Noel McLachlan and Waiting for the Revolution

I was sorry to discover last week that Noel McLachlan had died. Editing his Waiting for the Revolution was my first real adult trade freelance editorial job (courtesy of Barbie Burton). My experience of Noel was that he was charming, wilful, subversive and highly amusing. I learnt a lot. He'd exceeded his original brief from Penguin by some 30,000 words and he'd been ordered to cut. So he didn't cut anything substantive he eliminated unnecessary words such as thats and thes. When I started reading it I was shocked and appalled. Then I got into the rhythm of Noel's language, and after awhile I could hear his distinctive voice in my ear when I was reading the script. When it went back to Penguin (not to Barbie), the editor was shocked and appalled, sent me a letter telling me off, and some of the missing words were 'restored' but not enough to ruin the rhythm of the writing and Noel escaped any substantive cuts.

The book also left me with a perspective on Australian history that I still retain.

POV and genre

I've been taking a short cut by mixing up POV and person, though they are closely related, and here's some comments about POV from a romance writer's perspective which I found interesting in relation to person and genre (with thanks to Jane Sullivan):
Anne Gracie

more on first person

It's been an interesting discussion in the comments on an earlier post on first person.

In my original post I now think I was edging towards some sort of age-based theory about person. Before I get into too much trouble, I want to say: There are no rules, and what is right depends on the author, the book, the characters.

But…

In early chapter books I think the first person (often past tense) has a direct appeal. As there are more words and more of a story 3rd person either constrained to one character or more omniscient is attractive. At this age I remember loving the sense of security that someone (an adult) was telling me a good story - that I was in safe hands. I liked being able to adventure securely (often I think there was an adult mentor figure in the stories as well). Is this why fantasy is so strong in these years? Is first person less common in fantasy. Then things get a bit more edgy and different in the teen years. We start to see peers in different ways. Teenagers are working to define themselves, often against what is around them, and to test the authenticity of those boundaries. And these years are direct and sensory, with an immediacy suited to the first person.

I suppose there is a genre component: historical fiction tends to be 3rd person, as does fantasy and contemporary reality fiction is often first.

Now I can't wait to hear other theories…

1st person

We're editing a first-person YA novel at the moment and I was reminded reading "How Novels Work" that Henry James was partly responsible for a dip in the use of the first person in novels: "The first person, in the long piece, is a form foredoomed to looseness" and "the terrible fluidity of self-revelation" and "it has no authority, no persuasive or convincing force - its grasp of reality & truth isn't strong and disinterested". A dip that has well and truly been righted with more than half the Booker prize winners of the last ten years or so being at least in part in the first person. I like first person but James' comments reminded me that as a child (not a teenager) I preferred the adult warmth of the 3rd person, the sense of sitting on the narrator's knee - and Ali, at black dog, said she too had preferred the first person. The first person seems peculiarly suited to the the intense egotism of the teen years.

NZ Post Awards announced and congratulations to Leon for the shortlisting of Red Haze

And congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, illustrators and publishers. (with a special congratulatory thanks to Schoalstic New Zealand, our truly excellent New Zealand distributors).

2007 Non Fiction Finalists

Red Haze: Australians and
New Zealanders in Vietnam
Leon Davidson
Black Dog Books
$19.99 pb

Illustrated History of
the South Pacific
Marcia Stenson
Random House New Zealand
$29.99 pb

It's True! You Can
Make Your Own Jokes
Sharon Holt & Ross Kinnaird
Allen & Unwin
$13.99 pb

Soldier in the Yellow Socks: Charles Upham - our finest fighting soldier
Janice Marriott
HarperCollins Publishers
$19.99pb

Winging It!
The Adventures of Tim Wallis
Neville Peat
Longacre Press
$24.99 pb

2007 Picture Book Finalists

Kiss! Kiss! Yuck! Yuck!
Kyle Mewburn, Ali Teo & John O'Reilly
Scholastic New Zealand
$16.99 pb

Matatuhi
Robyn Kahukiwa
Puffin
$16.95 pb

A Present from the Past
Jennifer Beck & Lindy Fisher
Scholastic New Zealand
$16.99 pb

Riding the Waves
Gavin Bishop
Random House New Zealand
$29.99 hb

Whakaeke i ngā ngaru
Gavin Bishop & Kāterina Mataira
Random House New Zealand
$24.99 pb

The Three Fishing Brothers Gruff
Ben Galbraith
Hodder Children's Books
$29.99 hb

2007 Junior Fiction Finalists:

And did those feet...
Ted Dawe
Longacre Press
$16.99 pb

Boyznbikes
Vince Ford
Scholastic New Zealand
$16.99 pb

Frog Whistle Mine
Des Hunt
HarperCollins Publishers
$16.99 pb

My Story: Castaway - The Diary of Samuel Abraham Clark, Disappointment Island, 1907
Bill O'Brien
Scholastic New Zealand
$16.99 pb

Thor's Tale: Endurance and Adventure in the Southern Ocean
Janice Marriott
HarperCollins Publishers
$18.99 pb

YA fiction shortlist:

Genesis
Bernard Beckett
Longacre Press
$18.99 pb

A Respectable Girl
Fleur Beale
Random House New Zealand
$18.99 pb

Shooting the Moon
V. M. Jones
HarperCollins Publishers
$18.99 pb

Single Fin
Aaron Topp
Random House New Zealand
$18.99 pb

Thieves
Ella West
Longacre Press
$18.99 pb

For more information

www.booksellers.co.nz/nzpb_finalists.htm

territorial combat

The Brits are argueing with the Yanks about what to do with Europe. Hachette has given distribution of US Hachette titles in Europe to the Brits much to the disappointment of the Europeans.

Karl Heinz Petzler, managing director of the Lisbon distributor Lisma Lda said. "I can only classify this decision of voluntarily renouncing turnover as an unheard of act of self-castration," Petzler wrote in a letter to Hachette. "It also shows a lack of respect for authors, agents and customers alike, who all will lose because of this move."

Brian DeFiore, head of the literary agency DeFiore and Company: U.S. publishers insist that Europe remain an open market, which makes it very difficult to get a U.K. deal, and American houses are likely to reject any deal made with a U.K. publisher that has already won European exclusivity.

An interesting echo of our territorial difficulties with the Poms.

excellent article

on the British literary inferiority complex by Benjamin Markovits in this weekends AFR but reprinted with minimal acknowledgement from
Prospect magazine but search it under Google as clicking the link I've provided asks you to subscribe to read the article.

