All this information about subsidy publishing in Britain is interesting, if
essentially of little use to those of us elsewhere. I would, however, want
to argue that in countries of much smaller populations, such as Canada
(with its canada Council) & Australia (where the Arts Board studied the CC,
& adaopted many of its strategies, as I understand), there is a real need
for support for small publishers especially. In Canada, almost all the
poetry (except for about 10 - 12 books per year) is published by small
presses, in runs of less than a thousand copies. Such presses, most of
which have small office staffs & are managed by volunteer boards, can
barely break even with subsidies. This the Canada Council recognizes, &
therefore continues to support them if they do a good job of distribution &
try to promote their books strongly (even with fiction, a Canadian
'best-seller' [as opposed to the Harry Potter books which have sold in the
hundred thousands here too] can be a book that has sold 5000 copies [so
that a novel, Icefields, published by NeWest, which has gone through 4
printings & sold over 10, 000 copies in 4 years, is an exciting book to
have on a small publisher's list]). I suspect the situation is somewhat
similar in Australia. Press runs of 500 - 750 (up to 1500 for writers like
Ondaatje or Atwood [whose last books *of poetry* were published first in
hardcover, & then in paper) are normal for poetry. Then there are some
younger writers who have started very small presses publishing chapbooks in
runs from 50 up to a couple of hundred...
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
the way of what fell
the lies
like the petals
falling drop
delicately
Phyllis Webb
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|