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24 January 2009 ·

Essay – See the Web Site, Buy the Book – NYTimes.com

It’s an interesting question for writers – how much do we concentrate on publicity and promotion, and how much does that take away from the calm centre most of us need for creativity? As this article says, no one knows what effect a wonderful website has on the bottom line of selling books. (Because the cold hard bottom line is that unless authors follow -was it Oscar Wilde’s advice? – of marrying money, we have to either sell books or have some paid employment that takes away the time to write.)

Dilemmas, dilemmas… I think I’ll give up trying to solve it and go back to my chapter revision…

Essay – See the Web Site, Buy the Book – NYTimes.com



Comments

  1. Tristan Bancks Hi Wendy

    I'm a writer for children and I met you briefly at Voices on the Coast festival last year. I've just discovered your site and blog and have really enjoyed working my way back through your jottings.

    A lot of your issues like 'How much should a writer write?' and 'How much time to take away from writing in order to promote?' are things that occupy my mind, too, so I feel right at home here.

    I think, deep down, all of us want to hunker down and just write but it's good to speak to humans occasionally. And fear of writing 'too much' tends to drive me to make book trailers and create web elements for my books etc. if only to stem the flow temporarily.

    Anyway, I'm enjoying following your line of thinking and I got hold of Nim's Island today and am totally captivated. I love the confidence with which you paint her world. I was obsessed with Huck Finn and My Side of the Mountain as a kid so this is right in the pocket for me.

    All the best,

    Tristan.

    www.tristanbancks.com
    February 23, 2009 at 9:00 pm · Reply
  2. Wendy Of course I remember meeting you! And I'm intrigued (though not surprised!) by your making book trailers and web elements - congratulations on your movies!
    February 23, 2009 at 9:12 pm · Reply
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Wendy Orr is a Canadian-born Australian writer. Her books for children and adults have been published in 27 countries and won awards around the world. Nim’s Island and Nim at Sea have also become feature films, starring Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin (Nim’s Island) and Bindi Irwin (Return to Nim’s Island.) Her latest book is Cuckoo’s Flight, a companion to the highly acclaimed Bronze Age novels Dragonfly Song and Swallow’s Dance. Read full bio