Oz character

Do we have a particular taste for leaving things to the last minute and flying by the seat of our pants. A reputation for cheap and innovative solutions? Compared to an American, European or say Japanese thoroughness and attention to detail. (In part due to a lack of resources?)

new word - optioneer

meaning someone who purveys a film option (with thanks to Melisssa Davies of Sight Effects). I liked it - very much - with its overtones of auctioneer (selling) and of the cheery clubby but media overtones of mouseketeer. I can't find it on the web except as a index trading option program. I think Melissa's use is far superior.

trailer for Bridge to Terabithia link

Bridge to Terabithia trailer

Natalie Babbit - new book

I very much enjoyed Tuck Everlasting so it was good to read that she's written her first novel for children in 25 years: Jack Planck Tells Tales.

Jumping the shark

a cute and useful phrase that I've just discovered: jumping the shark

Serpent's Tail for Profile

The independent publishing scene in the UK continues to effervesce: the largely non-fiction Profile (of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame) has bought out the largely fiction Serpent's Tail.

Just to give some idea of scale in independent publishing: Serpent's Tail turns over 2 million pounds (about A$4.8m) and has been profitable for the last five years, has been going twenty and and has five staff. The five staff is lean for that turnover. (We have a full-time staff equivalent of roughly six and a half.) Serpent's Tail kicked started its profitable years with Catherine Millet's "The Sexual Life of Catherine M."

From their website: Serpent’s Tail’s logo is an ouroboros and represents the two fundamental attributes of time – imminent annihilation and rising hope, which follow each other over and over again in an infinite cycle: time represented as a serpent swallowing its tail. (Which comes across to be my Australian sensibility as a bit much.)

Footnote: Faber's Alliance of independent publisher is interesting to watch.

And I'd like to recommend "Thank you for smoking"

subtitles

As we have a rubbishy TV set and my hearing is on the decline, I'm watching movies with the subtitles on. I was surprised (& amused) at how much they differ from the spoken words. I'm assuming the subtitles are the script and I'm seeing how much actors contribute with ad libbing. I'm recommending giving it a shot - it's quite entertaining.

Babel - Brilliant

We went to the movies last and saw Babel. It knocked my socks off. Challenging and gruelling and worth every second.

Maryann and I came out of the movies with quite different understandings of the movie. For Maryann it was a bitter film about American (& male) arrogance leading to a chain of disastrous events. For me it was random connections becoming multiple causes (& multiple stories crossing back and forth in time) linking across the globe - the flap of the butterflies wing effect. For me it was reminiscent of Crash, for Mab, Syriana.

The point I'm wanting to make is that like any good movie, there are many interpretations. Rich like a Xmas pud. Please go and see it.

truly excellent quote:

"Characters migrate." Umberto Eco

with thanks to Lloyd Jones ("Master Pip" Text $29.95 available from all good booksellers)

Secret River

Something I hadn't realised was that Secret River has sold almost double in the UK what it sold here laster year and that the shortlisted Secret River outsold the winner Loss of Innocence by more than double in the UK. I'm surprised that it struck such a chord.

recycling The (British) Bookseller

I liked this quote from Will Atkinson, Sales and Marketing Director: "That's the great thing about independent publishing: we are given the time to build these people. Corporates have not necessarily got that luxury. I'm not saying we're better, but we can play a longer game."

Of course everybody agrees that big books are getting bigger - at the expense of the middle ground. Anthony Cheetham offers insight. He says the big hit isn't just big these days but huge - a million copies. And everything above budget is pure profit. The publisher then becomes a blockbuster junkie. And one success outweighs at least two failures so the odds are on the publisher's side. And celebrity memoirs are usually quick - you can have em out for Christmas. A blockbuster doesn't need more staff unlike more lesser titles.

Interesting. As on one level big publishers are said to be risk averse but ready to take punts on big advances.

Kokoda: 101 Days

I'm still in back-from-holiday mode. Lots of treats on my return including the printed copies of "Kokoda: 101 Days". And it looks gorgeous. With Peter's willing participation, we all walked the Kokoda Trail with him in our imaginations, commenting on his many versions. Taxing for any author sometimes but it can be all very participatory at black dog. Anybody, of any age, will love the book. Don't wade through Ham or Fitzsimmons, get it in a crisp and elegant read from Peter Mcinnes.

awards

The Australians have done well again in another set of international awards yet without actually taking out the big gongs: Surrender by Sonya Hartnett and The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak were both Prinz honor books. The winner was a graphic novel: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Susan Patron has won the John Newbery Medal for her novel The Higher Power of Lucky, illustrated by Matt Phelan and David Wiesner won the Randolph Caldecott Medal for Flotsam.

independent publishers popping

I'm just back from a longer than usual Christmas break. Plenty of opportunity for beachside reading. I loved Ford's The Lay of the Land and Raymond Carver's What We Mean When We Talk About Love. Re-read the gorgeous Dragon Moon in page proofs the last of the Dragonkeeper books - due out in April. The perfect end to a superb trilogy. My daughter was very sad to say goodbye to Ping. I read Simone Howell's Notes from a Teenage Underground and I loved it but I thought it fell away in the middle-end, though I was satisfied with the final few pages. I think Karen Tayleur's Chasing Boys (which I'm also re-reading in page proof) is even better - perfect voice and strong finish. Watch out for it - coming soon from black dog.

And picked up theBookseller.com e-new on my return::

I think times are good for independent publishers. Here in Oz they're good but I have to admire the way the scene is popping in the UK - Faber, Snowbooks and Profile are vying for the in the inaugural Independent Publishers Guild Trade Publisher of the Year award. A mighty list of independent names.

Good economic times mean independents can flourish (well everybody flourishes). Independents do have advantages of appropriate scale, flexibility and definitely a creative edge over the majors. We can take more and better risks. The big boys are much more focussed on the celebrity end of the market and books they believe they can make big through marketing muscle.

There's a place for everybody in the ecology of publishing - at least in the good times.

Vegemite says no

We're doing an Aussie A-Z with the fabulous Heath McKenzie, following on from the mighty The Australian Twelve Days of Christmas.Our A-Z is due out in May. It is one of those childrens books that adults will adore as well

Under "V" we wanted to display Vegemite. Kraft said no! We thought it would have been excellent product placement - so we were surprised, very surprised when the firm "no" came back. Vegemite is now American owned. Would we have got a more sympathetic hearing if it was Australian owned? And Vegemite is also now happens to be a banned import into the US.

An entirely good season (list)

My sister-in-law Janine (former opera singer, now real estate agent) says you can't expect a completely good season of anything, theatre or opera. It's an unreasonable expectation to expect a creative performance group to sustain it across a season. I'm hoping the next season of the Malthouse will prove her wrong. And I'm wondering whether a season is the theatrical equivalent of a publisher's list. What strike rate do you need to have a successful year as a publisher?

