Writing and publishing news, events and markets

Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic) has discovered a creative new application for Twitter: revenge, After a less-than-glowing review of her new book, she tweeted critic Roberta Silman’s phone number and email address, urging fans to communicate their displeasure with ’snarky critics’. Fortunately, Hoffman got the number wrong, and Silman enjoyed her weekend away uninterrupted. Neither was her inbox inundated with complaints. Hoffman has apologised, her reputation in tatters. Here’s a good article summarising the spat, with links to sites that still have some of the original tweets (Hoffman’s Twitter account is no more). It certainly gives pause to consider the issues this has raised in terms of an author’s online presence.

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The Queensland literary scene is on fire this year, with ten (and counting) debut authors launching their books across a range off genres. One of the reasons for this surge in publications has been the mentoring and fostering of new writers by established authors, and a prime mover in establishing this supportive literary community has been author Nick Earls. Today we talk with Nick , fresh from his rocking book launch at the Powerhouse last night, about Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Sp: Have you attended/appeared at BBWF before – if so, what is your favourite BBWF moment?

NE: Yes. The time I was on a panel with a major TV star who is now also a writer, and he appeared to be hungover after the night before but turned out to be still drunk. The panel was unchairable, but compelling. I’d always heard about the panels at previous festivals where someone had gone feral. Finally I was part of it.

Sp: What is it you most value or look forward to about BBWF 09?

NE: The environment is hard to beat. The audience members behave like they love to be there. And there’s a beach to run on.

Sp: Did attending writers festivals help develop your writing craft/career when you were a developing/emerging writer?

NE: Yes, I quite often learned something, and not always from the big-name novelists. Once I heard Wendy Harmer (back when she was a comedian and hadn’t written books) talk about writing comedy, and about when to be general and when to be specific, and how differently they worked. Sometimes you should say biscuit, sometimes it just has to be Tim Tam. She’s right, and what she said still has a bearing on my writing. 

Sp: What are your Top Tips for making the most of Byron Bay Writers Festival?

NE: For authors: eat and drink anything free that comes your way. Okay, eat everything, but maybe don’t drink everything. Do try to deliver when it’s your turn to speak.

For audience members: make the most of the laid-back atmosphere. If you see a writer you want to talk to, go up and talk to them. 

Sp: Can you please select a topic from your BBWF session/s, and briefly share your thoughts on it?

NE: ‘Meet Nick Earls’ - surely that topic’s irresistible. I hear sometimes he throws cash into the audience. (Okay, maybe not …)

SP: Please tell us about your current book/project.

NE: This year’s story, The True Story of Butterfish, exists as both a novel and a play. The central character, Curtis Holland, is 35 and after his band breaks up he moves back to Brisbane to reconnect with his brother and work out what’s next in his life. I realised he wanted a small world and that the best way to tell the story was with as few characters as possible. I ended up with six and, as I got to know them, they felt like a more natural fit as a play cast than any of my four novels that have been adapted for theatre. So I wrote the story as a play as well as a novel, and I alternated drafts. The novel’s out now, the play is on at the Powerhouse in Brisbane in Oct.

You can follow Nick on Twitter at twitter.com/nickearls. He’s as hilarious as he is generous.

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Also at Nick’s book launch last night was author John Birmingham, who took a break from his Spartan writing regime to enjoy the festivities. John will be joining us at AWMonline next Tuesday night to lead us on to great word counts at the Writing Race: log in around 7.45pm AEST for an hour’s dedicated writing time from 8-9pm. If John’s tweets are anything to go by, the man is a (fabulous) writing machine. Can’t wait!

Have a lovely weekend, folks, and happy writing.

Writers festivals, that is. Our festival roundup today includes a peek at the Voices on the Coast youth literary festival line-up, as well as a brief interview with the wonderful Australian author Linda Jaivin about the Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Byron Bay Writers Festival runs from 7-9 August 2009 (Workshops from 3 August). BBWF guest Linda Jaivin’s first novel, the comic-erotic Eat Me became an international bestseller, published in a dozen countries and almost as many languages. Now an internationally published novelist, essayist, cultural commentator, playwright, specialist writer on China and translator (from Chinese), Linda shares with us her thoughts on BBWF past and present.

