Category Archives: Column: Books and Writing
Column: Books and Writing
Third Wave Bookselling: Building a literary culture in the shadow of Amazon
The best way to understand what bookselling is like right now is to understand what selling coffee was like in the late 90s. Back then, while Starbucks store launches were routinely protested, the Seattle-based company’s growth was accelerating. If you were involved in roasting or selling coffee, … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Glory books
Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a particularly heinous form of bookish torture, when a friend confessed to me that she wouldn’t let here 10-year-old daughter read beyond Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. ‘They’re too dark,’ she said, ‘book two was already keeping her … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
On the road with Caravan of Comics
‘Australian comics have been around for decades. But it has been in waves and visibility has always been a problem. I’ve been in it long enough to see several waves come and go,’ says Bruce Mutard, who has been making comics in Melbourne for over 20 years. … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Moving away from free
A few weeks ago, Elmo Keep wrote a fantastic piece on Junkee outlining ‘the case against free’. Her argument, which any reasonable person should agree with, is that, in torrenting ebooks and songs and movies and television shows, we are actively ‘choosing to attribute no value to … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Adults: Young and New
There is a new readership amongst us: they’re no longer young adult, but not quite adult – they are ‘new adult’ – a term coined by St. Martin’s Press back in 2009, for books featuring characters in their ‘college years’ and originally targeted at readers just out … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Whose master’s voice?
One of the earliest pieces of advice I heard as an aspiring writer was: find your voice. The call was everywhere: at conferences, in classes and in the pages of how-to books. But I always found the concept hard to grasp. I simply didn’t know where to … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Dear Jennifer Byrne…
Dear Ms Byrne, Did you know that if the manuscripts of To Kill A Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye were pitched today, they would most likely be marketed to the young adult readership? Now, imagine if that were the case and you didn’t review either book … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Twist a shout: Adelaide’s fight for artist-run spaces
In order to understand Adelaide, you need to recognise that the city exists perpetually on the verge of developing a personality. That sounds sad, but on the ground it’s actually exciting. Most other cities are what they are, and if you don’t like them, your only real … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
A good noise: Dailies 3
A Silent Army publishes it, but the cover is certainly hollering at me. The personality in the cursive/lowercase/uppercase font of the title gets my attention first. Behind is a mountainous tableau hatched in colour, complete with a waterfall, a dead tree and a highway billboard promising ‘new … Read more
Column: Books and Writing
Waiting for Jellicoe
Here’s the latest news straight from the teenage underground, concerning a movie adaptation of a rather sacred young adult novel from one of Australia’s most beloved authors: Melina Marchetta. The novel is On The Jellicoe Road, and if you’re not already aware of it (and pining for … Read more
