So how hard can it be to write a book? That's a question I get asked almost daily followed by, "I have always wanted to write a children's book".
Well yes, the writing of a book can be as simple as the storyline you choose to write about but getting it published is about the same odds as getting picked to play rugby in a Super 15 team. And if you still think that's easy then getting a children's book to bestseller status in this country is about the same as becoming an All Black. It takes a whole heap of training and dedication to become both.
For me, with a few bestseller books under the belt, I practise writing for at least one a hour a day and four hours on Sundays, just to keep up with my career craft and thus far, I have only missed two Sunday training sessions for this column in 12 years. Now that's a lot of words (750,000) if you add them all together, no wonder I am such a boring bugger, and I have an end game of the big million as a legacy to leave behind.
That's the cool thing with a chosen career in writing - you get to leave it as a legacy when you're long gone and put back on the shelf.
So why are books back? Or did they stay under the readers' radar until the honeymoon hype of Huey Packard and his silicon mates passed by?
Turns out that us humans still like the feel of a book, even the smell of a book. When you pick it up off the bookshelf for the first time it can feel like touching toanga, a treasure that will keep on giving. When it comes to kids' books there is a recipe of success to follow and it all starts with an original storyline, told by characters you and only you have created - and here's the kicker - told in a lo-cool language that your audience can understand.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop found young kids recall a lot less of the eBook narrative than kids who read print versions of the same story.
None of this surprises me but confirms what I have always believed.
The magic of snuggling up to your tamariki and reading them a backyard book (or having one read to you as is now the case with my daughter) will never be replaced with an iPad or Kindle screen. Paper will always reign supreme over pixel in the kingdom of kids' books for me.
Having been on both sides of the book world, reading to and writing for tamariki, if you want to grow free-range kids then feed them backyard stories.
It's that simple when it comes to bestseller success.
This Christmas will see Santa with a sleigh full of backyard books.
Rendell's Tauranga - Historic Tauranga From Above will be a beauty as will Graham Clark's The Right Note - a collector's item of green room yarns, told through the instruments of local Tauranga and Bay musicians.
Both have been blessed to have a kind pocket (Legacy Trust and Santa Carrus) behind them to help get them published.
And if you want to do your taste buds a flavour, keep a keen eye out for Sally Holland's Goodbye Gluten, a delicious gluten-free toanga that I am keen to pick up and apply to my own puku.
Giving birth to a book can be a painful yet at the same time pleasurable experience when it comes to publishing one.
An experience much like being an All Black that very few get to feel but more and more of us want.
-broback@xtra.co.nz
Tommy Wilson is a best selling author and local writer
