Monday, May 02, 2005
Little Brother
At long last! The following is an abbreviated version of Per's Fulbright proposal. He was taking some heat in the comments sections after I failed to fully articulate his goals and aspirations for the upcoming year. Enjoy.
Finally, I am posting a follow-up to your request for more information about my Fulbright proposal. Below you will find an abridged version of the proposal I submitted, which does, I think, a fair enough job of explaining some of the issues I hope to tackle in my year of studying abroad. And as for those of your friends who doubted that Australians even read books... well, they're probably right. What else can I say!?! But I would like to think that, within my proposal (and the study of regional literature more generally), there is the hint of a deeper investigation into the roots of this apathy towards literature. I think that, in many ways, the decline of regional literature in recent history is somehow linked to the decline of the "average person's" interest in literature. Does that make any sense? Well, it does in my head, anyway, and I'd be happy to defend the idea further, but not right now. I'm tired and going to bed. Enjoy the proposal.
Per
The chill in the Sydney morning air on May 22, 2004 was matched only by the chill a sixth-page newspaper headline struck in the hearts of aspiring Australian writers. “Publishers shun rookie authors,” read the headline in The Sydney Morning Herald. The article elaborated: “The chances of a first-time Australian author getting published hit an all-time low this week when a prestigious publishing house said it would no longer take on new writers.”
The publishing house in question is Simon & Schuster, but the article further states that a Random House executive admitted to having to be “more careful” about signing new authors. Harper Collins has taken a similar approach to first-timers, thereby virtually precluding the possibility of a new Australian writer publishing with one of the multinational publishers in Australia.
Multinational publishers’ efforts around the world reflect this trend, but it is particularly significant in Australia, where new writers are unlikely to get a chance in today’s profit-driven book market. Australia’s population of just over 20 million is simply not great enough to sustain many Australian writers. Multinational publishers represent the best opportunity to reach beyond this limited market to an international audience, and the new publishing strategies at these companies are a huge strike against Australian writers. Furthermore, when you take into account the increasing popularity of nonfiction and international bestsellers, then it becomes even clearer the enormous odds faced specifically by fiction writers in Australia. Some sources have reported the reduction in fictional works published in Australia at as much as 40 percent in the last year, which accounts for the vast majority of the overall reduction in publishing money available to new writers.
It should come as no surprise, then, that an article appearing in Melbourne’s The Age just over two months later should declare, “Independent Australian publishers are the big winners in the short list for this year’s Age Book of the Year Awards. Only four of the 15 short-listed books are published by local arms of large international publishers.” Everyone seemed to know of a good, middle-ranking novelist whose latest work had been rejected by the large publishing houses.
This brings smaller publishing outfits, among them the well-regarded Fremantle Arts Centre Press (FACP), to the fore. FACP is an independent, regional publishing house in remote Western Australia. In its Submission Guidelines, FACP clearly stipulates, “The author must be a Western Australian, that is, they must live in Western Australia or be of Western Australian origin. . . . Submissions not meeting this criteria cannot be considered.”
FACP is a one-of-a-kind institution, in that it defines itself as a regional publishing house, rather than this being a default identity for lack of an ability to attract world-class authors. To the best of my knowledge and that of many other experts in the fields of publishing and literature, FACP is the only publishing institution to make this important distinction. FACP has formally allied itself with local writers, to the exception of all other writers. The possible effects of this distinction are profound: an increased sense of regional identity and pride among artists and non-artists, alike; the possibility of greater national and international exposure to the many virtues of the region, including its writers, landscape, and history; and a boon to the regional economy.
Small, independent publishing houses exist the world-over, and the majority publish only works by local authors, as the house’s reputation or knowledge of its existence is oftentimes geographically limited. These same outfits benefit from the cutbacks in fictional publishing by multinational publishers. In this respect, they are like FACP, because they are attracting writers – especially younger writers and writers of edgy and unusual works – who a few years ago they would have probably lost to larger houses. They are also retaining writers, even commercially successfully ones, for longer periods of time.
But FACP has had international success and could surely attract writers from a larger geographical zone. The scale of FACP’s success distinguishes it from other independent publishing houses in Australia, but its commitment to regional writing is truly exceptional. FACP has abided by this commitment for nearly 30 years, but it is sure to be tried to a new extent as the international publishing market becomes more readily available to small, independent publishers.
The question is, then, what is the place of a regional publishing house in a publishing market that is becoming increasingly localized, as multinational outfits close their doors to young and upstart writers and bookstores stock more and more international titles? And what is the place of regional writing in this new environment?
In addition to FACP, I hope to read and study works published by two other Western Australian presses: the University of Western Australia Press, which emphasizes Western Australian themes in its books, even though it does not limit itself as FACP does to authors from Western Australia; and Magabala Books, which is an Indigenous Australian publishing house, publishing the works of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and editors. A concentrated look at the history as well as the current output of these two presses should nicely complement my study of FACP, illuminating both the differences and the commonalities of a regional publishing house and other small, independent presses.
I believe that the regional publishing model as exemplified by FACP is a viable one, in spite of the negative connotations so often attached to the terms “regional writing” and “regional writer.” In fact, I believe that this model has certain advantages over the more generic model of the small, independent press. Through my research, I hope to achieve a better understanding of the history of “regional writing” – in Western Australia, and also around the globe – in order to posit its emergence in this new publishing environment.