Sp: Have you attended/appeared at BBWF before – if so, what is your favourite BBWF moment?

LJ: Probably the conversation I did with Di Morrissey in which she told a hilarious story involving her lawn, a cage, a nightgown, and a delivery boy. Also, the rather evocative signing by the interpreter for the deaf during a rather racy conversation about erotic literature; we kept upping the ante just to see how what we were talking about would be translated.

Sp: What is it you most value or look forward to about BBWF 09?

LJ: The chance to see old friends and make new ones, and to watch the sun come up over the ocean. Cages, nightgowns, delivery boys.

Sp: What are your Top Tips for making the most of Byron Bay (or any) Writers Festival?

LJ: Go to hear at least one author about whom you know nothing. Find some time to sit down with a good book. Eat, drink, be merry.

Sp: Can you please select a topic from your BBWF session/s, and briefly share your thoughts on it?

LJ: I’d like to talk about the insights that the writing of my new book, A Most Immoral Woman, gave me into the possibilities and limitations of historical fiction, women’s sexuality at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, and the portrayal of China in fiction. 

[You can hear Ramona Koval of The Book Show interview Linda about A Most Immoral Woman here.]

Sp: Please tell us about your current book/project.

LJ: I’ve started a new novel which, like A Most Immoral Woman, is largely set in the waning years of Qing Dynasty China. I’m also writing the libretto for an opera based on a Ming Dynasty story which, if all goes to plan, will premiere in Beijing with a leading Peking Opera company next year.

Sp: Thank you for sharing these BBWF insights with us, Linda. I have the good fortune to be chairing a BBWF session featuring Linda on Sunday 9 August - it will be a fantastic opportunity to explore the issues she mentions here. Joining Linda will be Keven Rabalais, Louis Nowra, and Judith Lanagan, so it will be a fun and fascinating session!

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Voices on the Coast (Buderim, Qld) presents an interesting line-up of wonderful YA authors, including Morris Gleitzman, Shaun Tan, James Moloney, Maureen McCarthy and Hilary Badger (associate to the author H.I. Larry of Zac Power fame).

The dates for the festival are Wednesday 15 July – Secondary School Day and Thursday 16 July - Primary School Day, Week One of Term Three. Talks will be priced at $6.50 and workshops will be $12.50 per person.

View the winners of the Voices on the Coast writing competition here.

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We’re grafting these branches onto a tree that already had an organic, balanced structure. Knowing that we’re changing the organism, we’re trying not to do anything toxic to it, and to keep everything in some kind of balance. At this point, I don’t know what the result will be. I have some intuitions, but my mind is completely open. [Walter Murch, quoted in The Artful Edit by Susan Bell.]

Editorial Ass has a couple of interesting articles on editors, money, and literature. They argue that editors tend to be an underpaid lot, as are most people who work in publishing, which has implications for the shape of literature as a whole.

Lack of adequate financial remuneration doesn’t stop ‘em, though - thank goodness. Last year, 112 Australian editors gained accredited status. Editors around Australia are again gearing up for the next round of Accreditation exams to be held simultaneously in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, and Perth.  The three-hour exam will be held on Saturday 12 September, and registrations are open until 31 July 2009. Today is your last chance to take advantage of the early-bird discount. See The Institute of Professional Editors Limited (IPEd) for information and registration, or contact your local Society of Editors for  workshops and practice exams.

A book can be really tender shoots at first. And if you have the wrong kind of editing at that point it can kill it. Kill something that is potentially very good. It’s tremendously imporant to figure out who that other set of eyes ought to be. Because there are people out there who may acutally be envious of you… [Tracy Kidder in The Artful Edit.]

Good advice. Let’s respect our craft by working with people who possess the requisite skills. But also, let’s keep our feet on the ground, and not get carried away by the imagined value of our manuscript - as does the self-published author in this Writer Beware article. This cautionary tale gives us a reality check: literary theft is not common, mostly because it just doesn’t pay. Better to expend our energies in developing our unique voice, rather than fighting legal battles with writers whose ideas spring from the same fertile ground.

