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MWF '11 Coverage: State of the (Literary) Nation

Rebecca Harkins-Cross August 27

Hosted by Julianne Schultz of the Griffith Review, State of the (Literary) Nation bought together the editors our fellow literary journals – Sarah Kanowski of Island, Dominique Wilson of Wetink and Ivor Indyk of the recently discontinued Heat – to discuss the role the journal plays in Australia’s national culture.

Many of the recurrent themes and questions that arose are ones which I’m sure will pop up again and again in panels across the festival – the decline of bookshops, the rise of online and electronic formats, how this is affecting the publishing industry and the ways in which publishers must adapt in order to cope (one that is particularly pertinent to Meanjin, considering our recent decision to publish online as well as in print starting from the next edition).

These four journals sprang up across the country with similar goals to our own – to publish writing that was not readily available in other formats, to provide a space for new writers to be published, to help emerging writers hone their craft, to discuss new ideas that are important to national life and to proliferate regional voices. However, it seems that the way journals adapt to cultural and technological shifts may be how we all, in the end, really diverge. Island is currently in the midst of developing a solution to online, but have released their most recent edition in e-book and print formats. They have also developed a new online portal Islet for more emerging writers to publish, currently also operating on a quarterly model. Wet Ink chose a magazine rather book format from their inception, anticipating the decline of the bookshop and allowing for distribution in newsagents, but they too are currently working on an online solution. Griffith Review have now trialled several models – originally making all content available online, their archive is now only available for subscribers, while some articles are being sold on a pay-per-piece basis. Sadly, Heat disbanded earlier this year, but Ivor is currently devising a way to revive it in an online-only format. Also the head of publisher Giramondo, he was perhaps most enthusiastic about the possibilities of online formats.

Another question that arose was whether audiences read print and online differently, and hence whether the type of content published online must be different to that of print. Concerns were expressed that online would diminish the curatorial role that journals play – that readers may skip straight to the big names that had initially attracted them without reading the great work contributed by new, as yet unknown authors.

The question of how we will generate revenue from online was also a central concern for all editors. When most journals rely heavily on their subscriber base, the possibility that subscribers may not renew if they can access content for free is a pressing one. As Julianne noted, most journals do not attract large enough audiences to convince advertisers to sponsor their sites. One important question that wasn’t raised, however, was the problem of piracy – the ability to download e-books from illegal sites (in the same way that has so adversely affected the music industry) will be an ongoing problem for the publishing industry too.

An interesting discussion that came out of the Q&A was the way writers view online. Does one get the same rush seeing our name printed on the internet as we do in print? And why are some writers still so reticent to distribute their work in an online format? The consensus seemed to be that like the record or the cassette tape, the printed word would never disappear completely. It will simply be produced in lesser numbers.

Despite the emphasis on the ways journals must adapt, the concluding sentiment of this panel was the continued importance of journals to Australian literary culture. We provide a space for new and emerging writers to publish, a space for Australian stories to be told, a space for new ideas to be discussed and debated at length. Journals will therefore always remain an important facet of public life.

The way we read may change. The importance of reading will not.


 

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