2006 has certainly been Michael Heyward and Text's year. Two Booker shortlists. The Weathermakers. Peter Temple, now a best-seller in the UK. The list goes on. Clever strategic quality publishing across the entire list - I saw in Borders the other night that text have republished the much praised "The Dig Tree" by Sarah Murgatroyd. Nice publishing and a perfect fit with Text.

the myth of Melbourne weather

Melbourne gets half the rainfall of Sydney, fewer rainy days than Sydney or Brisbane and more days over 30° than Sydney. Sydney gets twice as many thunderstorms.

measures of change

As a mark of how rapidly our culture changes, there are now 23,000 Sudanese Australian but a decade ago there were only 2600.

Jindabyne - movie

Stunning.

Like in "My Father's Den", it is a very local story (despite its Carver origins) in the way Lawrence has created it but very much a story anybody could relate to.

I've read the short story, listened to the song, and now I've seen the movie. And I found it a fascination transformation of a story line and I really liked listening to the echoes of the song and short story in the film and the way the film has to fill in the gaps.

One question was: why Gabriel Byrne and Laua Linney? Both of whom I thought were superb. Do we lack the depth of acting talent?

Another question was the girl being Aboriginal. In Shadows in the Mirror we went in the opposite direction. But I felt, although it wavered at moments, Lawrence carried off the waves set off by the aboriginality of the girl.

Halloween

It is interesting in watching and recording how a fast changing culture like ours develops. The gradual seeping into our children's lives of Halloween is a recent change. Halloween was once a ghastly Americanism. Now we keep sweets in the cupboard. I like the American talent of celebrating traditions. I nailed a Christmas wreath to the door this December. A wreath was rarely seen when I was growing up and has really come courtesy of Hollywood.

The Long Tail - the start

I've started to read The Long Tail.( I've just finished Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and I like to have one business book on the go (a slow go) at a time.). Fascinating. And as a fascinating side-note I was interested in how the book idea evolved on Chris Anderson's blog: "I worked through many of the trickier conceptual and articulation issues in public, on my blog at thelongtail.com. The usual process would go like this: I'd post a half-baked effort at explaining how the 80/20 Rule is changing, for instance, and then dozens of smart readers would write comments, emails, or their own blog posts to suggest ways to improve it. Somehow this wonky public brainstorming managed to attract an average of more than 5,000 readers a day." Fascinating as it is showing how the publishing of information is changing and that there is still room for the gravitas of the book.

more accidental spam poetry

speciously
it may be turned,
and however puzzling it may be to answer it,
found one print from a famous design of Carlo Maratti,
who died about entertained by the majority of the company.
This foolish, and often of a gentleman's dancing.
But the greatest advantage of dancing well is,
knowledge, to answer me point by point.
I have seen a book, entitled picture, drawn by yourself, at different sittings
for though, as it is young men who if they have wit themselves, are pleased with it,
and if
and respected,
is not meant by the words GOOD COMPANY

Triguboff

Australia is an interesting landscape to be publishing in as it is fluid and changing. There was a comment in a recent Fin Review from Harry Triguboff criticizing the English language test for migrants:

"We need workers here. These are people who do the work we don't want to do. If we start making them do tests, we will bring the same sort of people as ourselves. That worries me."

My great grandfather in the early 1930s was involved in using the dictation test to prevent Egon Kisch landing In Melbourne. Australia is a very different place now. Many countries expend effort to make themselves more like themselves. I like Triguboff's idea of optimistically look for change.

I'm also interested in the way the Spanish (having lost the battle) are winning the war in North America as the average American would rather not do without a gardner or a hotel maid.

accidental spam poetry

I'm enjoying the Ern O'Malley poetic quality of the words put into spam to get through the filters. Here is a sample:

presume,
too various and extensive
to be much attended to:
and may not am neither of
a melancholy nor a cynical disposition,
and am as willing expect that I should laugh at their pleasantries
and by saying WELL,
AND opinion of one's own
whereas it is only the decent and genteel manner

Ahmet Ertegun (founder of Atlantic Records) story from the NY Times

David Geffen once asked Mr. Ertegun how to make money in the music business. Ertegun got up from his chair, hunched over and shuffled slowly across the room. Mr. Geffen didn’t understand, so Ertegun did it twice more. Finally he explained: “ ‘If you’re lucky, you bump into a genius, and a genius will make you rich in the music business,’ ”

Geffen recalled. “Ahmet bumped into an awful lot of geniuses."

cork dork

I came across this phrase in a Michael Harden column as in " a wine list with little to dazzle the cork dork".

is careful generosity an oxymoron?

In the WBN report on Christmas sales Peter Blake offered a very measured generosity to the broader publishing community:

"Penguin sales director Peter Blake is happy not just for Penguin, and for the other publishers distributed by United Book Distributors"

Jaws the first blockbuster

Rather than being opened in only a few theatres and then more and more as it succeeded, Jaws was opened in many theatres at once. And it was the first film to be supported by extensive advertising. And it worked. And it was the first Blockbuster. And it is interesting to ponder (like Pooh) on how the blockbuster style has influenced publishing (though no where near to the extent it's influenced Hollywood). It's getting to be a case of sell big or don't sell at all. People are reading more of fewer books. Though curiously publishing output hasn't shrunk. And of course out goes the successful mid-list author for the big publishers, which gives the independents opportunities.

Tom Shones's Blockbuster is worth a read by anybody in publishing I reckon. And it comes with a neat subtitle: How Hollywood learned to stop worrying and love the summer.

MUP breaks away from bookshop!

Always interesting reading in the Oz (last Saturday not this)

Apparently, MUP "broke away from the university bookshop" in 2003, foregoing the funding contribution that came from the profits of the bookshop and instead, in a bold move, embraced generous funding direct from the university and made its own accounting more transparent - even the losses. Kind of a reverse strategy to that of Milo Minderbinder, who was condemned for taking a contract out on bombing his own aerodrome - until he threw open his books and showed that he was making a profit.

Oz lit

We now have only one professor of Australian literature according to the Oz on Saturday, and students aren't interested in doing honours in Oz Lit. As mentioned, in passing, many of the students who would have been doing honours in Oz Lit are now in the creative writing courses. It's better to do than to comment but I do think the cultural cringe is back. Too often, too much of the time, we're looking over our shoulder to see what's happening over there.

graffiti

I am a fan of graffiti. I like the idea of the city as a canvas, with someone offering something for the creative enjoyment of others without expectations of fame or pay. I like the quirky oddness of it, the unexpectedness:









Fitzroy is fortunately rich in street art.

good titles through translation

The following title translations appealed to me from some not so recent international bestseller llsts:

From Sweden there was a title that translated as "Better Self-esteem!". It seemed to be that the promise of the book might have been understated in an admirably Scandinavian way.

