If a festival ain't broke . . .
The Age
Saturday March 6, 2010
BOOKMARKS Adelaide Writers Week shuns more of a good thing, Hachette makes its entree into the festival soirees, and Picador hits the right note, while Irvine Welsh is perfectly ghastly, writes Jason Steger. THE book industry always seems to have a subject that preoccupies it. For much of the past couple of years it has been the Productivity Commission and the possibility of the government accepting its recommendations and allowing parallel importation of books. Now the focus is on Senator Kim Carr's strategy group for the future, and digital books.But at Adelaide Writers Week, which finished yesterday, there was much muttering about South Australian Premier Mike Rann's plan to make the two-yearly Adelaide Festival, of which it is a part, a yearly event.Publishers were "agog and aghast" at the prospect. There was concern that the audiences would drop, along with the standard of guests, while the focus of the week on what can be loosely termed creative writing would change.Apparently, Rann won't force the change on writers week, leaving the decision up to the committee, which is chaired by Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee and includes David Malouf. Coetzee was pretty elusive but Malouf said the change would be "fatal" to the character and composition of writers week.New kid on the block?IT MIGHT be fatal to a few writers and publishers too. During the day, they go about their business. Writers talk about their books, their lives, their concerns €” in one of the two tents in which the sessions are held. Publishers meet the visiting international publishers and literary agents and try to sell the rights to their books for publication overseas.At night all the publishers hold their parties. These vary in size and location, but there is a certain element of tradition. On Sunday, it is always Allen & Unwin in a lovely old Adelaide pub; it is invariably packed, informal and the grog flows freely. As it does on Monday with Random House, Tuesday with Picador, Wednesday with HarperCollins and so on.There was a new host this year, Hachette, which slipped into the traditional Picador slot after the latter decided to turn its free-for-all by the Torrens River into a dinner. Managing director Malcolm Edwards said the name Hachette was a relative newcomer, but its stable included venerable old imprints such as Hodder & Stoughton, which dated from the 1840s, and John Murray, which has been publishing since the 1760s. "And anyway," he said, "we are seeing early signs that people can pronounce the name."Back in BlackPICADOR may have turned its bash into a dinner but this year it really lashed out on the backing band. The imprint is characterised by the colour black so who better than AC/DC to provide the music? Mind you, it would have worried if all the band's friends had turned up. There were 45,000 of them at the band's gig across the road at Adelaide Oval when Picador's guests sat down to eat. You could hear every riff. And Back in Black was particularly appropriate. There is no truth in the rumour that Picador is publishing Angus Young's autobiography and that he was at the oval as a guest of writers week.Spot the prequelTHE week's real activities are in the tents where the good burghers of Adelaide show resilience and determination €” and that's only so they can get a seat out of the sun.Irvine Welsh confessed his appearance at 9.30am was his earliest to date at a writers festival. But that didn't stop him reading a brilliantly ghastly short story narrated in his familiar Scottish vernacular that appalled and delighted. It was filled with f---s and c---s, but the Trainspotting author said he doubted his best-known book would be published these days because of the political correctness in London publishing. That hasn't stopped him returning to those characters: his next book is a prequel of sorts in which he explores Renton's background.Dress for literary successONE way that writers make money is to sell their manuscripts to a library after a book is finished. Sarah Waters, the Booker-shortlisted author most recently of The Little Stranger, might consider selling her clothes. You see, she wears a special outfit for work €” the same tracksuit bottoms and singlet. That's all very well, she said, but given the amount of sweating and snacking she does during the writing of a book, by the end they could stand up by themselves.Get the pictureWOULD-BE writers always want tips on how to get published. Philip Kerr, author of the Bernie Gunther novels, was the same when he started out. He once bumped into the Irish novelist Edna O'Brien and asked her for a few tips. "Oh," she said, "you should do a CV, three sample chapters, a synopsis and send a photo." He thought this wasn't very literary but she explained that publishers liked good-looking young people to promote. He duly did what she suggested and within six weeks he had an agent. A few years later he bumped into her again and this time thanked her for the advice. "Did you make a lot of money?" was her immediate response. "Yes," he said.
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