A month when I became a tweety-pie, got invited to a literary festival in Dubai and planned a launch party in a castle…sounds glamorous, eh?
The route to the Perfect Princess life never did run smoothly. Cinderella with all those chores? And Snow-white with the poisoned apple? And what about Sleeping Beauty and the hundred year curse? Not to mention Waity Katie, and her multi-year hang on? And for girls of my era, Diana’s tragic legacy looms large in our princess hinterland.
One of the secrets to achieving full Perfect Princess status is controlling your public profile. So, with that in mind, I’ve recently become a tweeter @Superfairyrose.
For Twitter Virgins, what can I say? Is it a massive ego trip? I’m not sure yet. Is it dangerously spontaneous? Probably. Only tweet in full control of your senses and read your tweet three times. My seemingly idyllic fairy-princessy life is the central theme. Even though I am a grown-up mother of three BOYS, I do still genuinely love princesses and pretty things. But I have a very particular sort of princessy style. Not for me the fake nails, baked tans and hair extensions…I suppose I want to say to girls who like my stories and characters, that your natural self is the essence of your femininity, and whilst it’s fun to play around with your image, you should never enhance it with unnatural things. And let little girls be innocent children.
So, how does being a princess fit in with being an author? Princess dresses and tiaras are essential on big occasions, but what about the wet Mondays when your only company is your devoted Labrador and your computer? Writing for a living doesn’t come with a company rule book. What is great is that you can’t get fired, unless you’re especially hard on yourself. But, it also means making up your own rules and your own timetable. So, with a work trip pending to Dubai (please God, no Mission Impossible sandstorms) I’ve had lots of deadlines to meet, and so many plots swirling round my head that I need a five-way chart on my white board to keep me straight. And then there’s the author party guest list to update before departure…You’d think the fancy author party would be the glittery pinnacle of princess perfection? Yeah, you’d think.
It is lovely to have a celebration party every so often when a new book comes out, or your career takes an exciting turn. But as with having children, you have to allow enough time to elapse between these parties - to forget just how painful they really are. It’s a bit like planning a wedding every couple of years. And as an Early Years author, most of your guests will be teeny-tiny and tantrum-prone, with very short concentration spans, and maybe even chocolately fingers.
But a visit to the venue this week (a romantic castle near Edinburgh) got me feeling all princessy again, and I’m sure the party is going to be PRINCESS PERFECT…
Janey Louise Jones; Mother, Author, Superfairy Princess
Hi Victoria, great to hear from you. Agree about the Victorians! Parties are a gamble and generally book sales should pay for catering and venue costs. This one is a celebration and a way of saying thank you to various people who have supprted me since my self publishing days. I provide for tiny tots and their parents and lay on crafts, cakes, story time and dancing. In these days of globalisation, I'm not sure what a location specific event can achieve...however, I do know that my success has rippled out from my home town and the first ever party I had here. x
And there's me thinking those big author parties were a thing of the past.
My village comes complete with its own fairytale castle. It was built by the third Marquess of Bute for his wife as a summer house on the ruins of a previous castle. Those Victorians really knew how to treat their fairy princesses, don't you think?
But I was wondering what the purpose of an author party was these days and how important you think launches are to the success of a book. I've heard that for most adult fiction a book launch will be no more than an afternoon in a book shop relevant to the author. What do your launches entail and how important are they? Are the smallest guests - your readership - the only guests or just the most important ones?!