Starters & Writers

The Australian Bookseller & Publisher serves as the trade magazine for the Australian publishing and bookselling industry. It derives a substantial amount of its revenue from the advertisements that publishers place in it. Some publishers have accused the magazine of being too bland, too afraid to be critical or to tackle the real issues that are important to the industry. The editor, Michael Webster, no doubt mindful of this criticism, has been making concerted attempts to put some teeth into the magazine by making the content less self-congratulatory and more critical. Webster has sought outside contributors whose views reflect anything but complacency or acceptance of the status quo. Earlier this year he reprinted an attack by UQP’s Laurie Muller on the complacency and bad practices of the bookselling and publishing communities. This provoked angry responses from a number of booksellers and publishers. It did, however, result in the Australian Booksellers Association deciding to make Muller’s criticisms a central feature of its upcoming conference. In a more recent issue, publisher Bruce Pascoe accused the majority of Australian librarians of almost totally ignoring the output of Australian writers and publishers, preferring instead the safety of the imported product. Librarians could be seen fuming and clutching the magazine angrily, with sections of the offending article violently highlighted in fluorescent reds. This shift in editorial policy has not been universally welcomed. It has been reported that one publisher sought to bring pressure to bear on Webster because they hadn’t liked a particular piece. One of the new features of the magazine is a column of trade gossip written under the pseudonym of Gladys Bembo. When Gladys, in a recent column, speculated on staff changes at the Australian subsidiary of William Collins Publishers, Collins reacted angrily and rang Webster to cancel the full-page advertisement that they had booked for the next issue. Publishers, on the one hand, say that they want an independent and critical trade journal, yet when criticism involves them they appear all too ready to bring their financial and political influence to bear on the offending journal. One could argue that the Bembo column is just trivial trade gossip and speculation of little consequence and therefore Collins’ action, although arguably petty, doesn’t matter all that much. But because Collins have signalled to the Australian Bookseller and Publisher that they had better not print anything that Collins might find offensive, the issue becomes a much wider one. A journal such as Australian Bookseller and Publisher is very vulnerable to pressure from its advertisers because it draws them from such a narrow base. If its advertisers signal that they will withdraw their support if the magazine becomes critical of their individual or collective roles the editor is placed in a very difficult situation. If he maintains an independent editorial stance he runs the risk of losing a substantial amount of his revenue; if he caves in the magazine becomes bland and uninteresting. The situation is ironical in that many publishers themselves have had to resist outside censorship of their activities. Indeed, the current President of the Australian Book Publishers Association, Richard Walsh, has figured prominently in a number of cases in this country as an editor of Oz magazine and Nation Review. James Fraser, formerly an independent publisher and now running the Australian program for Pan Australia, is very pleased about the way his new Australian list is shaping up. The first Australian Picador, Yacka, a collection of interviews with Australian writers done by Candy Baker, is about to be published. Though small the upcoming program for Pan is interesting because of its diversity. Robert Drewe’s first novel in almost eight years will be out in September. Fraser and his editor, Penny Hueston, received the first half of the completed manuscript in May. They are both very excited about the new book which will be called Fortune, ‘set in the west, it’s an end of the world sort of thing.’ Also later this year is Evan Green’s latest book, Adam’s Empire, an epic adventure set in the outback. Popular fiction is an area that few Australian publishers attempt to work in. Pan Australia have sold the rights for Green’s book to the UK publisher, Macdonald, who are treating it as their lead Christmas title. In 2000 AD, eminent Australians give their impressions of what Australia will be like in 2000AD. It sounds a bit dubious to me, but Fraser says that it works. Pan’s final book for the year is a collection of photographs by Bill Henson, whose work is represented in major galleries both here and overseas. Fraser is about the only publisher willing to take the risks involved in publishing photographic monographs in such a small market as Australia. Last year, literary agent Rosemary Cresswell wrote a description of the 1985 NSW Premier’s Awards dinner; it was according to Rose a bacchanalian rort. Her article was quoted around the world and made organisers of other awards, with their staid affairs, green with envy. Now Rose, with her friend and noted author, Jean Bedford, has published a series of interconnected love stories called Colouring In – A Book of Ideologically Unsound Love Stories. The stories are mostly gossipy fun, chronicling the antics of two liberated women out on the town. The authors don’t deny that the stories are partly autobiographical and are peopled by characters who are, I am told, quite recognisable as members of Sydney’s literary scene. Penguin, who are distributing the book for publishers McPhee Gribble, are expecting huge sales at Gleebooks and Bray’s in Balmain as people rush in to see if they or their friends are in the book. For Jean Bedford, the year will be an important one as her second novel, Love Child, will be published later in the year. It, too, is about love, but in a much more serious vein. Melbournians who wish to get a taste of the Sydney high life can see Rosemary Cresswell and Jean Bedford in action at the Universal Theatre on June 15. (Bookings at Readings Bookshops). In Peter Corris’s latest Cliff Hardy book, Deal Me Out, Hardy refers to Melbourne as ‘nowhere’. For over two years, Melbourne editor Jim Davidson has been working on a book of essays about the differences between Sydney and Melbourne. After many years in the making, Victoria’s Premier John Cain will launch The Sydney Melbourne Book at a suitably solemn occasion. For Jim Davidson, the process of bringing the book together has been an agonising and, at times, a frustratingly slow one. Mr Davidson denies that this was due to the fact that he had a Sydney publisher. The book, which looks at the social, cultural, and political differences between ‘St. Petersburg’ and ‘Tinsel Town’, should be an important event in the recording of Australian metropolitan culture.

Mark Rubbo

From the New Issue

Frank Moorhouse: Strange paths by Matthew Lamb

Thunderhead by Miranda Darling

Expanding Mindscapes: A global history of psychedelics by Erika Dyck and Chris Elcock

‘Calm Voice’, a new poem by Anders Villani

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