Skip to main content

It's getting tougher by the second.

Your first book may have been a bestseller, but don't expect the next one to be:
Indeed, the pressure seems to be greater for writers whose first books climb bestseller lists and garner adoration from far and wide. Since the arrival of Oprah Winfrey's sales-bestowing book club and its imitators, the anxiety level for some authors has intensified. Many have suffered cases of "second novel syndrome," as it's known, that are far worse than Parkhurst's.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Artemis Hunt17/8/06 3:26 pm

    Good article, Ted. It's so true. Every book is a new test all over again, and it's never guaranteed to be published, let alone sell.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun17/8/06 3:33 pm

    How about you, Xeus? Are you feeling the second book anxiety yet? Or is that still a long ways away...? hehe

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous17/8/06 5:13 pm

    Ted, that's a great article.

    I must say that the scenario is like having a celeb big sister in the family and inevitably, the other siblings also feel the pressure to perform. Is that a logical analogy?

    Well after my first book, I must admit that I've been inundated with, "Hey, when is your next book coming?" (where I tend to read it as if the person was saying "Will the next one be a bestseller too?")

    But I try not to let jittery gets in the way now that I'm writing my second book.

    At the same time, I'm also glad to say that I'm actually more excited about my next book, thanks to my first book's experience. There are oportunities of feeback of the first book to work with.

    When I look back, phew, the first book experience feels like treading through uncharted territory. Second time around, I basically know what it entails, and hopefully act wiser too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ted Mahsun17/8/06 5:31 pm

    I wish you lots of luck with your next book. Must be tough trying to ignore the pressure, so you can actually concentrate on writing.

    It's great you're using the experience learned from the first book to improve the next.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Artemis Hunt17/8/06 10:15 pm

    Ted, still writing Chapter 10 of the 2nd book. Must say I'm having more fun with it than the first, because this is a totally new genre.

    Yvonne, don't worry. The more you mix with writers, the more they will spur you on.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover
5 comments
Read more

HOWTO: Get Rid of Silverfish

The bane of every book collecting person: the Silverfish. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!! How to get rid of them? If one book has been infected, place it inside an air-tight plastic bag along with some silica gel desiccant. The silica gel is important to get rid of moisture, because you will now place the sealed plastic bag with the book in it inside the freezer. Leave it in there for a couple of days so that those bugs catch their death of cold. If you're feeling particularly paranoid, (like I usually am) feel free to leave the plastic bag in there for a week. If they're not dead, then you might likely have an infestation of zombie silverfish , which is out of the scope of this blogpost. But what if a whole colony of silverfish decided to invade your whole bookcase? Then you have to make sure you're ready for war. Place a generous amount of silica gel (or if you can find it, diatomaceous earth) behind your books at the back of the shelves so that moisture levels remain low.
23 comments
Read more

An Ipoh Ghost Story.

When I was growing up in Ipoh in the 90s, the only good bookshops around were Mubaruk's, which specialised in textbooks (and still does), and Novelhut, the second-hand bookstore that used to be in Yik Foong (and maybe still is there, but I haven't checked in years since I prefer going to their Ipoh Parade outlet when I'm in town). There was also a pretty good bookstore in the Parkson Grand in Ipoh Parade which could have been a Berita outlet, but I don't remember. This was in the days before they expanded Ipoh Parade into what it is today. (And temporarily causing the Convent school next door to consider moving.) I recall this because I was thinking of when exactly I started reading "serious" fiction, trying to pinpoint the years when I moved from young adult/fantasy/sci-fi books into non-genre fiction. I still can't remember, but it brought back memories of a book I bought from a short-lived bookshop in Old Town. Mum had brought me there, because she must
6 comments
Read more