What Makes Australian Authors Tick? A celebration of #ausbooks and culture.

WARNING: due to the astounding level of input from a gargantuan range of fantastic Australian authors, this blog has essay-length proportions.

What does it mean to be a writer living in Australia in 2011? Does our glorious country inform what we write, or the way we write it? Does it stimulate, or challenge us?

In honour of Aussie Author Month, and the fundraising they’re doing for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (you can donate to this worthy cause here), I pondered these questions by surveying a number of our country’s highly talented and acclaimed authors to find out their best and least favourite aspects of living as a writer in Australia. Reading their responses was not only insightful, it also made me realise just how far ahead of the times Australian Authors are, possibly without their even knowing it.

Vital secrets to business success. Shhh, don't tell anyone... they're secrets!

You see, in the 2010 edition of “The New Secrets of CEOs: 200 Global Chief Executives on Leading”, Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave set out the views of hundreds of business executives on how we should all be competing in the ‘new world of work’ since 2008’s Global Financial Crisis. Although directed primarily at the business world, a comment by Tan Pheng Hock (CEO of Singapore Technologies Engineering) has caught my eye. In the section on “Facing Up to the Facts of Life: the Five Realities of the Next Decade”, he says that:

“we’ve entered the age of ‘co-opetition’, the ability to cooperate across company borders with sometime competitors in order for both to win.”

The idea is that, in order to build our brands over the next ten years, a certain amount of cooperative competition will be required.

Now, according to Wikipedia, the concept of co-opetition is nothing new. Although the word and its variants have been re-coined several times, it has been around for about a hundred years. But Tan Pheng Hock’s comment struck a chord with me because of what my surveyed authors told me about living as a writer in Australia…

On the Down Side

1. Australia can be isolating for authors

Australia's geographical remoteness is still central to shaping our culture and identity.

Since Australia is a vast country that’s a great distance from anywhere, it is both difficult and expensive for our authors to engage with both fans and fellow writers, especially when compared to Europe and the US. Alan Baxter, author of the dark fantasy thrillers “RealmShift” and “MageSign” (read more about Alan here) told me that, “even going to conventions in-country can be hard. Swancon, for example, is a $500 return flight. Overseas conventions are even harder”.

“The part I don’t like,” commented Tracey O’Hara, award-winning author of the paranormal romance “Death’s Sweet Embrace” (read more about Tracey here), “is that since most of my market is overseas such as the US, I am really distanced from a lot of my readers and my industry professionals. Having said that – the internet has definitely made the world smaller.”

Jason Fischer, award-winning author of the zombie horror “After the World: Gravesend” (read more about Jason here), agrees that the internet has improved the situation. “Once,” he told me, “the least attractive aspect of being an Australian writer was the tyranny of distance. This has largely been eliminated by the rise of the internet, and the markets that now accept electronic submissions instead of the cash-consuming postage of dead tree submissions.” Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave would praise such industry developments as being part of the ‘Third Wave of the Web’, the coming reality where virtual life will be indispensable.

Mos Eisley spaceport, Tatooine, "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope"

But, even so, Jason says that sometimes “Australia still feels a bit like Mos Eisley, especially when I look across the pond and see how many genre conventions and workshops my state-side colleagues have easy access to, whereas it becomes quite a costly exercise to get to the same from here. Plus, it’s next to impossible to get genre books at reasonable prices here, without resorting to Book Depository or similar (some of which might explain why local book stores are doing it tough, and more people are trying out Kindles).”

Distance is especially hard for our country-living writers. Graham Storrs, author of sci-fi thriller “TimeSplash” (read more about Graham here), lives in rural Queensland and says that the internet is only a reliable communication tool in the cities. “Out in rural Australia, where we really need it, it is slow, unreliable, and very expensive. I was cut off for fifteen days recently (no, nothing to do with floods or hurricanes) and missed a writing deadline because of it.”