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The Scarlet Stiletto Awards for crime fiction are now open, so polish your best crime short story for a chance to become part of Australian women’s crime fic history! Also, the Davitt Award: Books in Contention are listed here. Will Katherine Howell take out two in a row with her second book The Darkest Hour? Will hugely successful Kate Morton pip her at the post for The Forgotten Garden? Will Australian crime legend Kerry Greenwood get the nod for Phyrne Fisher mystery #17? Will Chloe Hooper continue her winning run and take out the True Crime Davitt for her depth and precision in The Tall Man? With 41 titles from a range of publishers big and small, the Davitts represent the best of the best in Australian women’s crime writing. Join SinCOz to have your vote.

UDPATE: The Scarlet Stiletto Awards application form will be available soon at the SinCOz website. Meanwhile, this is it here.

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A new writing prize:

‘Telstra, in conjunction with the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) and the Hon Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, launched the Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for Telecommunications and Disability. This new prize of $20 000 will be awarded for the best original paper offered for publication by TJA that demonstrates the tangible benefits that an innovative use of telecommunications technology can deliver in assisting individuals with disabilities.’

See here for more details.

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A mythical opportunity for stamp collectors and lovers of geeky art, fantasy, mythology, ‘n’stuff. Fairies or dragons? I can’t decide!

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It’s about time for another Fri(edbrain)day of random links:

Advance, or no advance: romance writer Jackie Barbosa divides the royalties pie.

This London Grip article on Emerging Trends in Business and Social Technology takes us from Consumers to Prosumers to Selfsumers to … sumer-wrestling, perhaps?

For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music  - the new Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse album.  Such a great CD,  but if someone hadn’t accidentally dropped it onto the interwebz, we’d never have heard it. There’s a legal stream here.

And finally, new book smell in a can for e-readers? Don’t be ridiculous. "Eau, you have cats!"

My brain is exploding! It always does when I delve into social media strategies research.

I’ll have to read this amazing post by Angela Meyer on "…What makes a successful cultural blog" again, to get my head straight. Yes, you’ve read it already, I’m sure, but here’s an excerpt that sums up the challenges and opportunities of blogging so well:

What we can embrace is the fact that the blog is a narrative. That it is transient and linear (the blog grows as does its writer), but the pieces also exist permanently (possibly) to be recalled in google searches or through links from other sites and backtracks on your own. And while it may be linear, in a sense, it is also incredibly rich and multifaceted, in terms of the links, feeds, appropriations, communication and references one can use in single posts or threads.

Meyer also articulates the power of the personal in blogging, as opposed to the ‘neutral reporter’ viewpoint that is the benchmark of professional journalism (and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, btw). So what do you think? How much of the personal does a writer need to put in their blogs and websites? How do you create and maintain a successful persona for your online presence?

While you’re thinking about that, you might like to refer to some handy reference material addressing how ‘digital infrastructure will affect where and when artists engage with their audiences’:

In less than five years, most Australian households and businesses will be able to access data-rich content such as games, TV, enriched social networking and movies, as a result of the Australian Government’s roll-out of the National Broadband Network. Most Australian households will also convert to digital television.

As uptake of digital technologies increases, these platforms will play a more central role in the production, distribution and enjoyment of arts content. With the shift to online culture come new challenges, opportunities and questions.

This snippet is from the introductory paragraphs of the new Art Strategy for the Digital Age by the Australia Council for the Arts. Speakeasy applauds the Australia Council for its forward planning and initiative in embracing the digital medium, and hopes we will soon see some innovative strategies from traditional Australian publishers as both artists and entrepreneurs move forward into the conceptual age.

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Aurealis Award-winning speculative fiction author Trent Jamieson led a brace of AWMonline subscribers to an amazing evening’s writing achievement. The Writing Race tally from last night gave our standing record of 10,529 a nudge at 10,426 words. The generosity, skill and talent in the Australian writing community is a wonderful thing.

As Trent says, ‘…write hard, write what you love, and edit until your eyes bleed.’

The opportunity to interview founders and editors of literary magazines is one of the most exciting and humbling aspects of my job. This interview with John Tranter, poet and founder of Jacket magazine, brought home to me how much great work is being done in the Australian literary scene by people who are dedicated to their craft, and savvy about their industry. Read on to find out more about this wonderful publisher of modern Australian poetry.

Sp: When and why did you set up Jacket - what’s the best anecdote from the early days of Jacket?

