The Australian Association of Writing Programs

Hi all

I re-read Jeremy's important Text article 'The Professional Author' and asked myself how to reconcile his overview of the Australian market with the success story of Amsterdam's THINGS WE DIDN"T SEE COMING (Carol-Anne's story). There is an irony in this as I taught Amsterdam and encouraged him to send off stories to Sleepers (as I did other of the students in that year's MA course) while my own collection was rejected. Obviously, you have to be willing to make amends when you submit--something I was not prepared to do (another publisher has picked up my work and I love the artistic integrity that has gone into the whole process in whichI had a say, which might not have been the case with SLEEPERS; so know what you want). So, yes, there might still be a divergence between art and craft, but what ultimately drives the market is mega $$$. That Australia keeps some control over the titles it publishes here is great, for at least small publishers have a chance to develop niche markets as SLEEPERS has done. 

One thing I learned from in-house in publishing experience is that it is all about business imperative ie profit. Which for any company is the bottom line.

There are however many with integrity based on higher ideals and that is where the smaller publishers and the publishers themselves (individuals) within the bigger companies have such an important role to play.

Parallel importation, along with the synchronous mercenary business imperatives driven increasingly by off shore boards, will kill off many opportunities for smaller market , niche creative ideas in favour of the corporate attraction of mega corporate tie ins and the like.

The challenge for writers, creators and publishers is to make any proposal marketable and commercially attractive enough to cut it in that cut-throat business environment.

The challenge for arts supporters is to lobby for greater funding for publishers, creators and arts projects to give creators and their audience options.

Mark Carthew