The Acknowledgements Page

Today's post is about the big speech at the end of the book, the one where you get all teary and thank everyone from your old English teacher to God. I didn't agonise over my Acknowledgements page a great deal; I had a good idea of who I wanted to thank, and why, pretty early on.

The main part of the list fairly obvious. I thank my agent and editors, and although this is to be expected, the thank you is genuine; I really do appreciate what they've all done for me.

Then there are those who have given me practical assistance. Betsy Dornbusch, of course, as well as Shona Snowden and Josephine Damian. I've gushed at length about my affection for Betsy, and Josie is a regular around these parts - her pom-pom waving on my behalf can be seen from space, and I really do appreciate it. I haven't spoken so much about Shona's input, but her early critique's were of great benefit to me. Then there's an editor friend who has always been there for me when I needed practical publishing advice at various junctures. Finally, there's my PR Hilary, who has done great work for me, and my friends Declan Burke and Gerard Brennan who have been tremendous supporters over the last year.

Then there's a paragraph where it gets a little more vague. It generally thanks the online writing community, and lists a few names such as JJ de Benedictis, Ellen Oh, Cindy Pon, Chris F Holm and Jeremey Duns. Of course, Moonrat gets an honourable mention. There are some friends I've made since then that aren't included, but I couldn't squeeze everybody in. But these are all people who've helped me out along the way, in some cases with just an encouraging word at the right time, and others by making me laugh when that was just what I needed.

I also thanked a couple of blogging agents, and they may wonder why, seeing as I know neither of them personally. I give Nathan Bransford a nod because his blog has been a huge source of information for me and many other writers, and I think he deserves a thank you for all the work he puts into it. I also mention him because he chose me as a finalist in one of his contests last year; it seems a small thing, but it was a huge boost to my confidence at a time when I was wondering if I was wasting my time at this writing lark. I also thanked a certain Miss Snark; I don't know Miss Snark, or her real life alter ego, at all. But her blog was, and remains, one of the greatest online resources for writers, and I learned such an enormous amount from it that I couldn't possibly let my debut novel out into the world without including a thank you. I genuinely feel that what I learned from reading her blog made the difference between landing an agent and a publishing deal, and winding up lost in the slush pile.

So that's why some people might see their names in my acknowledgements that might not have expected to.