Hello Sean O' Brien,

why is your tone so peremptory, against Roddy, I wonder?
Isn't anybody free to pay the amount of attention he wishes to pay to a
given matter, if he wishes to do so?

And what is wrong with the concept of something which is "little-lamented"?
Should one be more pleased with a definition of a phenomenon as
"hugely-lamented "?
Ah, the celebratory worry of poets about these nuances.
Let people vituperate what they want. And stay still.



Erminia Passannanti








From: "Sean O'Brien" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: UK poetry stats
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 18:01:59 +0100

You'll have to clarify that phrase 'little-lamented'. Maybe you haven't been
paying attention.

Best wishes

Sean O'Brien
-----Original Message-----
     From: Roddy Lumsden <[log in to unmask]>
     To: Poetryetc <[log in to unmask]>
     Date: Thursday, April 06, 2000 3:10 PM
     Subject: UK poetry stats


     WARNING: this email contains statistics, percentages and such on recent
UK poetry which are likely to cause all but the strong devoted to nod off.

     A few observations from my recent market research-related analyses.

     a) There appears to be a down-swing in the level of UK poetry
publishing.  This has nothing to do with the little-lamented demise of OUP,
for Picador has thrived as OUP has dwindled.  Comparing Aut 98 - Sum 99 with
Aut 99 to Sum 00 (Autumn - Autumn is generally regarded as 'the poetry year'
by prize givers and the like), it appears that there is a circa 10% drop in
books being published (according to those presented to the Poetry Book
Society).

     b) This drop is about the same for individual collections by UK poets.
"Interestingly", there has been a drop of over 15% of collections from the
'Big Six' (the four lists related to commercial publishers plus Bloodaxe and
Carcanet).

     c) The UK quarterly average number of individual book-sized collections
of poems (the PBS lists reach from Faber to small presses such as Peepal
Tree and Redbeck) is now down to about 35... which is still three a week in
a country where the average regular book buyer purchases less than one
poetry title a year.

     d) The current PBS Spring quarter (Jan - March, won by Alan Jenkins)
had the lowest entry for a long time, with just 22 individual collections
being judged, half of which were from small presses.  This is part of a
noticeable trend where publishers are streamlining their publication dates,
with Spring (pre-book fests and prize lists) and Autumn (National Poetry
Day, Poetry International etc) being especially busy. Confusingly these
equate to PBS Summer (Apr-Jun) and Winter (Oct - Dec) quarters!

     e) More than ever, there is a noticeable internationalism in the lists
of the top publishers, with poets from USA, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and
Eastern Europe making up a fair percentage of the lists from Cape, Picador
and Faber.

     Roddy

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