My last three days here in Amsterdam have consisted of giving interviews, answering questions, giving more interviews, being polite to strangers and photographers, and repeating myself over and over while trying to act as if these repetitions were fresh and new.
The publication of my new novel TIRZA must be blamed for this work stoppage. You can call it also a waste of time, although I know that this might sound arrogant. People who are knowledgeable about all of this claim that free publicity helps sales in the book industry more than anything else.
I remember traveling to Sweden about six years ago. My Swedish publisher, a charming but slightly confused woman, had to inform me that only three journalists were interested in meeting me, but of course this was good news as well. Because now I would have more time to explore the wonderful city of Stockholm. One of the three journalists appeared to be mentally handicapped. Another didn’t show up because of a traffic jam. It's no wonder that the beautiful Swedish publisher stopped publishing my books.
So I understand that I should be grateful that there are places in this world where more than three journalists are willing to speak to me. And even more than that: most of these journalists seem to be sane and happy to conquer traffic jams of all sorts.
I have to admit that last night, I informed the managing director of the publishing house that publishes TIRZA that in my view, interviews are completely overrated. I suggest that for my next book, we send journalists to my dentist so he can answer all kinds of questions about my teeth.
The good thing also is that you don’t have to be interested in literature in order to be interested in the teeth of the author.
It might be an idea for a small but commercially viable book as well: Everything you always wanted to know about the teeth of famous and less famous authors.