two months of talks and presentations coming up. Check out NEWS on www.joannefedler.com for details.
Much like the publicity window for a book.
Mine, on Things Without A Name, has just about come to an end. And what a underwhelming experience it has been. With two (wonderful) reviews in the SMH and Marie Claire and a couple we’ve found on the internet, my publicist managed to get me a single radio interview on community radio. Truly. With all the domestic violence going on in Australia, you’d think there’d be an angle there.
Things Without A Name has been on the market for two months now. It is, I do think, perhaps the book I was born to write. There have been a few fabulous reviews on the internet review of TWAN, and another positive review and the emails I’ve received from psychologists, book sellers and readers from all over Australia have literally kept my spirits alive.
When you’re having a baby, you sometimes have to make the obstetrician understand that though he or she has delivered hundreds of babies and yours is nothing special, that for you, THIS is your unique experience of childbirth. Publishers are like obstetricians. They have long lists of authors to attend to and yours is nothing special. Of course pissing your publisher off is probably about as unhelpful as pissing your obstetrician off – the power relationship just doesn’t auger in your favour.
But this week has had its perks despite a crippling case of … ahem … writers’ block. (I know, I disavowed it in a previous post, but I am revising my opinion on the matter after a week of feeling like my brain was waterlogged). Blessedly, I have contacts. My friend Michelle Kline who organized my book launch at Bowen Library put me in touch with Joy Hruby who has a community television show Joy’s World. On Tuesday night, I made my way over to her home in the pelting rain, which completely ruined my blow dry. What ensued was a rather bizarre, but utterly enchanting evening with Joy (who is something delicious out of a Carry On movie), and an array of adorable young people in the media.
Joy has been making community television for years in her backyard. With a blue curtain as her backdrop and a table with a bunch of plastic flowers as the set, I was all made up and ready to shoot from 7pm. Unfortunately things took a little while to happen. All the people who make the show are volunteers and there was a lot of eating of the snacks Joy had so lovingly prepared and laid out on her dining room table. After a shaky start (the interview before mine of the young men in a band who are also saving whales turned out to have been filmed entirely without sound and it took a while before the ‘crew’ figured out what was the trouble) I was seated and ready to be filmed at approximately 9pm. But Joy lives in Botany and every time a plane flies over, the crew shouts ‘CUT.’ I am not joking when I say that I had to stop mid-sentence every third sentence or so. There were moments when I felt like Alice in Wonderland at a Mad Hatters Tea Party. But Joy gave my book such a wonderful rap.
Joy’s World goes to air Monday 7pm, Tuesday 1.30pm and Friday 8.30 am. Check out www.joysworld.biz
I then got a gushing fanmail email from a woman in Germany who literally begged me for the recipes in my book Secret Mothers' Business (Weiberabend), which of course has prompted me to be serious about a follow up I've been thinking about - a book of recipes from SMB - the secrets behind the recipes. I do love to write about food. And when I replied to her email, she responded with amazement that an author would actually, personally write back. Yes, well, I do abide by the golden author rule: never be too up yourself, too busy or too important to reply to fanmail. I never take it for granted.
And to cap the week off, I got the only kind of email you want to get from your publisher:
Dear Joanne
Good news from Deutschland! SECRET MOTHERS' BUSINESS seems to have developed into a favourite summer read there, climbing steadily on the bestseller list, and due to reach Number 10 next week.
Congratulations!!
Weiberabend
Spiegel best seller list
This raises a number of questions for me:
1. What did the German publisher do that my Australian publisher didn’t do?
2. Should I be writing for the German market?
3. Should I learn German?
In the meantime, I have two months of talks and presentations coming up. Check out NEWS on www.joannefedler.com for details.
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Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
Congratulations.
Comment by Joanne Fedler
Cheers, Jo
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
Joy's World sounds a hoot. Wayne's World is one of my favourite all time comedies but I didn't even know there was community TV in Australia. I'll have to check it out.
A big, big yes to the idea of an SMB cookbook. The new generation of cookbooks (the ones I love) like The Jewish Kitchen and Apples For Jam are so much more than just a cookbook. Your obvious passion for food would translate beautifully into a cookbook (and probably into German!)
As to the writer's block... my six-year-old son has to write a story for homework every week. This week he was tussling with it and said to me in frustration, "My head has run out of stories!" I don't believe a word of it but perhaps a reboot is occassionally in order.
Jayne
PS - some newborn babies are not very good looking at all but Things Without A Name is truly gorgeous - and that has very little to do with the 'obsterician'!