Dedicatee's role

I see no "should" about it.

I think usually a printed dedication is merely that, not the culmination of a mutual effort to create the dedication sentence/paragraph.

But if a writer wanted to engender more involvement between her/himself and the person to whom a work is dedicated, then by all means, go ahead.

I'm not sure I understand the question. I dedicated my first book to my brother, but he personally had no participation in the writing of the book or of the dedication. He doesn't even know I did it, and won't until he gets his copy. Most people seem to dedicate their books to spouses, children, or good friends who have been part of their lives, not necessarily part of their writing.

Unless you're writing a book based on someone's life, and you wish to dedicate it to them as a way of thanking them for inspiration...then I could see working a bit with the dedicatee (is this a word?).

I dedicated mine to everyone. It was a lot easier than trying to sort through lists of people to find which ones to single out by name, thereby making everyone else feel less worthy.

Mine's dedicated to my late grandfather. He related a lot of his World War II experiences with me, which I incorporated into my novel. It wasn't after his death that I actually had a character after him, who plays an integral part of the novel.

So I suppose, at least for me, the dedicatee's role was both a resource and an inspiration.

Go to the bookstore or library and read some of Dean Koontz's dedications. Hi-larious, most of 'em. Here's an excerpt from the one in Strange Highways, a book of short stories published 1995:

...After all these years of being your friends, Gerda and I have learned that we have infinite patience. Thanks for the friendship, for all the laughs you've given us (some of them intentional), for buying the house built over the gate to Hell, and for pointing out to me every error I make. Every tiny error. Every teeny-tiny error. Every minute error that no one else, not even God, would notice.


LOL.

There are no hard and fast rules. If memory serves me, the concept of the dedication arose during the Renaissance, when an artist would dedicate his work to the patron who supported him monetarily. But most authors nowadays don't have rich patrons supporting them (unfortunately ), so the dedication is often given to a person who means a lot to the author. But reasons vary from person to person.

The dedicatee doesn't have to be involved or even necessarily to know he or she just had a novel dedicated to him or her. Check out the dedications on the four books that make up Tad William's Otherland quadrology. They were all dedicated to the same person (his dad or grandfather, I forget which...), and by the third book Williams was remarking that the person didn't even realize. By the fourth book he used the dedication to ruminate on how to break the news, since the person still didn't know...

If some has helped you with a novel, say doing research or providing editorial (or moral) support, it generally goes in the acknowledgement.

As far as a dedication, you can approach it anyway you like.

I dedicated mine to my husband and an author who inspired me. It's a nod to those you want to know are appreciated in some way. No need to explain. In fact, the second line of mine is "only one knows why."

Welcome to AW Jillian. I'm curious where you read that.