Not that I'm chasing the fame but I'm intrigued as to what, if any, perks there are being an author. Do authors ever get invited to film premieres, parties etc? Or is this just reserved for the likes of Zadie Smith and JK Rowling. I know many authors go to book fairs and festivals, but what else do they do besides write and do their day job if they have one?

I guess being an author is the route for us ordinary folk to gain access to the spolight. The thing that would give me the biggest buzz however, and I'm sure it's the same for many of you, is seeing in my name in print.

Regards,

Remy

The thing that would give me the biggest buzz however, and I'm sure it's the same for many of you, is seeing in my name in print.

It was. Now I just want the parties.

JB

It's funny isn't it how one's goals are always just out of reach? First you want to get something published - anything, anywhere, no matter how obscure. Then you want to get paid for some of your work. Then you want to get paid A LOT for it. Then you want everyone to know you get paid a lot for it. Then you want to get film rights optioned by Spielberg. Then you want to get an associate producer credit on the film itself. And star in it.
Personally I haven't had any glamorous writing experiences - so far at least. The only perk is that all my friends think it's glamorous - so I try and play along ...

I know many authors go to book fairs and festivals, but what else do they do besides write and do their day job if they have one?

Not a lot, to judge by my own and my author friends' experience - not that any of us are starry. The glitteringest thing I've been to was the launch for In Bed With, the anthology I had a story in. It was very smart, complete with paparazzi outside and slebs inside, so anthroplogically speaking it was interesting. But, fundamentally, it was everyone standing around and yammering like any other party, just with rather classy drinks and decor. And it was work: saying the right things to the right people, ideally in a way which enhances your career, rather than retarding it. In some ways I've preferred my publishers' trade dinners and the sales conference I went to. At least there I knew what I was there for, and could hear myself (and them) think. Equally, festivals are work and so are signings and talks etc. Not to say they're not fun, and it is lovely to get to meet readers and actually feel heard, in the way you don't sitting in your study, but TBH, measured in hours per year, the spotlights are pretty few, and what the spotlights are showing everyone is You the Author: a person not altogether unlike you, but mainly a cross between a performing bear and a prize pig.

The other thing to factor in is that even if it was hard work and only a certain amount of fun, it takes ages and ages to come down from these things once you're home and feel normal again, instead of like a grumpy toddler on Boxing Day. So they eat up far, far more writing time than they'd merit.

Not half as glamorous as you expect! Not 1% as glamorous as you expect. In fact, it's minus amounts of glamour. Where are the parties? Extravagent launches, no expense spared? Free lifetime memberships to exclusive literati clubs where you hold court with your witty anecdotes and cigarette held aloft in its holder? The door finally opening and welcoming you in to the modern day equivalent of the Bloomsbury Set? The adoration of beautiful wan poets who write you odes and never recover when you move on to your next lover?
So far I've had a few free lunches where I've drunk myself silly and made a fool of myself and about five complimentary books.
Sod it, I knew I should have been a rock star.
Jx

I often think glamour, by nature, is simply an illusion that only works best when seen from the outside. Much like the old use of the word 'glamour' meaning a fairy spell that made the little brush-haired, big-eared, boggle-eyed sprite look like a beautiful princess to the passing knight. I imagine those surrounded by glamour see it somewhat differently and probably not half as glitzy as we do stood behind the velvet rope.

JB

Extravagent launches, no expense spared?

I think these are a thing of the past, largely speaking, in any case. Various older hands at the In Bed With launch were saying 'Ahh! Just how it used to be!'. The publishers noticed that they cost a fortune, and don't make any money, nor, generally speaking, any publicity: much better to spend the money on marketing. I'm still waiting for my amber cigarette holder...

One of the odd things about being a performer - and in this context authors are - is that in some ways you're the star, and in some ways you're the hired hand, earning your living by doing high kicks for the audience eight times a week and wondering what will happen when your knees get stiff and tastes in entertainment move on...

Though at least as authors we'll always be able to point to the book/s on our shelves. But the reality is writer's arse, writer's (lack of) waist, writer's osteopathic bills, consuming far to much of your mind-altering substance of choice (mine is tea), and the constant anxiety of making a living not just in a recession, but by means of something as hard-to-harness as creativity... though learning to harness it at will, every day, whether or not the muse bothers to show up, is part of becoming an author. Glamorous?

Emma

I sometimes think we make our own glamour? We dream big to write and it spills over into everyday life and we think life is the story and we can write our own script and then the Icarus feathers melt and we end up in the drink?

It comes of not living in the real world?

Maybe the 'kingdom in my head' is the glamour?

Sarah

Aw, what a disappointment! I'd imagined it was all lazing about on a chaise-longue drinking champagne and dictating the latest best-seller to a prim secretary on a remington a la Barbara Cartland. Drat! Still, there's always Britain's Got Talent...

a prize pig

Alas, this rings so true after a year of sitting at my computer and doing not much else...

My most glam event is coming up this June - Usborne Fiction's five year celebrations party. I'm excited!

Wow...so the author's life is not a glamorous one. Oh well, I'll just have to make up my own glamour.

Remy x

I've rarely done anything glam either. One party last year - no, two. That's about it. A few small interviews but they were unpaid and involved travel.

Perks - erm, well, the only perk I can think of is that you can offset various expenses against tax, but that's not a very exciting perk.

I went to a book launch of this Indian author in Mayfair a few years ago when I had my first agent. It was quite glamorous in that there was champagne and wine and you were surrounded by publishers, editors and literary agents. But mostly, I spoke to either authors trying to make it or interminable bores who had nothing to speak about other than themselves...it struck me how superficial the whole world was...fun though, in a perverse kind of way. I imagine the fashion world is quite similar.

Lads and lasses, I think you are giving the glamour short shrift.

I am a hugely unsuccessful wannabe, and yet have been awarded prizes of a grand more than once, had bouquets presented, been to champagne fuelled launches and awards ceremonies, been invited to stay free of charge at a castle in Scotland for a month to nurse my muse, where a group of fellow authors were waited on hand and foot, hung out with authors whose work I adore, who chatted gladly into the night. I had no contacts who wangled these. All this came just from loving reading and writing and doing a lot of both.

It's not all minimum wage and spreading bums. It's that too but there is glamour, even on the bottom rung.

Cherys, did you have a Hawthornden Fellowship? How impressive! (I'd kill for the chance to apply for one, only it doesn't come with a free nanny to leave at home...)

But you're right. I suppose the point is really that all those nice things do happen (she says, admiring two spectacular Get-Well-Soon bouquets from agent and editor) but that in terms of hours in the year, they're incredibly few, compared to the bum-on-seat writing, and the nail-chewing realities of contracts and sales and BookScan, and signings where your books haven't arrived, and all my various friends who've found that they're at the bottom of the heap as an unsecured creditor when their publisher goes bust...

it struck me how superficial the whole world was...

I don't think the world is superficial - one-to-one, most editors are staggeringly well-read and thoughtful. It's that the socialising is superficial, as it is in any industry, because the interest of the conversations at a party is in inverse proportion to the number of people present, divided by the decibels of the music. The In Bed With Launch was fun, and the champagne and cocktails were excellent, but fundamentally it was the same old mix of people standing up and yelling as parties always are. But a one-to-one lunch with my agent, say, can be as profound and interesting as the same with a friend.

Emma