Then in Spain there's "Sabine en came viva" which has been translated as "Sabina in Vivid Flesh".

Melbourne Weeky's article

There's a good article in the Melbourne Weekly this week on independent publishing (in Melbourne) in which we got a small mention in the side column headed "independent success stories". Well that's rather nice. It's interesting reading with many quotable quotes and much food for thought. One thing that struck me was Text's Michael Heyward's focus on the writer's rather than the reader's end of the spectrum. He says "we won't be doing the right thing by all the talent in this country unless we have a vigorous range of publishers. The more we publish, the better it is for Australian writers." And he talks about the Canongate partnership as being for "the benefit of writers". Our emphasis tends to be at the opposite end - on the readers. The differences between the independents, in fact the differences between publishers, are a good thing. It means we're all offering something different. But I also wonder whether there is a difference because black dog is a children's publisher and in children's publishing the reader comes first. I'm sure it's not because Michael doesn't value readers and we certainly do value writers (immensely) and strive to house a writing community, but the difference in emphasis is interesting.

Kalbacher Klapperschlange

Carole Wilkinson's Dragonkeeper has won the Klabacher Klapperschlange the only German children's choice award. The children's awards don't come with a cheque for the author nor have a huge impact on sales for the publisher, but are sweeter for all that. Dragonkeeper won in the KOALA awards and was short-listed in the YABBA and Garden of the Purple Dragon won the WAYBRA but special congratulations to Carole for also reaching out and touching the hearts of German children as well. The award was given on the 11 November in Kalbach, a small village in the Rhein Main area. Here's a link to the website

And here's the German cover:



PS Klapperschlange is rattlesnake in German

Bachar Houli

According to today's Age 18-year-ol Bachar Houli is the first devout Muslim to sign up for an AFL club (Essendon). It is an interesting and hopeful sign of how Australia is changing. As a 12 year old, Houli didn't tell his parents he was playing football till he'd won three trophies, in his first season. The AFL draft camp happened during Ramadan and Houli after consulting his sheik broke his fast for a few days. Maybe one day the camp will be deliberately scheduled outside Ramadan.

I did wonder seeing the Ages careful use of the words "devout Muslim" if there were any Muslims who had played or were playing for the AFL who were not devout

Further to flying saucers

The French version of flying saucer is cigare volant, or flying cigar. Bonny Doon Vineyard in California has a red that it has named "Le Cigare Volant" in honour of a French vine growing village. Here's the story:

This particular wine is Graham Randall's tribute to Rhone Valley's Chateauneuf-du-Pape. where the winemakers, who in 1954 had an ordinance passed to prevent flying cigars from flying over or landing near their vineyards. Any flying cigars that did so would be impounded.

As I recall the story is written on the back of the label and can be read through the glass, but it is a long time since I drank the one bottle I once brought back from a visit to Bonny Doon. I can also recommend Bonny Doon's ice wine as an effective way of leaving a tasting four sheets to the wind. Randall doesn't wait for California to freeze he just puts the grapes in a big freezer.


They also have a website I lke a lot.

Malouf and Shakespeare

I liked the echo that reading Malouf's article produce from my reading Wood's biography "In Search of Shakespeare". Malouf is lucid and insightful, as always. Having been taught Shakespeare as great literature, and not enjoyed it, it is a pleasure to learn that Shakespeare didn't treat it as such. Jonosn was laughed at for publishing his plays — as "works"; Shakespeare's poetry was what he thought worth publishing. To quote Malouf: "Playgoing in the 1590s was like cinemagoing in the 1930s, cheap popular entertainment with no pretensions to being more. Hollywood in the '30s, with its studio and star system, might be as good a model as we can light on for the Shakespeare worked in. Plays rapidly produced week in, week out, to serve a regular audience; most of them got together by groups working in collaboration; most dispensable and soon lost."

The article is from David Malouf's speech to the World Shakespeare 2006 Congress and is rich reef of literary insights and it is reprinted in full in "Best Australian Essays 2006", edited by Drusilla Modjeska, Black Inc, $27.95

the Republic

in 1960 more Australians believe in flying saucers (35 per cent) than favored a republic (28 per cent).

business plans

Henry Rosenbloom of Scribe after building up and selling a successful printing business, now eschews business plans for Scribe. We seem to be going in the opposite direction. We're doing more planning and budgeting as time goes. We feel we need to be a successful and profitable business to thrive as a publisher. The planning and budgeting is like weeding the garden. But we don't want to loose that flexibility and intuitiveness that's an independent publishers competitive advantage.

La Mama

I'm in an old-news-cutting space. Frank, actor, author and scriptwriter, sometimes masquerading as the black dog accountant, hand me the Age 4 November this morning with an article by Alison Crogan about the threat to La Mama funding from Oz Co. La Mama;'s $170,000 funding has been put on notice. It seems absurd when multinational publishers get grants that the innovative bedrock of our culture can be threatened to be gouged in such a way. From a funding point of view it may be unfortunate that innovation has gone hand in hand with political dissent. That leaves a conservative government with little reason to invest in the arts and labor governments able to take the arts for granted.

quoting Michael Kantor

"Theatre has atrophied." While there are 3.5 million Melburnians only 25,000 of them consider themselves theatre goers. "We are not offering or selling entertainment, we are selling theatre. Getting into the cultural imagination of those people is a long process. … We have to back risk because risk is at the very heart of theatre. Your build strategies that cushion and support the main purpose, which is the artistic endeavour on the stage.

So risk defines artistic endeavour and also happens to define business.

ABC

I ripped out an article from the Australian which I've just rediscovered scrunched in the bottom of my bag. It is Christopher Pearson's "ABC's vehicle of invective" from the November 4-5. According to Pearson, ABC Books has "unfair advantages, the capacity to skew the market and perhaps to cherry-pick particular authors". But then on Pearson's figures the ABC is a very small percentage of the Australian book market at $1.58 million. So though he is going in to bat for the commercial publishers the ABC doesn't seem to be much of a threat as it comprises such a small percentage of the publishing marketplace. I would think that publishers see ABC Enterprises as another outlet through which to sell books rather than as a threat, and ABC publishing adds diversity to the market place. which is something Australian publishing can always do with.

Oz story telling on TV - the difficulties of mapping the culture

CSI cost $US4 million to make for each epidsode but only $80,000 for 9 to screen; but McLeod's Daughters costs the network $500,000 per episode. Says it all really.

pollies language

I hadn't realised that Rumsfield was a master of the American language in the tradition of General Westmoreland and Dan Quale:

"I believe what I said yesterday; I don't know what I said, but I know what I think … and I assume that's what I said."

