Sun 18 Mar 2012
Vox Pop
Posted by AlisaK under Uncategorized
[17] Comments
I have so much to update here but here is something really interesting I just came across on the interwebs:
The real reason it’s so hard to get your Australian novel published
which I came to via, Who’s afraid of Australian novels?
Which pauses me to ask you, when was the last time you bought an Australian novel? Answers in the comments box, just as a fun exercise. I mean, I’m in the process of buying Australian novels to publish but it’s an interesting question. As I looked round to see what I have just recently bought and when I last bought an Aussie novel, I guess we bought Tansy’s Reign of Beasts last month in February. And before that, maybe The Courier’s New Bicycle? at Xmas/New Year? Not too bad really. But if I was to go back before that … probably the last time I was at Crow’s Books and it was raining that day and I still worked at my old job.
So, how about you? (Bearing in mind you’re probably doing the AWW 2012 challenge, right? 
)
In the last month I have bought and read Reign of Beasts (Tansy Rayner Roberts), Sea Hearts (Margo Lanagan) and all three books of Jennifer Fallon’s Second Sons trilogy. I expect I’ll splurge at Swancon too but that’ll be it for the year except for e-books unless something I really want to read and keep comes out. Husband is hoping it doesn’t.
The Courier’s New Bicycle & The Daughters of Moab by Kim Westwood, Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan and Reigh of Beasts by Tansy. Read Courier’s & looking forward to the others.
Man, I thought there was gonna be some really good revelation behind that link, but all it was is “you can’t expect to sell the kind of books that you don’t buy.”
I KNOW that already! And I DO buy them! With money that I don’t have, even! This month I bought “Liberator”. Last month I (bullied someone else into buying me) “Debris” and “The Last Stormlord.” “Reign of Beasts,” “Slights” and “Sea Hearts” I’d bought myself the week before. I am dying with excitement for future Australian mythic fantasy including projects Margo Lanagan and Lee Battersby are working on – yes, a new release trade paperback can be $35, but who cares if it keeps Claire Corbett in enough cups of coffee to stay awake and write another book.
Every time I read “eucalyptus” instead of “oak” in a medieval fantasy, my heart skips a beat!
OK, so that’s never actually happened.
But people like Trent, Narrelle, Deb, Kate Gordon and the Fisch are inching the genre closer to home all the time
Wow. Reality check moment. This year in particular I have been reading quite a bit of Australian fiction, but when I look at it the last two Australian novels that I bought were an Anne Gracie novel and before that Courier’s New Bicycle which was late last year. All the Australian books I have been reading have either been egalleys or from the library.
I’m reading Bryce Courtenay’s “Fortune Cookie” right now. Before that, the most recent were another Bryce Courtney novel late last year and a couple of 12pp novellas some time ago.
Yellowcake, Girl with No Hands, Bluegrass Symphony in January. Nothing February.
I bought Sea Hearts on Friday. Before that, it’s hard to think because I’ve not been buying many books lately – living on the TBR shelf. However, if you look at my bookshelves, more than half are Australian, so I think I’m doing okay
Today! Angel Arias (finally!)
I’ve been deliberately restricting my book purchasing this year because of trying to get through the books I already HAVE, but of the 8 I have bought (yes, 8 is me on restrictions) only 2 were Australian: Hoodwinked by Rhonda Roberts, and the pre-order of Tehani’s new Fablecroft book, To Spin A Darker Stair. I also received Narrelle’s Showtime which was technically last year’s purchase.
That doesn’t include the many graphic novels I buy and the children’s books for Raeli, which are mostly from overseas.
But I think of myself as a heavy reading of Australian work! I know I do have lots on that To Read shelf…
I haven’t bought many books in the past year, but the books I’ve bought have mostly been by Australian women:
Marianne de Pierres:
Burn Bright
Angel Arias
(you can be sure I’ll be out to get the third asap too)
Tansy Rayner Roberts:
Power and Majesty
The Shattered City
Reign of Beasts
Glenda Larke
The last stormlord trilogy (the names of which escape me at present).
I’ve bought other non fiction books some by women, some by men, mostly philosophy or cultural related. Notables include ‘I Love to You’ by Luce Irigaray (Oh I swoon at her prose), The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir(sp?) and a book of Dorothy Porter’s poetry on ‘Passion’
I buy heaps of Australian fiction! I find it strange that other Aussies don’t. I buy mainly Australian and British. Other than a couple of authors I really like, I don’t buy US fiction as it doesn’t resonate with me at all.
I bought a few in December – Kim Westwood’s “The Courier’s New Bicycle”, Leanne Hall’s “This is Shyness”, Kate Gordon’s “Thyla”, and Isobelle Carmody’s “The Sending”. The last one I bought, in February, was Tansy’s “Reign of Beasts”.
I have bought all 3 of TRR’s Creature Court trilogy in the last 6 months and bought the Courier’s New Bicycle yesterday – after seeing so many recs over so many months, I took a punt. I’ve also re-purchased several Kerry Greenwood novels in ebook form because I find them fabulous comfort reading so I want them on my Kindle.
Can I just say how much I love you all right now?
Sea Hearts a few weeks ago, Yellowcake and Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror most recently. I haven’t bought a book by an overseas author in a while!
Erm. Today. Before that… 2 weeks ago if you count Thief of Lives which isn’t a novel which means it was Tansy’s Reign of Beasts which would’ve arrived 4ish weeks ago. (And before that I bought a glut of them end of Jan/start of Feb.) Even without the AWW 2012 Challenge, my reading is heavily slanted towards Australians, yay.
Within the last month I have bought Tansy’s Reign of Beasts and also Lara Morgan’s vol 2 of the Rosie Black Chronicles (good stuff – YA dystopia – I know! from a local WA writer).
In the last week I have ordered: Debris, Sea Hearts, Thyla, & Courier’s New Bicycle. (ok plus another 4 non-Aus SF/f by women). This is meant to be my year of not buying books – ahem! So for me if I am going to buy then its mainly going to be local to support our writers!