How Photogenic are You?

[KG Christopher]

I shall get a pic and post it. I am in Switzerland at the moment, so don't know the exact details. Think we have it for a 'long weekend'.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

About?
Of your theory-Yes, I agree. Looks do count.

Looks OVER content--I don´t think it goes THAT far, but they will like you more if you try harder.

Of the photo--you could do better. I´d say cut your hair very short, trim the beard, open the photo more so that it´s not so much a close up of you face. Zoom out a bit to get about half of your chest. And...maybe some fake glasses to make you look more writerly?
You´re a good looking guy, take advantage of that fact!

I won't be lopping my curls off—like Samson's locks, they contain whatever virility I have left. As for losing my beard, I've had one for 40 years, though I did shave it off prior to getting married in America in 2001, in some misguided attempt at looking smart. This revealed two alarming things: A double chin had somehow appeared under cover of my facial hair, and as I'd caught the sun on my exposed skin I had a two tone appearance—I looked like a partly-peeled potato!

I quickly grew my whiskers back, and anyway they're a source of income for me. I wrote a poem about this, published online in a collection of children's poetry called Witches' Knickers:

My Beard and I

My beard and I
Are quite well known.
We travel here and there
And round about.

We take in the air,
Soak up the rain.
Keep each other warm.
We're jolly good company.

I'm a bit older
Than my beard.
In fact, I've had several.
All good and true.

I sold one to a trawlerman.
He hooked it over his ears,
To keep the sea-spray off,
And to look mighty tough.

Another went to a lumberjack,
To wear out in the cold woods.
The beard got a wee bit frosty
And coated in fine sawdust.

One beard went very fast
On the face of a motorcyclist.
It billowed up at 100mph,
And tickled him on the nose.

I've grown a new beard recently.
It's a bit grey, as I'm now so old.
I suppose that you could dye it.
Would you like to try it on?

 

[Quillwitch]

I won't be lopping my curls off—like Samson's locks, they contain whatever virility I have left. As for losing my beard, I've had one for 40 years, though I did shave it off prior to getting married in America in 2001, in some misguided attempt at looking smart. This revealed two alarming things: A double chin had somehow appeared under cover of my facial hair, and as I'd caught the sun on my exposed skin I had a two tone appearance—I looked like a partly-peeled potato!

I quickly grew my whiskers back, and anyway they're a source of income for me. I wrote a poem about this, published online in a collection of children's poetry called Witches' Knickers:

My Beard and I

My beard and I
Are quite well known.
We travel here and there
And round about.

We take in the air,
Soak up the rain.
Keep each other warm.
We're jolly good company.

I'm a bit older
Than my beard.
In fact, I've had several.
All good and true.

I sold one to a trawlerman.
He hooked it over his ears,
To keep the sea-spray off,
And to look mighty tough.

Another went to a lumberjack,
To wear out in the cold woods.
The beard got a wee bit frosty
And coated in fine sawdust.

One beard went very fast
On the face of a motorcyclist.
It billowed up at 100mph,
And tickled him on the nose.

I've grown a new beard recently.
It's a bit grey, as I'm now so old.
I suppose that you could dye it.
Would you like to try it on?

That´s cute!

 

[Peggy Lou]

What No One Tells You About Page Proofs, Blurb Requests and More | WritersDigest.com

According to this article, once you get an agent (with or without the benefit of a photograph) and the agent snags a publisher, another hell awaits you, starting with the Author Questionaire. The author of the article was asked, among other things, Do you know any Kardashians... and How many of them do you know.

Clearly being a published author is not for the faint-hearted, or the unconnected.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I do like pigs I must say, but he might root for acorns in your carpet. Then what.

 

[Patricia D]

As someone who has to put up with bad first impressions just from walking into a room - I can understand to some extent. In fact it regularly plays in my head if I'm going to be honest - it could be due to my own life time insecurities I've had to constantly battle with. So I'm unfortunately writing with this emotion still raw.

On the phone I am fine but when I meet clients I've had one literally roll their eyes when they realised they travelled over 300 miles to see me only to find I'm not what they expected to look like..I have so many anecdotal examples that shows how bias people are upon first impression. In 1987 during the famous storm my mother didn't check that school was closed so I found myself stranded 1 hour train ride away from home with no way of knowing how to get back so a kind elderly man called an officer to take me in. Inside the dark confines of Queens Park police station I sat down patiently waiting for my parents to collect me opposite a female police officer who did nothing else but stare me down in disgust at my existence.

I can't forget such an uncomfortable experience. Still to this day as an adult I experience bias and now we can see how one class of people can still get away with misogyny and racism but others can't even look a certain way without experience the negative attitude from others. In many ways I would say the western civilisation is still under developed in the area of superficial and unjustified judgements.

Maybe I should write a book on this as a cathartic exercise.

I'm sorry you've had to put up with this kind of ignorance - writing a book is a good catharsis. I write mysteries and once gained great satisfaction from killing off a character based upon an individual I knew. It was an unpleasant death.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Clearly being a published author is not for the faint-hearted, or the unconnected.

