Francisco de Paula Fernandez Gonzalez is an acclaimed writer who has already published fifteen books –which he will reach 16 with a new installment to be made at the end of this month– and whose stories have served as plots for films and even a series that will premiere on February 15 on the Disney+ platform. He is a writer who, as he himself stated this Wednesday in a talk with 3rd ESO students at the Pamplona Planetarium, “I have been living off my books since 2010.”
Despite being a successful author who publishes a book every year, he is barely known by his real name and is Blue Jeans, his pseudonym, which makes him perfectly recognizable. the man behind bestseller What Songs for Paula, the camp or the trilogy of The Crystal Girl, The work on which the aforementioned series will be based, answered the questions that nearly 200 Navarrese students posed to him.
The first question of the schoolchildren had as its center the cap that he usually wears and already characterizes him. “I spent nine years training boys like you in soccer and, when I started, I shaved my hair with another friend and it didn’t seem quite right for the children to see me without hair, so I put on a cap. And when I published the first book, for other reasons, I also had a shaved head, so remembering the resource I used in soccer, I put on my cap. And in the end this has become a hallmark.
The session continued with a student who dared to ask about the benefits of Blue Jeans for each book it publishes, an occasion that the author took advantage of to reveal to the schoolchildren the harsh reality of the writer. “In 2022, only 0.7% of writers sold more than 1,200 books. and 86% of the authors did not sell more than 50 books. That is, not only it is difficult to sell books, but in doing so, there are many parties involved, distributor, publisher, bookstores and then there is the author. In the end, we have little left”, lamented the author. In order for the adolescents to verify this “precariousness”, he asked them how much percentage they thought was taken away, and when a schoolboy mentioned 15%, the writer’s response was “hopefully”.
The origins
Then the session focused on the author’s beginnings, following a question about his beginnings. Blue Jeans commented that, at first, no publisher wanted his book Songs for Paulaso he began to put it out, publication by publication, through the old website Photoloopa kind of instagram almost two decades ago. And when Tuenti began to be used, he also began to publish his novel on that social network, in which it went viral and caught the attention of the Everest Publishingwho published his first work.
Thus, he explained that in 2009 “I already fulfilled my dream of publishing a book. This was always my main goal. And from then on, I have been fulfilling other dreams, now all I have to do is do the kick-off in the field of Betis”, the author replied to a question about his dreams.
On the other hand, perhaps with mischievous intent, a student came to ask the acclaimed writer about the utility to read, an issue that was applauded by his colleagues, perhaps sharing his intention. And, unluckily for the teachers, Blue Jeans replied that “students should not be forced to read the great works. You have to empower the reader with books that they may likenot with the celestine either Lazarillo de Tormes”.
The session ended with a question from a student, perhaps interested in writing: “What advice would you give someone who wants to write their first novel?”. The author was sincere and the first thing he recommended was to “write. Write as soon as possible and do not leave it for tomorrow. Also, do not be obsessed with publishing the book either, you have to be very careful when doing so. But above all, Be patient”.
From ‘Potholoop’, to premiere a series of one of his novels on Disney+