"I would not say that the future is less predictable than the past - I think the past was not predictable when it started."

"There will be some things that people will see. There will be some things people won't see. And life goes on."

"There are things that we know that we know. There are known unkowns … things that we now know that we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

And here's a nice link for some Qualisms

internet marketing

It failed for Snakes on Planes (the description of building the campaign sounded really good, it just didn't sell tickets). But it seems to working for Borat. Interesting.

12 Days reveiw from The Courier Mail

I loved this review. It hit the nail on the head as to why we wanted to publish the book:

THERE is not a frosted window, a sleigh ride or a mulled wine in sight in a new release children's picture book about Christmas. What a relief.
Every Christmas season, we are presented with books about the festive time for our children featuring flannelette pyjamas, hot cocoa and songs about mistletoe and snow. When the mozzies are buzzing, the sun biting and the dinner table features crispy salad and cool drinks, these tales might be lovely, but are hardly the ticket to getting into the spirit of the season.
A book by young illustrator Heath McKenzie is a timely Australian Christmas gift. The folk song The Australian Twelve Days of Christmas is cheekily, colourfully illustrated with a deft paintbrush and a keen sense of humour.
There are several variations of the Australian Twelve Days of Christmas, but this one includes ``On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a kookaburra up a gum tree''. The kooka is joined by critters including four cuddling koalas, 11 emus kicking (AFL balls), seven possums playing (PlayStation) and eight flies a feasting (on pie and plum pud).
The result of reading this picture book to a little one is sure to be more than a single giggle.
McKenzie, who has illustrated five books published in the past nine months, has cleverly included snappy, interesting facts about the animals included in his countdown list at the back of the book, so that children are informed as well as entertained.
Jane Fynes-Clinton/Courier Mail

Bloom report quote

"It's never been easier to publish a novel, or harder to sell one - and, hence, never more difficult for publishers to take a risk on unknown authors." Bloom partners www.bloompartners.com.au

crappy sounding English

A billboard ad for a major Melbourne private school reads …"I love the subject choice" next to a photo of a student. Apart from being not very believable, it's crappy sounding English. Surely the idea that is to be conveyed is that the student will love the (large) choice of subjects they have to choose from rather than the particular subjects some administrator has chosen to include in the curriculum. And it sounds pompous.

Many writers (and publishers) frown on the present tense.

Princeton Professor emeritus Robert Fagles's new translation is in the present tense: "I think it's a poem about heroism and empire, about the glory of imperial hopes and the pain of having imperial hopes dashed.... I wanted to convey something about the modern understanding of war, and then about a man, an exile, a common soldier left terribly alone in the field of battle," Fagles says. "Aeneas is like Clint Eastwood, like Gary Cooper, a warrior and a worrier. He changes into the heroic tragic man, duty and endure, endure and duty."

sayings

a new saying I heard recently: "don't be part of the crowd, be your own act"

An independent - criteria by ARIA

"Solo artists and groups are eligible. Album and single recordings are eligible. The nominated recording must be released by either an ARIA Levy II Member or a Member, provided that such member is not part of a multinational corporation.

Recordings for which the production costs are funded either:
(a) by a Levy Member; or
(b) by a local license or distribution deal; or
(c) through an overseas licensing or distribution deal are not eligible.

Distribution in Australia must be undertaken by an independent ARIA member. For the sake of clarity, this excludes Levy Members or any members that are part of a multinational corporation."

ARIA

It was entertaining watch the ARIA awards. The whole thing was a lot of fun and nicely Australian. A couple of personal thoughts:
The Hill Top Hoods: who thanked the stations who played Australian music becasue they wanted to not because they legislatively had to.
Bernard Fanning: "a creative artist needs self-doubt" statement. Food for thought.
I wondered what the definition of independent was, and how it stacked up against the way it is used in the book trade (both for bookshops and publishers).
Liked the "breakthrough" awards.
Congrats to Eskimo Joe among others: Nice work guys.

Maybe we can have book awards that match the style of these one day.

just in case anybody has missed a reference to this link

and go to Truth About Publishing 2nd Edition

In the bestseller lists

We're in the Neilsen bestseller lists for the first time, well at least the first time in month of publication. Heath's Australian Twelve Days of Xmas is number five on the children's list. 'Course I think it's a little beauty. It's a very entertaining and clever piece of cultural mapping and its very very funny. That boy has such a sense of humour.

Flaubert quote

I like this quote from Flaubert: "style is the lifeblood of thought" - and the idea that playing with language helps us tackle difficult and complex thoughts.

Aboriginal kitsch

From the Sydney Morning Herald: Paul Keating has called the naming of East Darling Harbour as Barangaroo (after Bennelong's wife) as Aboriginal kitsch, with it's unfortunate echo of kangaroo. Rejected alternatives were Cadigal Cove, Eora Bay. The name the place earned in the Great Depression was the Hungry Mile.

KOALA awards

Congratulations to Carole Wilkinson for winning the KOALA older readers award last Friday. I went up to Taronga Park Zoo for the announcement on Friday and stayed for lunch. The spontanous cheer from the audience when Dragonkeeper's win was announced left Carole almost speechless. This book has an extraordinary power to reach out and touch people's hearts. It's a book without pretention and the more powerful for it.

The event was humble (in the better sense of the word) and humbling, It was superbly orchestrated - I've not seen a book event better done, or prepared for. I was impressed when Val Noake started with an acknowledgement that we were on traditional Aboriginal land and paid respect to the elders, past, present and future. That heralded the humility and the inclusiveness of the event. Every school in the auditorium was acknowledged and every school let out an affirming cheer as their name was read out. There were lots of authors and illustratos lining the front row. Matt Dray had flown down from northern Queensland with Dougal. There was a Hall of Fame for the books that had appeared many times on the short list but never actually got over the line for a gong. A neat way of acknowledging those really consistent performers. Felice persuaded the kids to do an exquisie slo-mo of a crowd cheering one of their own on to do a slow mo specky. (Morris Gleitzman was a bit of smart arse about it when he came up next but that's Morris.) It was excellent to catch up with Richard Tulloch. We went to the same school and during a brief stint at Penguin I assisted Mr Biffy's Battle along its way through the publishing process. He's spending half his time in Amsterdam. All up an excellent event.

an interesting juxtapostion of quotes I found on the web

If I were in this business only for the business, I wouldn’t be in this business.
- Samuel Goldwyn

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.
- Irvin S. Cobb

Dragon Moon

Georgina (13) has just finished reading the draft of Dragon Moon, the sequel to Dragonkeeper/Garden of the Purple Dragon. We were supposed to cooking together (at her instigation) but I'd realise I was doing all the work and I was alone in the kitchen - she was back in the bedroom reading, "but Dad I'm just at a really good bit." She finished later that afternoon. When I told her this was the last story about Ping, she said, "But that's so sad."