This is frightening and depressing. The notion of the reclusive author is long-gone—Harper Lee, J.D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, Emily Dickinson may have been able to hide away from the world, but these days a writer is as much a product as a can of baked beans!

I don't think it would help sell me as a writer if I said I had firing range targets of the Kardashians....

It's yet more proof than image counts more than content. Dumbing-down has taken over. Morons rule—literally, after the results of the U.K. referendum to leave the European Community and the recent American election.

 

[Madz]

I would say any agency asking for a photo isn’t worth their salt. Avoid like the plague!

On discrimination: sadly it seems endemic. We Brits like to pride ourselves on our welcoming attitudes, but the practicality of this leaves something to be desired.

Just today, I volunteered to go into school (I’m a maths teacher) to help the GCSE students revise for their upcoming mock exam. We have huge premises which are often rented out to other schools and organisations. Today we had a middle class school orchestra on site. Finding the photocopier was jammed, I raced to the English block to print off extra resources there.

“What are you doing here, young man?” inquired a stern looking woman.

“Um…I work here?” I replied, somewhat stupidly, regressing into kid-mode.

Her eyebrows shot up like scimitars, her eyes flashing with scepticism. “Really? Do you have any ID?”

I blinked. Slowly I pulled out my teacher ID badge and showed it to her. (Unfortunately it had a cartoon sticker over my face since my ID photo is particularly ugly). Luckily the woman didn’t notice. The cartoon was off a brown-skinned character, and that was good enough for her.

“Oh,” she said, with an audible sniff. “Well you can’t be too careful. Sometimes people just barge in off the street.”

I nodded and left, wondering how the people she was referring to got through our security guards and checkpoints.

Was this a case of discrimination? Hard to say, except this sort of thing has plagued me most of my life. One of my friends said I should change my name by deed poll, suggesting ‘Muhammad’ would put agents off. Luckily it didn’t. But will publishers bite? Only time will tell.

By the way, I think the Green Man look you're rocking is captivating. What sort of books do you write?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

What sort of books do you write?[/QUOTE]

I've completed three detective novels, which are set in Cornwall where I live. I uploaded 44 ebooks in 2013-2014—short stories, novellas, poetry and song lyrics—intending to move on to write a literary novel on the state of society. Then, I read that literary novels were the hardest to secure representation for from literary agents and that genre writing was easier to place. Crime stories are the second most popular, after Romance, so I began a series of stories featuring the same Cornish detective, in which I tackle modern-day issues like homelessness, human trafficking, drug smuggling and abuse and prejudice.

 

[Madz]

What sort of books do you write?

I've completed three detective novels, which are set in Cornwall where I live. I uploaded 44 ebooks in 2013-2014—short stories, novellas, poetry and song lyrics—intending to move on to write a literary novel on the state of society.[/QUOTE]
Sounds fascinating! I'm too dumb to write crime fiction so I'm always awed by those who can.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I would say any agency asking for a photo isn’t worth their salt. Avoid like the plague!

On discrimination: sadly it seems endemic. We Brits like to pride ourselves on our welcoming attitudes, but the practicality of this leaves something to be desired.

Just today, I volunteered to go into school (I’m a maths teacher) to help the GCSE students revise for their upcoming mock exam. We have huge premises which are often rented out to other schools and organisations. Today we had a middle class school orchestra on site. Finding the photocopier was jammed, I raced to the English block to print off extra resources there.

“What are you doing here, young man?” inquired a stern looking woman.

“Um…I work here?” I replied, somewhat stupidly, regressing into kid-mode.

Her eyebrows shot up like scimitars, her eyes flashing with scepticism. “Really? Do you have any ID?”

I blinked. Slowly I pulled out my teacher ID badge and showed it to her. (Unfortunately it had a cartoon sticker over my face since my ID photo is particularly ugly). Luckily the woman didn’t notice. The cartoon was off a brown-skinned character, and that was good enough for her.

“Oh,” she said, with an audible sniff. “Well you can’t be too careful. Sometimes people just barge in off the street.”

I nodded and left, wondering how the people she was referring to got through our security guards and checkpoints.

Was this a case of discrimination? Hard to say, except this sort of thing has plagued me most of my life. One of my friends said I should change my name by deed poll, suggesting ‘Muhammad’ would put agents off. Luckily it didn’t. But will publishers bite? Only time will tell.

By the way, I think the Green Man look you're rocking is captivating. What sort of books do you write?

There's a type you meet in schools and colleges. I met that type when I was a part-timer in FE. They need a kick up their rude and complacent whatsits.

 

[Sea-shore]

I would say any agency asking for a photo isn’t worth their salt. Avoid like the plague!

On discrimination: sadly it seems endemic. We Brits like to pride ourselves on our welcoming attitudes, but the practicality of this leaves something to be desired.