“I think the hardest thing for me though,” comments Fleur McDonald, author of outback mysteries “Red Dust” and “Blue Skies” (read more about Fleur here), who lives over a hundred kilometres from her nearest town in Western Australia, “is the lack of contact with other writers. The vastness of the country and busyness of the farm, really means that I don’t get away often and sometimes, I’m sure I’m the only one in the world, with writers block and anxiety!”

“Unless you live in a major city,” agrees Graham Storrs, “the size of the country makes it hard to meet other writers or join critique groups – especially genre-based ones”. Graham has to travel over 150 km just to visit a bookshop, which is why he owns a Kindle. “But,” he adds, “how many Australian books can you buy in the Kindle Store?”… there’s a “chronic lack of interest by Aussies in their own writers”.

2. Australia offers authors a limited fan base

Indeed, because Australia has a relatively small population, it only has a small book-buying populace, and this makes it difficult for some genres to flourish. Nansi Kunze, author of young-adult novels “Mishaps” and “Dangerously Placed” (read more about Nansi here), says her least favourite aspect of writing young-adult fiction in Australia is its “small readership”.

Australia's fandom is healthy, but limited in size.

Michael Pryor, author of over twenty-five novels including the fantasy series “The Laws of Magic”, “The Quentaris Chronicles” and “The Chronicles of Krangor” (read more about Michael here), agrees that “the small size of the market” is the main disadvantage to writing in Australia, especially since it does little to improve the general “condescension toward speculative fiction and young-adult fiction (try writing young-adult speculative fiction!)”.

“If you’re writing novels, this is a very small market,” agrees Graham Storrs, “especially for some genres (like science fiction!). So many Aussies are published overseas and many have to ‘translate’ their work into American to have it published. I was once told by a leading Aussie publisher that I should consider changing my Brisbane-based science fiction novel to be based in an American city as this would make it more saleable.” Now, however practical a business suggestion that might be, it’s still a shame.

Science fiction struggles to flourish in Australia. (image by czarnyrobert)

Alan Baxter understands that Australia’s small book-buying populace also “makes it difficult for small press to succeed, reducing the number of domestic markets for our work”, and romance reviewer Kate Cuthbert (read more about Kate here) is particularly frustrated by “the lack of recognition of (and respect for) genre fiction by Australian booksellers, publishers and media.” She commented that “very successful, very internationally-famous genre fiction writers are ignored/unrecognised/dismissed by the Australian industry at large”.

However, perhaps it is because Australian authors all share these disadvantages, that they have (possibly unknowingly) embraced a form of cooperative competition…

On the Up Side:

1. Australians support each other

When my surveyed authors came to consider their favourite aspects of living in Australia, almost every one of them praised and were proud to be a part of Australia’s exceptionally supportive writing community.

We have a happy writing community!

“What I like about living in Australia,” commented Tracey O’Hara, “is that the writing community, both the speculative fiction and also the romance genre which I cross into, are such a welcoming and generous community. We have a kind of kinship that is really lovely to find.”

Ian Irvine, author of twenty-seven novels including the “Three Worlds” fantasy sequence, the “Human Rites” eco-thriller trilogy and twelve books for children (read more about Ian here PLUS note that Ian is giving away an iPad 2 on his Facebook site this month), told me “there’s a great camaraderie among Aussie speculative fiction writers. Everyone is supportive, ready to help and pleased at others’ successes. It’s much less of a rat race here, because there aren’t thousands of authors trying to grind out a living.”

Nansi Kunze feels “like I’m part of a small & friendly community of Oz writers”, and Alan Baxter believes Australia’s “fantastic speculative fiction community” is full of “very supportive people” amongst whom he has made many friends over the years. “The other Aussie writers you meet,” commented Graham Storrs, “they’re friendly, helpful and inclusive. There is a real writing community here – whatever genre or geography you are in.”

