Thursday, January 24, 2008
This is Dedicated to the One I Love
Just a question for fellow writers (both aspiring and established). Do you have a difficult time deciding on your dedications? Do you feel like you're playing favorites if you dedicate it to just one family member? Is the dedication specificially tied to the subject of the novel? Do you parcel them out among loved ones over a series of a few books? These are the types of questions that keep me up at night. (And don't even get me started on figuring out what to write for the About the Author page.)
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5 comments:
Great question! I know I'm going to have a hard time with this. The first book was pretty easy, but from here on out, who knows? What I do know is, I do read people's dedication pages religiously. I'm always curious who they hold in high regard for each book, and I also want to know if they list anyone I happen to know! :)
I also read people's dedications religiously. I did find someone who dedicated every book to the same person--made me laugh.
I'm really actually worried about getting published most of all. But if and when I do (rooting for the when! :P) I have one person in mind who I think deserves a dedication. The catch is, I have four really close friends and I'm afraid they'd be offended...
Which is why the acknowledgments section is so great :D
- Steph
I try to choose my dedicatees to match the theme of the book I'm writing, if I can.
As for the hierarchy of who comes before whom, it does get easier the more books you write. And then it gets harder the more books you write.
And I hate, hate, HATE, coming up with my "About the Author." Particularly the whole tradition of writing about myself in the third person. Does anyone actually think that someone else is writing that for us?
Some book dedications are no-brainers. My latest novel, The Year My Sister Got Lucky, is dedicated to--who else?--my older sister, who was the inspiration for so much of the book (as well as my first reader as I was writing it). My big sis also got a shout-out in my first novel, South Beach, because of the trip she and I had taken to South Beach before I wrote it. I usually try to match the dedication to the book in such a way, but it's tricky, and sometimes you just want to acknowledge someone who plays a big role in your life, whether or not they had a hand in the book. Acknowledgments can be hard, too--you want to include everyone, but sometimes looong several-page acknowledgments can start to feel like mini-novels in themselves!
This is a good topic. I just went through this with Party Games. I've dedicated some books based on topic, like First Comes Love was about pregnancy so that had to go to my daughter and Here Comes the Bride was about marriage so that went to my grandparents who were married for 60+ years. But my question is, can you dedicate to someone twice?
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