Publishing, Universities & changes for Writers in today’s modern reality
Last week authors, poets, staff, academics and the media learnt about the closure of UWA Publishing. It has come as quite a shock to many as some writers that I know have been slated for publishing in 2020. The horror of this news is that nothing is safe, set in concrete or guaranteed. It seems to be the way of the world at the moment – you get fired from your job – too bad! You teach creative writing to a group, but the rents are so high you can’t make any money. Who wants to work for a pittance? The foundations that were once built are no longer sacrosanct, especially it seems with universities. They now have hidden agendas and to my mind this revolves around the proverbial “buck” and added to that is the hackneyed phrase “it’s all about power and control”.
I recently helped out with a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of ECU in relation to unrealistic architectural changes to Edith Cowan House, the original and precious replica that occupies Joondalup Campus. I did get one of those corporate-speak replies, however, and not because of my letter – all the issues have been roughly resolved. This took a big action by many, esp. the members, the board and previous employees who worked hard to save Peter Cowan’s library along with the historic tenants’ occupancy, per se, the Peter Cowan Writers Centre.
Past, present and future authors will have their work cut out for them if they are to save UWA Publishing. It also makes the rest of us stand up and take notice. Asking ourselves what if? What if my publisher closed. Where do I stand as a writer? What about my signed contract? All these questions come into play. So you feel for everyone involved. It’s always been a hard, rocky road to publication, now it seems a chasm has opened up and there’s a deep hole. 😦
Here is a really good article about the Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing. As well, there are other interesting articles, esp. the one about self-published works (eg. Amazon) making the writer more money! https://www.well-storied.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-traditional-publishing
Reference: grounds at UWA: My pictures of the 2019 Perth Writers Festival, Crawley.