JT: I set up Jacket in 1997. I was the sole employee (unpaid) for the first eight years, then we doubled our staff: Pam Brown joined as Associate Editor (unpaid) in 2005. We are up to issue number 37 now (mid-2009).

When I began, I had no idea if anyone would ever get to know that the magazine was there, among the millions of pages on the net, or what kind of reach it might have. In the first issue I published an interview I’d done with the British poet, Roy Fisher. In a week or so I received an email from a fellow thanking me for publishing it. He said ‘I’m a great fan of Roy Fisher’s and it’s hard to find work on him up here in Nome, Alaska.’

Sp: Your favourite paragraph from a published submission and why?

JT: ‘Three sentences on the way to Belize’ (by Eliot Weinberger)

Sitting in the last row of the plane next to a Belizean woman of uncertain age. The choice for lunch was pasta, fish, or chicken, but by the time the meal cart reached us, there was only pasta or fish. My seatmate smiled sweetly at the stewardess and said, "Next time you’ll have to kill more chickens." 

Sp:  Your favourite image from any edition of Jacket and why?

Photo copyright (c) Walter Crump, from Ruth Lepson and Walter Crump:
"Morphology", reviewed by John Mercuri Dooley (Design, Christina
Strong) BlazeVOX Books, 2007. http://www.blazevox.org/bk-lc.htm

JT: I like it because it seems to be trying to tell a strange story, and I think the clouds look beautiful.

Sp: Top 3 things that will turn you off a submission?

• Tired, conventional ideas
• Sloppy, careless or egotistical writing
• Writing that tries too hard to be cute 

Sp: What are you most interested in at the moment in Australian publishing?

JT: The need to reduce the proportion of "Australian" publishers which are entirely owned and managed by foreigners from the current 90% to about 40%. This would take the emphasis away from the idea that every single title must turn a profit, and replace it with something more civilised: the idea that a great publisher carries a wide range of titles: from blockbuster profit-makers to massively popular biographies of "media" "celebrities" and sporting "heroes" to a small but distinguished list of poetry titles that will inevitably lose a small amount of money: that is, a tiny fraction of the obscene profits that the other books make.

Sp: Speakeasy is interested in gaining a snap shot of the future of publishing in Australia. Where do you think your mag will be in 5 years?

JT: I really don’t know: still there, I hope.

SP: We hope so, too!

Check out the submission guidelines for Jacket: they are an exemplar of good-humoured professionalism, and a great guide to understanding the special requirements and opportunities of online publication.

… poets and novelists.

I want to see The Australian try this one: Hebrew language daily paper Haaretz commissioned one entire edition to poets and authors, both established and emerging, in place of the regular journalists. Instead of the functional quotidian fair, this became the news:

… 79-year-old author Yoram Kaniuk, whose novel “Adam Resurrected” was recently adapted for a movie starring Jeff Goldblum and Ayelet Zurer … went into the field to write about couples in the hospital cancer ward. The thing is, he’s a cancer patient, too. “A woman walking with a cane brings her partner a cup of coffee with a trembling hand. The looks they exchange are sexier than any performance by Madonna and cost a good deal less,” Kaniuk wrote. “I think about what would happen if I were to get better…how I would live without the human delicacy to which I am witness?”

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Tired of developing writers’ callous on your pointer finger? Developing a permanent claw from using teensy-weensy qwerty keyboards on your phone or PDA? Fear not, the PhonePoint Pen is on its way! We will soon be able to take notes by playing a weird form of charades: wave your motion-senstive smart phone in the air (like when you spelled out your name with a sparkler at New Year’s Eve parties when you were a kid, remember?) and, hey presto! A garbled message appears on your screen. Apparently, AI and fuzzy pattern matching will come to the rescue of those of us with less-than-perfect pencraft. Phew.

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Everything you wanted to know about copyright but didn’t know who to ask: CAL (Copyright Agency Limited) FAQs are some of the best around for authors looking for legal and related information about the ownership of their work.

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Treat yourself to this incredible film clip produced by Agust Jacobsson for musical group Sigur Ros featuring the Perlan special-needs theatre group. Not only is it nine minutes of heavenly music and visual, it ends with the best screen kiss EVER.

