Fame! Does It Make You Live Forever, Or Make A Man Take Things Over?

As you might have heard, Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, has a new book coming out in September.

I was very unimpressed by TDVC, and increasingly bewildered and then rather annoyed by the fuss surrounding it, though as M'Colleague pointed out, Brown probably had very little idea that the book would be as popular as it turned out to be, and that he probably wrote as good a book as he could. A fair point, and one for me to bear in mind when I start foaming at the mouth about Baigent and Leigh and how I didn't believe them either.

Anyway, here's an interesting - if rather slight - article on authors suddenly becoming successful.

My general feeling is that if you're going to write for an audience, you have to be aware of the possibility - howsoever slim - that you might find yourself wildly successful and catapulted into the public eye... equally, you have to accept the possibility that you may toil away for years without anyone at all saying they like your work.

And like the final paragraph of that article, I suspect most writers I know would rather have to face the trauma of heightened expectations for the next book as opposed to wondering how the rent's going to be paid next month.