It's a corker of a story.

Macbeth postscript

Somebody to me in conversation that David Stratton had suggested that one of the flaws of Wright's Macbeth was the Worthington was too young to convey a sense of a good man tempted and gone bad. And retrospectively that resonated with me.

Macbeth

I went to see the Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth with my friend Chris. Fabulous production values. Very gritty and sexily grubby as you expected from Geoffrey Wright. And I was delighted by the idea of Macbeth being translated to Melboune. And it was very Melbourne. But for me I didn't enjoy it as much as I was trying to. I was always one step behind the actors figuring out the dialogue and for Shakespeare to work as a production I've got to be in it.

Chris who is in the film industry says that we lack the gravitas as actors. The English can somehow pull it off and who knows what the magic ingredient is. Heritage? Voice projection? (There's just too much shouting in Australian production of Shakespeare for my taste.)

Yet we do fabulous of humor + tragedy - in films like Kenny and Priscilla. We need dry, laconic and ironic

buying

I've started to come across "buy" as an operative word in publishing:

"You have to buy a lot of books in order to have some success. When you have success everyone forgets all the books you bought that didn't work."
Bill Massey, new editorial director of Orion's trade list, in an article in The Bookseller with a line under the heading that reads in part, "Bill Massey is back … and buying for Orion."

And from the Age, a little while ago:
"Heyward said that publishers had 'lost their way' by not buying, editing and selling Australian fiction to the extent they should."

Broometime

I've just finished Anne Coombs and Susan Varga's Broometime. I started it in Brrome and I've been stringing the reading of it out to stretched out that holiday feeling. Maryann worked on Adland with Anne when Mary was at Reed. I think I may have even done one of the proofreads, anyhow I remember reading it in proofs, and I was looking forward to Broometime but it was pulled off the market almost on release. Anne and Susan had mentioned the names of some Aborigines who had recently died and the Broome Aboriginal community were unhappy. The corrected edition seemed to just leak back on to the market. So the book was handicapped on release.; the publicity knee-capped. So maybe it has never done as well as it should have. I don't know how Anne and Susan resolved the problem with the community. People who are dying and have recently died are still mentioned in the revised edition. Have they changed the names? Used psuedonyms? It's an awkward issue to resolve graceful. It's given me a sense though, in a small way, of how different the Aboriginal approach can be and the challenges of this sort of writing and publishing where communities meet.

racy language

I just came across this lovely piece of racing language: "favourite by the length of the straight".

books, the most senior media

Somebody described books as "the most senior of the media" and it is a phrase that has kept popping back into mind. As a publisher, I like it.

Malouf and Oz literature

I'm still chewing thoughtfully on this comment from David Malouf (same source as my last blog):

"There was a period about 15 to 20 years ago when we created the idea of an exciting national literature. Australian readers were encouraged to read a lot of Australian books [was this publicity then?], and they did. They were doing it partly because they saw it as a reflection of their world, but also because they believed in Australia in a new kind of way. I think people lost faith in that. I think there has been a falling off of a kind of patriotic reason for reading Australian books, and that has put a lot of pressure on publishers because they just can't guarantee that there's a reading public out there." And he adds that 20 years ago every university had a course in Australian literature now none do or maybe one.

Sometimes I think this is a loss, sometimes I think it's because our literature has grown up.

Malouf and the literary pages

I generally find the literary pages in the newspapers on the weekend entertaining -even if I sometimes find the review focus a little narrow at times. (My personal beef is the big reviews of expensive hardbacks from lesser known university presses in the US, usually on some political or foreign affairs topic, that I know are being brought in to this country in quantities of less than 100.)

Anyhow I enjoyed the Malouf interview in the Oz. . I very much enjoyed Johnno and I'm looking forward to reading Every Move You Make. Lots of gems from Mr Malouf, some pure, some cracked and smoky. I find him satisfyingly thought provoking.

I liked his:
"Writers are sometimes very wise in their writing and very foolish as people." A neat conundrum that echoed with me. I find writers often wise in their writing and as wise and foolish as the rest of us at other times. Or as Malouf quotes Auden who put it succinctly: "Our writing is in better taste than our lives."

Then:
"My own view is that we ought to write books that need to be written. Books ought to demand to be written rather than be a by-product of your idea of yourself as a writer.There is a lot of pressure on writers not to be out of the limelight and I think you have to absolutely resist that." coda - as long as you don't need to make a living from your writing. I'm not sure that all writers have the luxury of being able to retreat to Tuscany. And there's the possibility that may somebody else can suggest a book that demands to be written or guide you in discovering the book that needs to be written. Is writing more collaborative now than the literary model created in the 70s?

He goes on to say that there are two kinds of books: those that: "come into existence because they are like products of nature… and books that you feel absolutely been willed into existence" and there are too many of the latter because publishers are pursueing "non-serious readers, the people who can be almost trapped into reading a book. It's for them that the whole world of publicity and celebrity of writers is created. Really serious readers don't give a stuff of about any of that." A very purist view, echoing the high-handed criticism of "comfort reading" for children. A kind of no pain without gain view of reading. I've never liked neat binary opposites in arguments particularly; there's a whole bunch of interesting stuff to discover in between.

NZ publishing industry - Montana

"For a society with a comparatively small population base, the range of what is being written is great indeed, and across that range the quality is high." - Lawrence Jones, chair of the judging panel of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards

it may sound a little self-congratulatory on the New Zealanders behalf quoted out of context, but they really do a magnificent job on the other side of the Tasman. (I've always like the slightly wild west-frontier sound of the "Montana" awards. And it seems appropriate that they're named after a wine. Maybe we should change the name of the Miles Franklin?)

advice to an editor

I'm a bit chary about giving advice on how to set out to edit a script, as everybody works differently. The one piece of advice I would give though is to re-read what you've edited - after it is published . You may need a year or two respite, but then have another look. In my experience that's difficult, painful and sharply instructive. I don't do it often enough.

Texas saying

On holidays I came across the Texan saying "Hat but no cattle" which is a sharper form of talking the talk but not walking the walk.

Kenny and the Australian language

I was pleased to watch "Kenny" going to Broome - and coming back. Perfect pitch for a mockumentary. Kenny is the master of Oz blokey language. Some Kenny gems: "busier than a one-armed bricklayer in Baghdad", "sillier than a bum full of smarties", " this will be around longer than religion".