Finally, I am posting a follow-up to your request for more information about my Fulbright proposal. Below you will find an abridged version of the proposal I submitted, which does, I think, a fair enough job of explaining some of the issues I hope to tackle in my year of studying abroad. And as for those of your friends who doubted that Australians even read books... well, they're probably right. What else can I say!?! But I would like to think that, within my proposal (and the study of regional literature more generally), there is the hint of a deeper investigation into the roots of this apathy towards literature. I think that, in many ways, the decline of regional literature in recent history is somehow linked to the decline of the "average person's" interest in literature. Does that make any sense? Well, it does in my head, anyway, and I'd be happy to defend the idea further, but not right now. I'm tired and going to bed. Enjoy the proposal.
Per
The chill in the Sydney morning air on May 22, 2004 was matched only by the chill a sixth-page newspaper headline struck in the hearts of aspiring Australian writers. “Publishers shun rookie authors,” read the headline in The Sydney Morning Herald. The article elaborated: “The chances of a first-time Australian author getting published hit an all-time low this week when a prestigious publishing house said it would no longer take on new writers.”
The publishing house in question is Simon & Schuster, but the article further states that a Random House executive admitted to having to be “more careful” about signing new authors. Harper Collins has taken a similar approach to first-timers, thereby virtually precluding the possibility of a new Australian writer publishing with one of the multinational publishers in Australia.
Multinational publishers’ efforts around the world reflect this trend, but it is particularly significant in Australia, where new writers are unlikely to get a chance in today’s profit-driven book market. Australia’s population of just over 20 million is simply not great enough to sustain many Australian writers. Multinational publishers represent the best opportunity to reach beyond this limited market to an international audience, and the new publishing strategies at these companies are a huge strike against Australian writers. Furthermore, when you take into account the increasing popularity of nonfiction and international bestsellers, then it becomes even clearer the enormous odds faced specifically by fiction writers in Australia. Some sources have reported the reduction in fictional works published in Australia at as much as 40 percent in the last year, which accounts for the vast majority of the overall reduction in publishing money available to new writers.
It should come as no surprise, then, that an article appearing in Melbourne’s The Age just over two months later should declare, “Independent Australian publishers are the big winners in the short list for this year’s Age Book of the Year Awards. Only four of the 15 short-listed books are published by local arms of large international publishers.” Everyone seemed to know of a good, middle-ranking novelist whose latest work had been rejected by the large publishing houses.
This brings smaller publishing outfits, among them the well-regarded Fremantle Arts Centre Press (FACP), to the fore. FACP is an independent, regional publishing house in remote Western Australia. In its Submission Guidelines, FACP clearly stipulates, “The author must be a Western Australian, that is, they must live in Western Australia or be of Western Australian origin. . . . Submissions not meeting this criteria cannot be considered.”
FACP is a one-of-a-kind institution, in that it defines itself as a regional publishing house, rather than this being a default identity for lack of an ability to attract world-class authors. To the best of my knowledge and that of many other experts in the fields of publishing and literature, FACP is the only publishing institution to make this important distinction. FACP has formally allied itself with local writers, to the exception of all other writers. The possible effects of this distinction are profound: an increased sense of regional identity and pride among artists and non-artists, alike; the possibility of greater national and international exposure to the many virtues of the region, including its writers, landscape, and history; and a boon to the regional economy.
Small, independent publishing houses exist the world-over, and the majority publish only works by local authors, as the house’s reputation or knowledge of its existence is oftentimes geographically limited. These same outfits benefit from the cutbacks in fictional publishing by multinational publishers. In this respect, they are like FACP, because they are attracting writers – especially younger writers and writers of edgy and unusual works – who a few years ago they would have probably lost to larger houses. They are also retaining writers, even commercially successfully ones, for longer periods of time.
But FACP has had international success and could surely attract writers from a larger geographical zone. The scale of FACP’s success distinguishes it from other independent publishing houses in Australia, but its commitment to regional writing is truly exceptional. FACP has abided by this commitment for nearly 30 years, but it is sure to be tried to a new extent as the international publishing market becomes more readily available to small, independent publishers.
The question is, then, what is the place of a regional publishing house in a publishing market that is becoming increasingly localized, as multinational outfits close their doors to young and upstart writers and bookstores stock more and more international titles? And what is the place of regional writing in this new environment?
In addition to FACP, I hope to read and study works published by two other Western Australian presses: the University of Western Australia Press, which emphasizes Western Australian themes in its books, even though it does not limit itself as FACP does to authors from Western Australia; and Magabala Books, which is an Indigenous Australian publishing house, publishing the works of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and editors. A concentrated look at the history as well as the current output of these two presses should nicely complement my study of FACP, illuminating both the differences and the commonalities of a regional publishing house and other small, independent presses.
I believe that the regional publishing model as exemplified by FACP is a viable one, in spite of the negative connotations so often attached to the terms “regional writing” and “regional writer.” In fact, I believe that this model has certain advantages over the more generic model of the small, independent press. Through my research, I hope to achieve a better understanding of the history of “regional writing” – in Western Australia, and also around the globe – in order to posit its emergence in this new publishing environment.