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Writing Race 8-9pm AEST tonight: AWMonline forums>Writing Race>Writing Race 16 June 2009 - all AWMonline subscribers welcome! See you there, Racers.

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Illustrators Australia are celebrating twenty years with an exhibition of illustration at Rooftop Gallery Northcote from 19-21 June. See some IA members’ iconic artworks, hear the free talks, and schmooze the wonderful illustrators’ community.

This Wired post Eighteen Challenges in Contemporary Literature is a thought-provoking summary of issues in contemporary publishing.

From the oft-mooted:

Vernacular means of everyday communication — cellphones, social networks, streaming video — are moving into areas where printed text cannot follow.

To the arguable:

The Gothic fate of poor slain Poetry is the specter at this dwindling feast.

To the right-on!:

Polarizing civil cold war is harmful to intellectual honesty.

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Artist Philipp Keel has a designed a KISS Taschen diary (the methodology, not the band). Keel astutely observes that ’there are three reasons why most people, although they have tried, won’t keep a diary. Not every day is very eventful, it actually takes a lot of discipline to write, and in retrospect, may find what they have written embarrassing.’

Now, as appealing as it may sound to be able to check your day as ‘pushy’ or ’spying’, but not both, and then follow the prompts to supply a naive comment, Speakeasy maintains that it does indeed take a lot of discipline to write. Check boxes and prompts are a fun way to inspire you to record and observe your life in different ways. But imagine if they published la belle femme bohème Anais Nin’s diaries as a tick-a-box:

Did I enjoy sex with someone shocking and/or inappropriate today?              Yes/No

Something is lost, would you agree?

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Wondering where Michael Campbell, formerly of Brisbane Writers Festival, has moved on to? According to the latest Bookseller + Publisher, he’s the new Sydney-based Editor at large for Scribe.

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Finally, has anyone noticed it’s a tad chilly ? Is anyone else learning how to operate a pen or keyboard while wearing gloves that transform fingers into woolly sausages? Writing a scene set during a record-breaking heatwave in Cloncurry, while juddering uncontrollably with cold in Lismore?

Fear not, dear bold and cold writers, for there are any number of specialised products targetting your winter needs while providing epic LOLs:

Snuggies:
https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next

Slankets:
http://www.theslanket.com/

The Lazypatch:
http://www.lazypatch.com/

And for bath-time, the Wearable Towel:
http://www.wearabletowel.com/

So no more excuses, although please promise me you won’t wear them to your book launch …

Happy (warm) writing this weekend!

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At Criminal Brief (The Mystery Short Story Web Log Project), The A.D.D. Detective, Leigh Lunden, observes that

Vanity publishing is like T-ball:

Everyone gets a chance at bat, gets a hit, and takes home a trophy.

But don’t expect anyone other than your mom to applaud.

Crossfire of the Vanities is a brilliant post on the benefits and pitfalls of self-publishing. When does self-publishing work, i.e. when is it an appropriate option for you to consider? And when is it simply an admission that your manuscript is "not quite ready for prime time"? Lunden scores some home-truths and home-runs on the artificially level playing field of vanity publishing.

If I had compiled a sweet social history of my family or community, if I was providing valuable trade instructions, or if I were a touring bush balladeer, then I’d be shopping around for an ethical, professional self-publishing company for sure. Otherwise, I’d bear in mind that ‘neither authors nor readers are well-served by self-published fiction’, and keep putting in the miles; editing my manuscript, attending my crit group, putting my bum on seats at writers events and festivals, and generally serving my apprentice. In honouring the craft, the patient pathway to publication is its own reward.

And, remember, avoid the vampirates at all costs!

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Speakeasy fell in lurve with Alice Pung when we read her post on Becoming a Writer at The Inc. Blot, the blog of Black Inc., independent Melbourne-based publisher of literary non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Unpolished Gem sounds a treasure indeed.

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 Have you seen Inside the Shortlist? It is a guide to the CBCA’s Shortlist Information for teachers from Prep/Kinder through to senior secondary, offering a wealth of ideas for displaying, discussing, and enjoying this year’s best Australian books for young people. Purchasing a copy of this teacher resource keeps the project viable, ensuring young people in Australia continue to have access to locally produced works of art and literature.

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