Over the
years I have written hundreds, perhaps thousands, of articles, usually about
writing or editing, or in some way connected to books. Many of these articles
have appeared on these pages in the hope they would be of interest or would
educate readers.
Rarely, if ever, have any comments appeared. So it seems as though
I am writing in a vacuum. It’s like writing a book: getting it published means
that someone has read it – usually an editor or even more people in the publishing
house – but then the book is published -- and I have never – even after
publishing over 130 books – seen a single person reading my book that might have taken up to 12 months to
write. Occasionally there are reviews so opinions are given – and publishers' sales reports indicate that the book has readers.
Writing is
such a thankless job, really (though emails are responded to, and birthday
cards and the occasional letter are doubtless read).
So, not having receive
many responses to all the blog entries which have appeared under this
heading, I wonder what is the point of it all?
One reads of bloggers who have
hundreds – even thousands – of followers. Mummy bloggers, for instance. Women
who write about fashion or dieting. It seems that writing about writing, especially
writing children’s books, does not have many followers.
So, this
time I’m going to leave this entry for a few weeks to see if anyone ‘out there’
is reading my blog, because if you are, I’m asking for a comment, just to let
me know. If you’re there, I’ll keep on keeping on.
To finish,
you might like to check out Buzz Words, an online magazine I compile twice a
month (since 2006) for those in the Australian children’s book industry. Go to www.buzzwordsmagazine.com and ask
for a free, obligation-free sample.