It's good to see Kenny's weekly takings on the increase. Most films start big and shrink but word-of-mouth is boosting Kenny along. Australia v Hollywood?

On blokey language there's always Mark Latham's "a conga line of suckholes" - though that lacks a certain warmth in style. I like Catherine Lumby's "It's typical Latham and it's ridiculous" and Tony Abbott's "I'm happy to let Mark Latham's words stand for themselves."

Interesting to discover that there aren't just metrosexuals but also CUBs or Cashed Up Bogans - the Bogan dollar is challenging the Pink dollar - the V8 ute is "working man's sport's car".

The Accidental

Shane McCauley slammed Ali Smith's book in the West Australian. (Nice photo of Rod Moran, bookpages editor, that the newspaper run along the top of the book pages - every books editor should have distinguished whiskers.) It was a Whitbread winner but sometimes I wonder if literary judges tastes are too esoteric and have little to do with what an intelligent is looking for in a book. (As an editor you're supposed to have the ideal reader in mind - What if you're ideal reader is the judge of a literary award?) I've not read the book but it was chosen as a book for my reading group until Keith weighed in with this comment; "I have read the first chapter of 'The Accidental' (35 pages out of about 300). I think it is pointless crap. I won't be reading any more. I might have a go at 'On Beauty' to fill the void."

Broome

I'm just back from Broome. It's an extraordinary and exciting place - a thriving cultural centre. For me it was very Westaustralian and far from the eastern seaboard, which is the Australia I know. It felt like the opposite Australian pole to temperate white established Melbourne. (Sidebar: A banker friend said 30% of the Australian economy is now in WA.) While we were there we caught up with Suzie, Rebecca and Adrian of Magabala. A different publishing experience to black dog but with much in common as an independent Australian publisher mapping the Australian culture - lots of the same frustrations and satisfactions - and some different ones. There are actually three publishers in Broome for a population (according to the guidebook) of 12,000 - and two printers. And the publishing has a strong emphasis on children's books.

Marie Gamble runs a very excellent bookshop at the Kimberley Bookshop - the deeply polished floor boards and old-fashioned windows, Broome-style, made it a stylish and cool retreat from the heat with lots of yummy books to peruse. The bookshop was begun by nuns - Anne Coombs and Susan Varga's 'Broometime' has the story.

on holiday

I'm on holiday for the next two weeks so my blogger will slow down (or maybe stop) till the 25th.

gambling

I think, as do many others, that publishing is a form of gambling. On one level it is just plain old river boat gambling. But it is an enticingly creative form of gambling. I'd never bet on a horse (well not often, apart from the Melbourne Cup) or on a hand of cards but the thrill of backing a new book or writer or idea of a book sends a nice chilly thrill right up and down my spine. Maybe I'd be a better publisher if I also knew how to bet on horses…

editor's role

Sometimes I think the editor's role is to stop the author falling in love with his and her own words and encourage them to want the reader to fall in love with his or her words.

From startup to independent

I was talking to Mark Davis yesterday and he said that he thought it was the growth phase that was the difficult phase for an independent publisher. The common view is that it is hard to start, but Mark's view is that it is harder to sustain.

Then an independent publisher starts needing Capital with a capital C - in business terms a relatively small amount but it comes with a comparatively high ratio of risk. Success has been the end of many a small publisher - not being prepared to take the risk on the funding the print bills. The barriers to entry are comparatively low in publishing - it is making it work again and again that's hard, and watching those print bills accumulate as the list speeds up.

It's been a nice year for black dog which means we're on the steep and slippery part of the growth curve so interesting and exciting times lie ahead.

bigger or smaller costs.

I hear variously that the large publishers have bigger overheads (most commonly cited as the cost of airfares) or the smaller publishers have bigger overheads (higher cost of distribution + lack of volume discounts on, say, printing). Curious.

10,000 soldiers

If it takes 10,000 soldiers to make a good general, how many books does it take to make a good publisher?

Queenie launch

The launch of Queenie: One Elephant's Story was on Sunday at the Melbourne museum. It was launched to a packed room and we even made the Channel 9 news in the evening thanks to Kelly Curtin, and we sold a small truckload of books. I'm amazed at the response it's drawn.

It's both a very local Melbourne story and a much bigger story of elephants in zoos and how we treat animals. As it includes the death of the beloved Queenie it is searingly honest for a picture book and this seems to be part of its power. Corinne didn't steer away from the truth. As a story it challenges the reader and so operates on several levels.

So it is an "act local, think global (or at least think national)" publishing tale. And it will be interesting to see if it is taken up overseas.

Reflecting on this I think with the predominance of trade publishers having been in Sydney. Sydney has had more of its stories published than Melbourne, but with the growth of the Melbourne independents this has changed. And there's Wakefield in Adelaide, FACP in Perth and UQP in Brisbane.

Bling

Bling is the ubiquitous word/phrase of the moment - I heard it on morning radio yesterday, a sure sign. It seemed new and fresh a month ago and now I'm tripping over it everywhere - presumeably it's capturing something of the imagination of the moment. And in another month or so it will have gone. It has something both hopeful and cynical about it all at once.

Previous words/phrases of the moment have been segue, "in the same ballpark", "singing off the same page" and "it's not rocket science"

Does anybody else have any other words or phrases that have soared briefly then fallen from grace?

Listening to the Book Show (ABC) this morning …

Interesting comment that while more books are being published but it is harder for a first time author to get published.

So presumeably those authors getting published are writing (and getting publishing) more books? Which when I put it like that didn't sound like such a bad thing.

We're just not good at golf

From Crickey about the PGA international in Colorado:
'2005 winner Retief Goosen had a nightmare of a day, shooting five bogeys and two double bogeys to finish last, summing up the round when he told reporters “I played like a dog today”.'

launch of June, July and August titles

Last Thursday night we had a party to celebrate our last quarter of beautiful books by our truly stunning authors. Here is the launch speech:

"Hello and welcome here tonight. For those who don’t know me, I’m Andrew Kelly one of the publishers at black dog.

And it has been another gorgeous quarter for black dog authors. There’s been a lot of history packed into the last three months. Both Australian and world history, and in terms of black dog’s own short life.

We kick off in June in Ancient Egypt with Ramose. Carole was one of the first authors we published after we hung out our shingle as a trade publisher. It is very satisfying to see these beautifully written books re-issued with Chatri’s gorgeous covers. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my fellow publisher Maryann Ballantyne who was the driving force behind these re-issues and behind the flavour of the covers. She said the other day – it feels like we’re proper publishers now we’ve been around long enough to re-issue books.

