Damon Burnard

May 12, 1999

Post #849 – 19990512

Wanna read my book? I illustrated it too! It’s good! Honest! It’s for 6-9 year olds, I guess, is entitled ‘Pork and Beef’s Great Adventure’, and is published by Houghton Mifflin. I’m asking cos i’m a fan and cos it came out at the same time as Polka Dot etc etc, that tome of pomes you enjoyed very much. It also shares the same editor. It’s a heady cocktail of the Icarus myth and Winnie the Pooh. If you’ve time to check it out, I’d love to send you a copy. I think you’d enjoy the pace and the humour, but then they all say that, don’t they?

Cheers!

Damon Burnard

Daniel replies:

Wake up, Damon! It's a mug's game, writing. You cannot win. They won't let you win. Suppose you send copies of your book to me, (Margaret Raymo has my address), and my producer at Weekend Edition Saturday, (Houghton Mifflin's promotions and publicity dept. knows how to do that). And suppose we all think it's suitable for the program, and we discuss it on the air, and read out of it and have a good time with it....it will sell out the 147 copies in the warehouse, the publisher will take 3 weeks to decide to reprint, and 6 weeks to do it, then it has to get shipped--everybody will have forgotten about it, your next contract won't be any better than the last one, the publishing house will be bought up by an Icelandic conglomerate, your editor will be transfered to work on the accounting-for-kids project in the non-fiction department, and you will be back in the wholesale fish market before you know it. But feel free to try, prisoner of hope that you are.