It’s been about a year and a half since I accepted an offer from MTV Books for Shrinking Violet and during that time I have fielded many questions about being an author. I thought I’d share some of the more interesting questions with you. All in good fun of course, but I sure did get a kick out of some of these questions!
1. “Are you going to be as rich as J. K. Rowling?”
My answer: “I wish!”
2. “Do you need a personal assistant?”
My answer: “Are they giving those out for free?”
3. “Your book is with MTV? What Channel?”
My answer: I’m not answering that one. Enough said.
4. “Do you need someone to fly with you on your book tour?”
My answer: “Sorry, I already have a personal assistant for that.”
5. “Will you remember me when you’re famous?”
My answer: “Remind me who you are again.”
Whatever your profession is, I’d love to hear some funny questions that you’ve encountered along the way.
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5 comments:
Actually, when I tell people I'm an author, they do not want to talk to me. They back away. They assume I stapled my books together myself and I'm trying to sell them to everybody out of the back of my car.
(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
I have learned that when I talk about being an author, one of the first things out of my mouth needs to be "Simon & Schuster." Then people say "ohhhhhh, Simon & Schuster," and edge closer again.
I've had that same experience, Jenn! Most people hold their crossed fingers up to ward off evil until they hear that a publisher actually paid me--not the other way around.
Danielle, most of my best stupid questions came when I was teaching. You've probably heard most of them, like, "Do you sleep here {my classroom}?" No, it just feels that way. "Do you really get to school THAT early?" Unfortunately, I do. "Do you like checking papers?" Better than anything in the whole, wide world.
Jennifer - that's funny. I get the same impression, that people are like, "Oh, that's cute, you wrote a book." (no I've written 10). The thing is, everyone thinks they have a book in them. I had a former neighbor relay a "funny story that totally belongs in a book" about her garbage can mistakenly being taken by the garbage man. And people can say, "I'm a writer" and mean it - they write. But people also ski and how often do you hear people say, "I'm a skier." Or "I'm a basketball player." But for some reason when you tell people you're a writer/author you need to clarify to make it actually mean something to them, as in "I get paid to write."
I worked in Internet marketing for 10 years and people always asked, "So, what do you do? Spam people all day?" I found that question so condescending.
No, i definitely get that too, people wondering if the book is really in the bookstore. And then there are all the people that either have started writing a book, have a "great" idea for a book or know someone that wrote a book.
That spam comment would definitely piss me off too. And Jan, when I taught my students were always stunned to see me out in the real world!
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