Next in July we go to the 18th century with Julian’s beautifyl John Nicol. Unfortunately Julian can’t be with us tonight as he is opening an exhibition so I am able talk behind his back and say how fabulous his artwork is. This book has a history of its own. It’s been four years in the making but it has been worth the wait.

Jan and Heath’s Granny has her own history which has been unfolding as we publish each new title in the series. Granny is just as gorgeous in the third volume as she was in 1 and 2. And I’m just sorry that Russell, Jan’s number 1 fan, who attended the last Granny launch isn’t here tonight.

Also in July there’s a double header from Sue Lawson. We’ve welcomed Sue over from the Dark Side. And we’re pleased that she is flourishing in the warmth and light of the black dog greenhouse – and writing lots and lots of books. Diva is a little bottler that really works well on the frontline of sales where children are buying the books for themselves. Sometimes the reprints have made Cecilia’s head spin. Allie McGregor’s True Colours is so gorgeous it will make you cry. The reviews have been dazzling and we can’t wait for Sue’s next script so we can have another good cry.

Bernadette Kelly has written us for a long time too, from back when we were packaging series for the educational market. So it has been lovely to see her step out into the limelight of trade with such success. And August sees the release of the third book in the best-selling Riding High series.

And last but not least there is Queenie. Queenie has been sweeping the Melbourne media I’d like to congratulate Corinne and Peter before I hand over to Maryann who I’m sure would like to add some words about Queenie as it is a book that she has very much been a champion of …"

And I have no record of what Maryann said.

Queenie publicity

I commented in an earlier blog on the difficulty of getting publicity for children's books compared to adult books. Now I'm being proved wrong by the dazzling publicity for Queenie: One Elephant's Story. Full pages in the Herald Sun and the Age, reviewed in the Australian, an author interview and talkback on Derek Guille on 774 - and that's just part of it. It is amazing how the publicity is drawing out people with a connection to the Queenie story including the grandson of Lawson, Queenie's keeper. A "think local" story that has much wider echos.

boot studding revisited

I'm taking the liberty of adding Glen Manton's definition of boot-studding for further illumination:

"The boot studder is an under-rated staff member who, in the modern era, has been surpassed by boot technology (to an extent). In the olden days-1990's etc-the bootstudder would polish boots, maintain the 'studs' on the bottom, also known as 'stops' and house/protect boots for the players. On match days he would carry out 'long stops' in case of rain and have them available at 1/4 time, 1/2 time etc.In the modern era most players wear blade type boots and play inside-the leather is softer and may not need polishing at all thus the football world loses another great part of it's history in the form of an overweight, grey old man with a great sense of humour and love for the players and game-shame."

Everytime I hear or read book studder it comes with a western twang and an echo of boot scooting.

interview with Mark Rubbo

Karen Tayleur (black dog editor) passed this extract from an interview with Mark Rubbo as she knew it was close to the line I've been pushing:

"Publishers aren't taking as many chances … not investing in younger writers because [in part] the growing role of the agent, even though some agents have been pretty good for Australian writers. It used by that an author would stay with a publisher for life and be nurtured. Now they move around. So the publisher might say. "Why should I invest in this young writer when I know as soon as he is in his stride he is going out and sell himself to the highest bidder, and all the work we've don will bring us know reward?" If I was a publisher I would probably think the same. Why should I take a risk on a first book? I'll wait until the writer is established."

Boot studder contribution to Mongrel Punt

Here's my boot-studding contribution for the next edition of Mongrel Punts:

"I'll tell you what happens. The boot studder does the boot studding. The doctors do the doctoring. The coaches do the coaching," Denis Pagan, Carlton coach.

Could anybody tell me what a boot studder really does?

early blogging from Ron Kenett

I was fascinated to discover that Ron Kennett (right wing Victorian pollie and ex-premier Jeff Kennett's lefty cousin) practised an early form of blogging. He put up a big board in the front yard of his house in busy Railway Cresent in Seaford which he updated regularly with messages in big brushstrokes. The messages were necessarily short, pithy and poetic, given the size of the letters and the scale of the board. Example (after Auckland went into a 6 week electricity blackout after the main cable failed): "Privatised Auckland city dead. Shots fired. Lights out. Thugs roam." An apocalyptic comment on what he thought was going to happen to a privatising Victoria. Ron said he got a lot of comments from people walking, riding and driving by. Maybe they'd stop for a chat or just give a passing thumbs up.

far from the madding crowd

I was talking to Stewart, my Scottish friend, as we we watched our sons boot the ball round at Auskick. We were talking about the boom in Scottish independent publishing and picking up on Henry Rosenbloom's point that most of the strong independents are in Melbourne (at least outside of Sydney) in this country while the biggies are in Sydney. The theory was evolved that you need to be a little distance from the established centre and big players for there to be enough independence of outlook, enough oxygen, to survive. London is then the hub of the big publishers in the UK and the independents tend to be outside. I wouldn't want to push this argument too far - look at the strength of the independents in London - say Snowbooks or Profile for example - but crunchy food for thought.

The black and red

There was a short but neat review from Tony Maniaty in the Australian this Saturday morning for Mongrel Punts and Hard Ball Gets. "Fair suck of the sav", Up there Cazaly", 'knuckle sandwich" and "flogger" were among the entries that caught Tony's fancy.

It's been an interesting experience launching an adult imprint out of a children's imprint. The publicity for Mongrel has been strong - modest but strong - and a lot easier to get than for any of our children's books, where every square millimetre is battled for (and gratefully received). With Mongrel we do of course have Glen's profile to help us. A profile built outside books.

As a new imprint it's been a challenge to get the books into the shops (except in WA where they've embraced Mongrel with an enthusiasm that sends a thrill down the spine). And that was the case with the first black dog book. The red dog launch has been an object lesson for me on the value of a publishing brand (and why self-publishing would not really be viable for a writer in the longer run).

Red Dog is opening new doors for black dog and opening old doors wider - which is exciting for black dog.

Mongrel Punts and Red Dog launch

The Mongrel Punts and Hard Ball Gets: An A-Z of Footy Speak was launched with fanfare and a flourish of trumpets at Readings on Tuesday night. Chris at Readings was the queen of organisation. The Coodabeens were just right - witty and warm. Paula spoke from the heart and Glen was polished. (It was an interesting footy-equivalent role that Glen assigned to the editor, that of boot studder. Apparently if the president dies nobody really cares but if the boot studder dies all the players are distraught. So he's really important.) A bootload of books were sold and Readings came back for more (we always have a spare box of books in the boot at the launch}. Thanks to everybody but especially the Susie and Coodabeens.