Jason Fischer agrees, “people are quite approachable, willing to work together on projects, and there’s been some great books and collections coming out from local boutique presses”. It helps of course that there’s a huge number of extraordinarily talented authors here who, according to Kate Cuthbert, take “world publishing by a storm and make it easy to say nice things about them!” Whilst Michael Pryor’s best aspect of writing in Australia is “the collegiality and support from my fellow writers.”

Now, I’m no business expert, but isn’t this all beginning to sound a lot like co-opetition? Writers are sometimes in direct competition with each other… a reader with only enough money for one book must chose between Author A and Author B. And yet Australian authors see past this every time they help a fellow author to succeed. Every time they collaborate with or support another writer, they are seeing a bigger picture in which readers who love to read will never stop at buying just one book. After all, don’t we all keep lists, either noted down or in our heads, of what we want to read next? I know I do, and it gets forever longer.

2. Australia is an inspiring place to live

But why are we Australian authors like this, what fuels our unique kinship? Tan Pheng Hock says that competitors engage in co-opetition in order ‘for both to win’. After reading my authors’ responses, I suspect the ‘win’ of the situation is, in Michael Pryor’s simply stated words, “being able to live in Australia”.

"My heart lies waiting over the foam..."

It’s “a very inspiring country,” commented Alan Baxter, “with all kinds of geographical and cultural diversity to inspire the imagination. Space and a laid-back attitude that gives me room to think and write”. Fleur McDonald told me “it’s hard to live in a country as beautiful as ours and not be inspired to write about it. Australia is full of colour, uniqueness and best of all characters that just crave to be written about!”

Don't you just love our wonderfully long mango season!

Kim Falconer, author of the fantasy series “Quantum Enchantment” and “Quantum Encryption” (read more about Kim here) explains that the “upside of being an Australian author includes freedom of speech, great bike paths, a publisher that feels like my best friend, sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, geckos, whip birds and the sound of the sea, gardenias in January (Ugg boots in July), monotremes, huntsman spiders (who keep the cockroaches down), Kookaburras in the morning; cockatoos in the afternoon and a wonderfully long mango season.” She sees the only downsides as “400 species of native cockroaches, slow internet, possums in the kitchen at midnight and long distances to festivals. No matter, it is a privilege to be an Australian author, one I am grateful for every day.”

So it seems there’s plenty to be gained from living as a writer in Australia. Indeed, Graham Storrs is impressed with the “determination of many Aussie writers and publishers not to let the long list of drawbacks [of living in Australia] stop them” and believes there’s “a real eagerness to get anthologies of Aussie writers out at the moment, taking advantage of new technologies for publishing and distribution.”

Michael Pryor is similarly impressed with Australian publishers of speculative fiction. “The people at Random House, my publisher, are extremely supportive. Zoe Walton and her team are always supportive and are genre readers by choice. Above and beyond any professional reading, they love speculative fiction. We speak the same language – the references, the allusions, the background that genre readers absorb are part of them, as is the unabashed excitement and wonder that speculative fiction brings”.

So, if you can see the bigger picture that Australian authors can see, and if you can agree that there’s plenty of room for more books and thus authors, you can begin to understand why Australian authors have spontaneously engaged in co-opetition, well ahead of the business world that is the subject of Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave’s book.

But perhaps what I’ve been most impressed with is how in tune Australian authors are with each other and with what our industry needs in order to thrive. Our ‘hive mind’ already knows that the future lies in co-opetition, and we knew this long before the phrase was so recently re-introduced to the business world.

It's what makes us... us.

After all, ‘mateship’ is a concept with which all Australians are long familiar, and is one of the founding principles of the Australia we know today. Australians stick together, they always have. Full stop.

Happy Aussie Author Month Australia!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

What is your experience of living as a writer in Australia? Do you enjoy its supportive writing community? Do you struggle with its geographical remoteness? Perhaps you’re an editor or publisher with your own view on co-opetition? Join the conversation and make a comment!