
It was a good question, and astoundingly, I had an answer! While my favorite bit changes from day to day (I keep track on a flow chart) my current pick is the “Acknowledgments” page in The Pocket Guide to Brilliance. To wit:


Foundations, the literary agent, artists’ colonies: NA (ROTFL)
Editors: Er… why wouldn’t they be thanked?
Librarians: The salt of the earth!
People who read drafts: Invaluable.
Parents, spouse: While this is a default setting, I think we can agree that society functions better with it. (Even so, I dutifully retch at the example of “Writing this book has been wonderful, but building a life with you is a greater joy and accomplishment by far.”)Acknowledgments should not be confused with dedications, which apparently came into fashion with nonfiction books in the early 1900s. I think most authors would agree that dedications are vastly trickier; after making three consecutive dedications to my parents, editor, and spouse, I’ve started chickening out; the aforementioned Pocket Guide to Brilliance (cha-ching!) has one reading:


“Did you see the part about the crayon?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kent replied.
“I thought it was funny… you know, the idea of someone writing a book with a crayon.”
“Okay.”
Humph! (Maybe on the next printing, I can talk to the publisher about the protocol of un-Acknowledging someone.)
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