The Publishing Process: Learning a whole new job | Allaboutwriting

-Jo-Anne Richards

When an actor promotes a new production, it?s an extension of his normal work. He makes appearances, gives interviews and speeches ? it?s all just another performance. And hopefully, he?s good at that.

For a writer, being published is like learning a whole new job.

I?ve said this before, but I had rarely made a speech before my first book came out. Now, I?ve made loads and I enjoy it (or certainly I do in retrospect). I love the interaction and I have discovered something I never knew before: I quite enjoy the performance. I get nervous as hell, but if I manage to catch my audience, it can feel quite heady.

Imagine this, though. You?ve spent years poring over a solitary project, agonising, mulling, considering ? but not speaking. I?ve heard many writers say this, and it?s certainly true for me. If you talk about a project while it?s still unfinished, it loses its magic. It is drained of its power. It?s like opening the oven while the bread is baking.

Your manuscript is a secret you hold close. You think about it when you?re waiting to fall asleep; when you go for a walk ? but always alone. It?s not something you can share.

Then it?s out there and ? you?re expected to expound and opine. At first it feels wrong, like prising open a mollusc to expose its cringing flesh.

Once you?ve become slightly inured to that, it?s as though the book need its own narrative, beyond the story contained within it. What did you mean by it? What lies behind the words, the characters and the story? Why did you write it?

Much of this remains intuitive during the writing. You don?t ? or I don?t, anyway ? bang on about a theme or an issue. Both are there, but at some sub- or semi-conscious level. When you?re published, though, you have to find the words to express what you surely meant by it all along.

Sometimes there?s even some obscure metaphor that you never thought of. Someone will say: ?Well clearly, this aspect of the novel is a metaphor for the way the universe ??

The best thing to do is nod gravely and say: ?I?m glad you caught that. Yes, of course, I intended it all along.? Best not to say: ?Wow, I never thought of that.?

I suppose what I was really getting at with all this is that some performances go well, and others less so. A friend once told me that you should expect one of every seven speeches to fall flat. Once you accept that, you don?t take it so hard.

After my first book come out, I was on the radio a great deal. For a few years, I had a radio ?column? every four to six weeks on SAFM. You?d have thought I?d be used to radio.

On the day my book launched, I had a radio interview with Sue Grant-Marshall on Radio Today that felt ? from the inside, anyway ? as though it went well. I enjoyed it, anyway. ?

Last Sunday I was thrilled to be included on Nancy Richards?s Literary Talk on SAFM. Perhaps it was because Nancy was in a different studio, but this time I couldn?t forget about the microphone. Usually, I can pretend to be chatting idly to the presenter, but this time a disembodied Nancy was fed through my earphones. Hard to imagine we were having a quiet coffee together.

I became aware of my own words. My inner voice started commenting on what I was saying ? and not in a kind way. I felt hesitant and stolid. I comfort myself with the thought that these things are always more obvious to oneself than to others. In the end, I?m grateful for the exposure and ? it was just one performance.

I once appeared at a Tape Aids for the Blind anniversary function alongside literary doyen Nadine Gordimer. Chatting about this very thing, she told me: ?You don?t have to do them [the appearances, the talks, the publicity]. It?s your choice.?

That was probably true when she began writing, but I don?t think it?s true anymore. Writing a book isn?t the only job you have to do, as a writer. If you?re lucky enough to get published, you?re expected to do the ?being published? job too.

• The Imagined Child is available at all good bookshops in South Africa, and also through Amazon or Kalahari.

Like this:

Like Loading...

Source: http://allaboutwritingcourses.com/2013/04/17/the-publishing-process-learning-a-whole-new-job/

Fox News Live Obama 2016 Who Is Winning The Election 2012 Election Coverage 2012 the blaze Linda McMahon Voting Results 2012