Hopefully there's not a topic about this already.

Who do you dedicate your books to and why?

What are some do's and don't's you've observed about dedications?

Bonus personal questions:

When do you usually figure out your dedication?
What are some dedications you've read that you liked?

Dedications are fun. At least, they are for the author and the person to whom the book is being dedicated to. I often wonder if dedications really mean that much to anyone else; I always read them if a book has them, but they rarely mean anything to me (hence, I can't remember any that are worth sharing as examples). I don't know the person or the author, so it isn't special to me.

However, as an author I feel the dedication is more for me than it is for my readers. It's a very special way for me to give thanks and honor to someone I appreciate. I am an author; my heart and soul goes into these books that I produce. To dedicate it to someone is a very personal way of saying "This is how much you mean to me."

I take dedications pretty seriously. I can only write so many books, so the dedication is a pretty exclusive spot. Generally speaking I dedicate the book to someone who had an important role in the development of the book, whether directly or indirectly. Hence, I often get an idea for whom I want to dedicate the book to early on in the drafting, but it does occasionally change. With Peter's Angel I have some dedications I've had for awhile, and some that have developed later on in the process. Hence, I'm doing something a little different with the dedications... But you'll have to wait and see, because I'm keeping it a surprise this time.

I actually love reading dedications. I think they say a lot about the Author, myself personally. One of my favorites is The Horse and His Boy, which Lewis dedicated to his new, and very beloved, step sons (loves the stories about the early years, before Lewis was their father).

The dedication for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was good. And the dedication for The Little Prince is simply brilliant.

That is epic.

Which book was that from, Katie? I thought the dedication of LWW had something to do with little girls and fairytales... I agree, Lewis had some very memorable and clever ones. But they were written in a way that was interesting for anyone to read, instead of something simple like "For staying with me through the process." I do not think there's anything wrong with the latter--I just wonder if they are not as meaningful to anyone besides the parties involved.

Sorry, that's from The Little Prince. It's a french book Jenni showed me. Adorable. Lewis's went like this:

I love, love, love dedications. Even if I have no idea who they are for when I read them, I still love knowing they were someone special to the author at that time.

As for my own dedications, I generally know sometime between the idea and the beginning of the second draft who the book is for. I already know who my next three books are to be dedicated to. It isn't always obvious right away, but it's always obvious at some point. I also like to say things in the dedication that are special between me and the dedicatee if I can.

For instance, from my first book:


Hope calls herself both my Watson and my biggest fan, so that meant a lot to her. I hope to follow this pattern with future dedications.

And... dedications can mean something to more than just the author and dedicatee. One of my dearest friends decided to make friends with me first from seeing the Red Rain dedication, which somehow indicated to this friend that I must be awesome. So you never know what could happen.

Aye, I like that dedication from LWW. It was clever and meaningful, even to someone who doesn't know Lucy--which may be why it's about the only dedication I can remember off the top of my head. I like dedications that are more elaborate or have a poetic (or witty) flavor; they are fun to read, although I don't think plainer ones are insufficient. *might have to look up this Little Prince book*

*smiles fondly at the mention of the Red Rain dedication* I'm really honored the dedication of my book had that much weight... You're right--God does work in unexpected ways.

I've adopted a consistent format for my dedications also. I center them, putting them a few line-returns down the page on the print edition. The first line is always "To [first name]" in italics. The rest of the phrase starts with "for" and is formatted in short lines with minimal punctuation, more like a blank verse poem. I like to give the phrasing a dramatic/poetic ring, so that it flows well, even if it's short. The Peter's Angel dedications have something extra tacked on the end, but you'll have to wait and see what that is.

I get these ideas in my head for the perfect wording of dedications and then I have to go write them down lest I forget.... I always feel weird dedicating something that's unfinished, though. It seems like jumping the gun somehow.

But this is the dedication I wrote for Lighting Ranger. I keep going back and tweaking it... (She's going to die when she sees it, but oh well.)



Book dedications are odd to me. I've dedicated poetry all my life, and songs too. I always write them for someone or something. I never quite feel like they honestly belong to me. But books are mine. So while that sense of belonging sometimes is there it's not quite the same. And there are probably several books I won't dedicate simply because if there's not a connection it will be meaningless to me. Yes, it would honor the person I dedicate it to, and it would mean a lot to them, but it would mean nothing to me - so I won't do it.

So far both of the dedications I've written are the same format as Leah's, except with "because" instead of "for." I don't know whether that will stay consistent or not. I also have some books dedicated to multiple people, for very specific reasons. I like to keep dedications a secret until the books are published.

What do you guys think of dedicating more than one book to a particular person?

I think I'm with Katie... if the book didn't have a very specific and special connection to a person(s), I think I wouldn't dedicate it. Dedications are something very special to me.

I think it's fine. Some authors, for example, dedicate most of their books to their spouse.

I concur, as long as it's done with purpose. (And, ideally, the dedications don't all sound the same, but that's just me.) There are people in my life who are most likely going to get multiple books dedicated to them, because they've had a significant impact on multiple books. But each dedication will be different, to reflect the specific situation.

