Nathan Bransford - The Forums

...and I don't mean the genre.

Let's face it, we all have those daydreams we can't squash. Multi-published, bestseller, seeing your characters in fanfic. We may be pragmatic and realistic about the chances of us becoming the new Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, but we all harbor those little fantasies in our hearts nonetheless. There's that one thing we pray we'll get a chance to do, or see, or experience once we've "made it".

My particular wish is to be cruising through a bookstore and see someone carrying my book. I strike up a conversation with them, ask about the book, then casually take it from them, sign it, and walk away. I just hope that if that day comes, I'll have the guts to actually do it.

What's your favorite "published author" fantasy?

dios4vida wrote: My particular wish is to be cruising through a bookstore and see someone carrying my book. I strike up a conversation with them, ask about the book, then casually take it from them, sign it, and walk away. I just hope that if that day comes, I'll have the guts to actually do it.

You are going to be so famous you won't be able to fulfill that fantasy. They'll see you coming and you'll have a mob!

My fantasy is to go on Jeapardy!, have the little chit-chat at the beginning with Alex Trebek and be able to tell him I'm a published author. I don't care if I win or lose at the game. I just want to be able to say it!

Hosting a writing retreat conference at an out of the way primitive beach resort at the edge of the world.

Fan-art of my characters. (Well. Right after "string together book sales into a career." )

Being able to run after school writing workshops and YA discussion groups with local public schools, particularly my husband's high school.

So I guess I'm the only one with megalomania .

I want to be able to write full time without having to have a day job, but the BIG fantasy is seeing a kid come to my door dressed as one of my characters on Halloween.

Mark.W.Carson wrote: but the BIG fantasy is seeing a kid come to my door dressed as one of my characters on Halloween.

Yes! This!

Oh my gosh, there are so many of them.

One of mine is to be able to hold readings/meets/fan events or whatev here in Quebec, despite plans to publish in English. Or to see my book mentioned in the French press. I guess I want recognition in my home grounds despite the language barrier and realise how hard that'd be.

I kind of fantasize that fan events would involve eating a lot of instant noodles, too. (It's a MC-related quirk) And a hot air balloon. Those are WIP-specific, though, not "I became famous enough for X".

My biggest fantasy would probably be to somehow get on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report to promote my book. That would be awesome.

My biggest fantasy would be for my stories to be produced as Hollywood movies and get to advise and be on the set!

bcomet wrote:My biggest fantasy would be for my stories to be produced as Hollywood movies and get to advise and be on the set!

That'd be amazing.

Sensible dream: Having, and contributing to, a computer game based my book (especially the gameplay mechanics of it - as I'm a MASSIVE geek)

Wild dream: Earning as much money as J.K.Rowling and using all bar 1 or 2 million to build a charity of some kind - something like subsidising limb prosthetics for the under privaliged, or something like that.....then basically going on national TV and trying to get every multi-millionaire to do the same.

Yeah, I want to change the world.....

"Sign bombing" Going to a bookstore and randomly signing copies of my book with secret messages. Maybe that lead to youtube videos or other fun prizes/content.

CV

To have my novel have a dedicated group of fans, and to be popular, but not in a pop culture sort of way.
Also, to have academic work written about my fiction

This question scares the crap out of me. Dare I dream so big? Also, when I think about it, the things I come up with sound very shallow. I feel like I should come up with some altruistic dream of saving children with my millions, like Hilsy suggested.

Alas, I'm afraid to dream too big. So for now, I fantasize about the smaller things:

- writing my "I got an agent!" blog, complete with funny gifs of tv/movie characters looking surprised.
- writing my acknowledgements pages
- getting a Kirkus/PW/starred review, or acknowledgement by a similar group.
- having a book launch party/reading the day my book goes on sale.
- going on a book tour with my other writer friends.
- being interviewed by my blogging friends, or mentioned on high traffic blogs (cough-Nathan's blog-cough)
- being invited to speak on a panel
- being "legit" enough to chat with other authors on Twitter, like John Green, Neil Gaiman, Judy Blume, or Maureen Johnson, and see them tweet about my book coming out.

And, if all the stars should align just once, I'd LOVE to see my name on the NY Times best sellers list. If only for one week.

Okay, yeah. This all makes me feel very shallow. My dream right now is to see my book on the shelves in a bookstore, before they all shutter up and vanish.