Just today, I volunteered to go into school (I’m a maths teacher) to help the GCSE students revise for their upcoming mock exam. We have huge premises which are often rented out to other schools and organisations. Today we had a middle class school orchestra on site. Finding the photocopier was jammed, I raced to the English block to print off extra resources there.

“What are you doing here, young man?” inquired a stern looking woman.

“Um…I work here?” I replied, somewhat stupidly, regressing into kid-mode.

Her eyebrows shot up like scimitars, her eyes flashing with scepticism. “Really? Do you have any ID?”

I blinked. Slowly I pulled out my teacher ID badge and showed it to her. (Unfortunately it had a cartoon sticker over my face since my ID photo is particularly ugly). Luckily the woman didn’t notice. The cartoon was off a brown-skinned character, and that was good enough for her.

“Oh,” she said, with an audible sniff. “Well you can’t be too careful. Sometimes people just barge in off the street.”

I nodded and left, wondering how the people she was referring to got through our security guards and checkpoints.

LOL. Similar story:

My little sister works at a secondary school with an attached sixth form. She was teaching her A-level class and had slipped out to do something or the other, when the headmaster and deputy head spot her in the corridor.

Here's the thing: my sister is short and skinny with a quirky sense of dress - tailored tweed trousers topped with natty, brown waistcoat (think 'fashionable Oliver Twist look'). She is also cursed/blessed with a perpetual fifteen-year-old face.

The headmaster boomed at her: "And what are you doing out of class?" while the deputy head, having recognised her, quickly elbowed him and whispered, "She's our Head of Science."

 

[Katie-Ellen]

He's a disgrace, not knowing his own staff.

My feeling in response to Madz's worry about using his full name is 1) It has gravitas 2) The current climate in publishing suggests either way, his name would work in his favour rather than against, if it is any kind of operating factor.

There is currently something of an active drive towards consciously encouraging 'diversity' in publishing. As with Penguin/Random House.

 

[Carol Rose]

As someone who has to put up with bad first impressions just from walking into a room - I can understand to some extent. In fact it regularly plays in my head if I'm going to be honest - it could be due to my own life time insecurities I've had to constantly battle with. So I'm unfortunately writing with this emotion still raw.

On the phone I am fine but when I meet clients I've had one literally roll their eyes when they realised they travelled over 300 miles to see me only to find I'm not what they expected to look like..I have so many anecdotal examples that shows how bias people are upon first impression. In 1987 during the famous storm my mother didn't check that school was closed so I found myself stranded 1 hour train ride away from home with no way of knowing how to get back so a kind elderly man called an officer to take me in. Inside the dark confines of Queens Park police station I sat down patiently waiting for my parents to collect me opposite a female police officer who did nothing else but stare me down in disgust at my existence.

I can't forget such an uncomfortable experience. Still to this day as an adult I experience bias and now we can see how one class of people can still get away with misogyny and racism but others can't even look a certain way without experience the negative attitude from others. In many ways I would say the western civilisation is still under developed in the area of superficial and unjustified judgements.

Maybe I should write a book on this as a cathartic exercise.

I could feel your pain as I read this. (((HUGS))) I'm so sorry you had to deal with such a horrible experience. I've never understood why people judge others based on their gender, looks, dress, hair color, etc., etc., etc. We're not born with those instant judgements. We learn them through ads, books, movies, TV shows, and of course the prejudices and biases of our parents or those who raised us, plus the opinions of our friends. I still hold out hope for a world in which we view people, regardless of their outward appearance, simply as fellow human beings. Each of us is worthy of respect and love, by virtue of the fact we are all the same inside, and we are all part of the same family.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

@Emurelda I feel you. A lot of people seem to just hate my guts, for no apparent reason. I have a colleague who is legendary for his rudeness and he happens to be one of them. Once we were working side by side in the cell culture hood (constricted space, not much you can do to avoid uncomfortable closeness to the person next to you). He spend the whole hour alternatively puffing, sighting or giving me the stink-eye, muttering angrily under his breath as he did so. I had a good laugh about it later on, but there are examples of such behavior from my life that were not exactly jolly.

As for the photo, with the direction that my books are taking I guess it would be most appropriate to send one from the latest gender-bending party

 

[Sea-shore]

He's a disgrace, not knowing his own staff.

My feeling in response to Madz's worry about using his full name is 1) It has gravitas 2) The current climate in publishing suggests either way, his name would work in his favour rather than against, if it is any kind of operating factor.

There is currently something of an active drive towards consciously encouraging 'diversity' in publishing. As with Penguin/Random House.

Yes, my sister was peeved that he didn't apologise and her own retelling is rather scathing.

I agree. Penguin Random House have a drive for 'Creative Responsibility' with an 'Inclusion' policy -' Championing diverse voices in our workforce, authors and books', launching WriteNow.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/about-us/creative-responsibility/inclusion/

@Madz, hope your agents are pitching to Penguin Random House and good luck with getting a publisher.