Why New Zealand fiction is doomed

This is a page that should in truth be filled by Kiwi publishers...But despite Eleanor Catton's glorious win at the Booker Prize do, and notable efforts such as Mister Pip and co, the fact is, New Zealand fiction ain't doing so good at the tills. If one Peter Jackson does not a vibrant local film industry make, one Eleanor Catton sadly does not spell glory days ahead for the rest of us.

Here's why.

New Zealand publishers will not support genre fiction.

The top-selling international authors tend to be crime, action or romance ones - the genre guys. We're talking Lee Child, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, John Grisham. But while megabucks will be spent promoting their novels to Kiwi readers, virtually none will be spent marketing - or even publishing - the ones who live here.

There are a few crime authors being published by local companies, notably Penguin with Vanda Symon, HarperCollins with Ben Sanders and Donna Malane, and Random House with Paul Cleave. One of these is also the publisher of my previous crime series. So naturally, when I completed my new book, I sent it in. And I quote:
"Oh. It's just a crime novel. I didn't realise it was crime. Kiwis don't buy local crime, so I'm sorry, we wouldn't be interested."

Is it also true that EVERY work of general fiction goes down the tubes, because some are complete turkeys? It's not sour grapes, entirely, merely an observation. I was rather disgusted, to tell you the truth (especially as I know the publisher personally doesn't read crime novels and doesn't like them). I know that our publishers are in a bad way, minnows struggling to survive being swallowed up by their Australian offices. But the bulk of their money comes from cookbooks and international fiction anyway. Is it too much to ask that they try to support local authors, without writing off a whole swathe of them wholesale, based on genre alone?

I'm still in a better position than New Zealand's sci-fi and fantasy authors, who won't be published by any of our international firms. While they'll publish "chick lit", no one will touch erotica or the standard kind of romance either, except for Mills and Boon. Authors in these genres have to go to Australia and the US. In the long run, it's probably better for their careers.

Sadly, it's no better in television. I was told by one company: "Yep, loved the book, but it's way cheaper to import crime dramas from the UK and the US. No one wants to see a Kiwi crime drama enough to pay for it."

Unless, of course, it stars Oscar Kightley. Just sayin'.

The confusion continues. When I once entered a national teen fiction competition, I was told that my story was judged the best, but because the setting wasn't "Kiwi", the publishing firm wasn't interested. "Our brief is to support New Zealand stories".

A second publisher backed this up. One would think that by supporting local authors, you are supporting New Zealand literature - without the writers, there could be no stories. A good story should be borderless. But this distinction appears to be lost. This attitude also cripples our authors overseas. By making our stories so local and small, there is less chance of us picking up publishing deals in foreign markets. It's death by parochialism.

Meanwhile, our publishing houses are steadily being relocated to Australia, which has even less interest in promoting a Kiwi writing community. Do you see our Government pouring millions into reversing that, like they did after the America's Cup defeat?

Samuel Johnson once said: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money". Sometimes even hope is enough to keep us going. But remove even that, and you'll be left with silence.

Author interview: Mary-Jane Aggett and Annemarie Mirams

The Coffee Group

This week I'm interviewing a pair of authors who are probably in great need of a coffee after six years spent writing their novel, working and bringing up children. I talk to Aucklander Mary-Jane Aggett and her sister Annemarie Mirams.

Writing a novel is not something taken lightly. It takes time and effort, after all - a great deal of it. Hours sharing anecdotes on the phone between Auckland and the Hawkes Bay about their young kids turned into a six-year project for sisters Mary-Jane and Annemarie, when they decided to spin their experiences as mothers into The Coffee Group.

Annemarie says the project just evolved naturally, after realising they were both a little bored and in need of a channel for their shared sense of humour. Although both sisters swear the events of the novel are not at all based on people they know, it has sometimes proved difficult to persuade their friends. The novel concerns a group of five Auckland women who band together after their children are born, and the crazy things they get up to. Mary-Jane promises a light, easy read and lots of laughs - a vast departure from the sisters' favourite crime thrillers. 

Neither exactly set out to become novelists - Mary-Jane was a reporter for Fair Go, and Annemarie teaches high school science - but both have thoroughly enjoyed the process, laughing their heads off as they tried to outdo each other with the following chapter.

"Sometimes my kids would see me laughing at the computer or phone and ask: "Is that about your book again?"," Annemarie says. 

The book started with one sister writing one chapter from a certain character's point of view, and the next one choosing another character, but gradually both sisters got to know each other's characters so well that they were able to swap. The reason The Coffee Group took six years was that real life was just as hectic as the novel - both women moved house during the period, and were raising children (in Mary-Jane's case, still having them). As Mary-Jane puts it: "It was like that half-knitted jumper you've put away and pull out from time to time."

  

For now they're having a bit of a rest from the creative process but haven't ruled out giving it another go in the future. After all, coffee is addictive...

**Obviously you can request The Coffee Group from Auckland Libraries, but copies are also available to purchase now from Paper Plus Takapuna, or from online retailers soon**