Even so (see my last post), I can't help sounding a heartfelt agreement with Nicholas Lezard, who sends up three cheers for Jonathan Littell for refusing to appear in person to collect his Athens prize on the grounds that writing is too private a matter.
This is so true, for me at any rate, that writing is a private thing. Personally, I can only write well when I have managed to shut out all other voices from my head, to sink into a special, private mentality which is utterly divorced from the kind of mentality required for publicity, and very vulnerable to disruption so that it's often also necessary to remove oneself physically. (Anyone who reads my author blog will know I frequently complain about this problem.)
Maybe when you're winning major awards you can afford to take Littell's stand, but for most writers the need to be a publicist for one's work appears to be the cross we just have bear nowadays...
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4 comments:
I do sympathise with authors who hate doing the publicity thing, though I confess as an actress manqué I rather enjoy it.
It helps to see it not as publicity, but as explaining why people might like your books: what's in it for them. And the reason we can survive it is that it comes after the event. By the time a book's published and I'm talking about it, it's done, it's outside me, and I've moved on. And what I say in public is a nicely-polished version of something not too far from the truth, but then that's true of what you say at a party, say, or to an acquaintance. It's not intimate, but then that's not what that occasion is for. What I have to protect ferociously is the work in progress, so I never, ever talk about that beyond a one-sentence 'bugger off' line.
Yes, Emma, that's how I try to approach it too - the 'publicity' as distinct from the writing process, which is a distinction Littell doesn't seem to be making. However, I do find that the publicity hat displaces the writing hat...
I really enjoy the publicity bit. Are you kidding? Sitting in a room as the centre of attention while everyone asks about me? Brilliant. Still, I can understand how it wouldn't be up everyone's street. I do think not turning up when you're given a prize is a bit miserable, though. It's not quite the same, for me, as having to go to a tent in a field and talk about your book. I can understand objections to discussing your 'private' work and process in this way but refusing to come get a prize on that basis comes across (to me) as pretentious and a little arrogant.
Niki, don't get me wrong - I enjoy the publicity as much as you and Emma. I'm an actor too, and love performing, and also love the interaction with other people which the writing process deprives you of generally. It's just that I do need to go away from it all to write....
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