Life gets slightly weird when you publish a book. Today I was invited to make a guest appearance on a website to promote Looking for Buttons. Fabulous. Except I need to provide an author photo.
Ah.
As I've said before, I'm not photogenic. It's been over a year since I last had my picture taken, unawares, and when I saw it posted on Facebook I wailed about my Cold War-era Eastern Bloc shotputter's arms and pleaded for it to be taken down. I can only think of one set of recent(ish) photos I can bear to look at, and then I was wearing a furry lion suit to entertain small children at my local library.
I started to wonder when this image-hungry world started to drag an author's mugshot into prominence. Surely it's a modern phenomenon. If I looked along my bookcase (or in fact gingerly peered at the teetering overflow pile in front of it, currently nearing six feet high), surely I would find faceless authors.
A random selection: Terry Pratchett - photo inside cover. John Buchan - photo on back cover. Ngaio Marsh - photo on back cover. Adam Hall - photo on inside flap of dustjacket. Mervyn Peake - wonderful artist, self-portraits. OK, maybe it's a twentieth century phenomenon. Go back further. Charlotte Bronte - painting by her brother. Charles Dickens - used to be on a banknote. Further still. Christopher Marlowe - the Corpus Christi portait, might be him, might not, great image anyhow so who cares? I can put a face to almost every author in my collection. People like to know who they're reading. I'm no different, so I really can't deny that an author photo is going to become necessary at some point.
But will anybody accept a lion who writes romantic comedies?
What you need is an excellent photographer. Years ago I had my photo taken for Country Life, I think it was. I had flu, was feeling ill to the point I didn't care what I looked like and hadn't even worn something suitable. The photographer quickly and without fuss took a brilliant photo of me with my assistant hammering in the background like a medieval illumination.
ReplyDeleteAnother photographer a few years on spent hours, wouldn't let me smile, and when my mother saw the result in the Telegraph supplement she said he'd put fifteen years on me.
Photo editing software? Google images?
ReplyDeleteOnly kidding you look fab just upload a recent pic of yourself.
Another thing to look out for are linkys on other peoples blogs. I've found them a great way to get traffic to my blog.
Ok, we'll sort this out. Saturday, chez moi, we can rifle through a range of scarves, sort out make up etc if you like. Or is that too much of a Poopy style response? Rose22joh
ReplyDeletePoppy, even. But what a typo
DeleteCrikey Lexi, that all sounds incredibly glamorous, even with the flu.
ReplyDeleteTwinkle Mummy, the most recent photo is the lion costume! (You may have missed that, I think you might have been busy with the Twinkles.)
Rose22joh, that was not at all a Poppy-style response. Poppy's idea of an impromptu photo shoot would involve three days at a spa and possibly a professional stylist. The family Christmas card took four months to organise. (Note to self: do not speak as though characters in your book are real. It will only cause confusion to the uninitiated. Note to the baffled: Poppy is a character in Looking for Buttons.) Alas, not free Saturday but appreciate the offer very much.
Bought webcam today. So traumatised by what it revealed that I may have to stop writing if it's going to involved author photos.