I write down dedications when I think of the perfect wording too, Katie. I mostly find it awkward because I have to wait SO LONG to actually show it to the person. One of the dedications on Peter's Angel I've had for forever. Originally I was going to put it on book 3 because it fit that book very well, but I realized I just couldn't wait that long.

*giggles * I'm struggling with waiting as well... Perhaps most specifically with the dedication I've put in my books to my brothers. I know Jacob will grin from ear to ear when he opens up his favorite book and he reads the dedication I wrote for him….

Late one night at harp camp I sat down and wrote dedications to all six of my supervillain novellas.

I did strange things late at night at harp camp. Don't look at me like that. I just hope they make as much sense once I'm sane again as they did when I wrote them.

*grins* That sounds awesome!

That does sound awesome.

I have a list of people I want to dedicate a book to, all for different reasons. But the thing they have in common is that they were a part of my development as a writer. My Grade Six teacher is one of them, and my best friend from when I was in elementary is another. The one dedication I've actually written out was for a silly short-story I did with a friend, and it was dedicated to her dog.

I also love the dedication in LWW. And if you've read Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events", he dedicates them all to the same person, his wife, I believe.

@Aubrey-I read "le Petit Prince" last year in FLA, and I loved it. It's very sweet, and it's the best book I've ever read in French. I never read the dedication, though. *makes a mental note to look it up at school*

*tears up*

That's really beautiful, E.

In case anyone was curious, the dedications of Peter's Angel are now public. You can read about them on the recipients' (is that the right word? Prolly not...) websites:

http://jonathangarner.blogspot.com/2012 ... ation.html
http://haphazardhappenings.wordpress.co ... ould-read/

The word you're looking for is "dedicatees'"

Ah, thank you! *adds to mental dictionary*

I like your dedications, Phili.

Thank you very much, Mae dear.

I thought it was cool that you dedicated characters to people.

I was thinking about dedications the other day, and having nothing better to do, I made this from the dedication in LWW:


This one is the dedication from Petit Prince:

Thanks, Airianna! I decided to do that when I realized I wanted to dedicate the book to multiple people, but just having two dedications in there looked messy. Assigning them to characters gave it some sense of order and reason, and it also added meaning. There is a reason why I chose each particular character; in some cases the meaning may be known only to me, but the significance is there.

Those are cool, Aldara!

Oooh, those are cool! Likey!

I like Wayne Thomas Batson's dedications.

For me though, I've only ever dedicated one project to anybody because that was when I thought the author wrote everything in a book in order. Including the, ah, copyright page. That project's been shredded so it doesn't count anymore.

Other than that, I've not done much with dedications. I've had some ideas about who I'd dedicate them to. TPoF I thought I'd dedicate it to America, with a note along the lines of "Hopefully you'll get the point." For DSQ, I can't decide if I want to dedicate it to a group of people, or to a few specific individuals.

If I do it to the group, it'll be less personal for me because I don't know everyone in that demographic. But if I did the individuals things could get awkward.

For the why, it's usually because I feel the book is specifically relevant to the dedicatee and they had a big impact on me or the story. I suppose it might be the book is what I'm telling them.

I like the idea of dedicating a book to a group. It includes more people. (duh ) It's nice when I read a book, such as one that is last in a series that I have been following for a while to find it dedicated to the readers. It adds a "specialness" to it, sort of like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the author is thankful for those who have spent all the time reading the whole series. In my imaginings of who I might dedicate a maybe-eventually finished/published book of my own, HolyWorlds as a whole has been one of my options.

In the old days---when writers, like composers and other artists, generally lived and worked by the patronage of wealthy benefactors---a work was generally dedicated to the patron who paid for it (or to a wealthy or politically powerful person who the author would have liked to pay for it). Thus, I think it's fitting for a present-day author to dedicate a work (that isn't written as a gift for a specific person or group) to whoever contributed most to its publication (other than those who were already justly compensated in some other way).

I have the beginnings of some ideas for a dedication for a poetry collection (still in the earliest planning stages), but no idea for anything else ... which is fine, as I have yet to write any significant fraction of it either.

I've only self-published one book. It was dedicated to my parents, and to the people involved in creating the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (my novel was a pirate novel and very inspired by those movies).

This next book that I'm writing, Operation Valiant, I plan to dedicate to several HW friends, for various reasons.

I liked the way Aubrey Hansen did dedications in her books; the style and so-forth.

When we lived on the Isle of Arran, for Christmas one year Mother wrote books for all of us as presents. We each had a book given to us, written by Mother. Michael's book was True Tales of a Farmer, which is the book Mother and Dad have just published. So the dedication just says 'For Michael'. Simple, but it says it all. She wrote it specially for him.

I love to read dedications in books.

Strangely enough, I almost never write dedications for people who were involved with writing the book. Most of my books end up drawing deeply from some aspect of my life...some pain, some joy, some idea...and whenever I think about dedicating it to someone, the person who comes to mind is the person who – understands. Or the person who I want to understand.

It's as if I dedicate the book itself, rather than the writing of it. Or something like that.



Anyway, I love dedications, whether I really understand them or not. I like the examples everyone has posted in here.

That's so sweet, Elanor!!! I'd love to write books for my children someday.