REFERENCE LEADS

Some libraries

Here are some library links where you can search the catalogues (as you can with most public libraries these days) but so much more - put aside a little time to familiarise yourself with the sites if you are an infomaniac.

1. National Library of Australia, Canberra [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
2. Mitchell Library within the State Library of NSW [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
3. Shoalhaven City Libraries
   
4. University of Wollongong Library
   
5. University of Sydney Library, Sydney [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
6. The NSW Parliamentary Library is also a copyright deposit library for NSW.

If these aren't enough, go the the National Library of Australia's Library Gateway which will guide you to the catalogues of other Australian libraries. If you can't find what you're looking for after all of this, write the book yourself.

Libraries on line

The Internet Archive

‘a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.’ from there you can get to Project Gutenberg.

You've got to love Project Gutenberg. A US based but worldwide project to preserve books out of copyright. This means that there are people getting them into digital form and available as free ebooks. You can volunteer to do this and other things and/or read the books. Good. Free and a great resource. Or go to this page for links to other free bookshops: iCommons

Have a look at this one: University of Adelaide Free eBooks Online.

Media and publishing outlets

For a list of media outlets, go to MediaBay. For a comprehensive listing of publishing outlets use the Queensland Writers Centre’s Writers’ Marketplace. And for another list of international writers’ organisations go to: Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia .

   LibraryThing enables you to catalogue your OWN library by drawing on the resources of big libraries out there. For all of the soon-to-be-organised persons out there. Go To www.librarything.com

Swapping

BookCrossing. A book liberation site. This is how it works: read a book, label it with a unique book number, then leave it somewhere. Someone picks it up, (possibly) logs it, reads it, puts it in a public place for someone (anyone) else to pick up. You can even book hunt.

Other swapping/trading sites can be found on Zen Habits - 20 ways to get Free or Cheap books.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies

AIATSIS is the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies - 'the world's premier institution for information and research about the cultures and lifestyles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.' Includes their press, audiovisual archive, library and research areas.

Writing tools

Poetry Tools on the extensive Poetry About site with lots of links to other sites which are useful though a bit biased towards rhyming dictionaries.

The Free Dictionary which has pronunciation audio, derivations, multiple languages. Lovely.

Strunk's Elements of Style - a classic for basic dots, spots and composition principles.

Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers 4th edition, 1994 in pdf form (newest edition is the 6th). Useful for all sorts of style & technical matters etc

Writing Question of the Week Purdue Owl News mostly questions of grammar etc but interesting.

Writer's Guide University of Victoria, Canada. Useful links to literary terms, how-tos on logic, grammar, sources, paragraphs - ie the nuts and bolts.

Web research

Do you want to find authoritative sources on Google? Go to Google, go to More, go to Google Scholar. Use Advanced (or use Advanced in a normal Google search). And while you're at More, have a look about. It will all change in a minute so come back again soon.

If you want to find a definition of a term, use the normal Google search field and write define, colon and then the term you want defined (eg prosody) like this - define:prosody - and you'll get a list of definitions of prosody on the web. You don't know what 'prosody' is? Well then...

Shameful cut and paste plagiarism on the net is particularly easy to detect so take care when researching to observe good bibliographic hygiene - ie reference everything. A good guide to what plagiarism is and how not to do it can be found on Avoiding Plagiarism section of the UNSW's Learning Centre: Academic Skills Resources. Lots of other good things there too.

Poetic terms etc

Poet's Graves In the UK. Yes, I know. Humour me. There are many people alive today who think the only good writer is a dead writer (because dead writers don't borrow money from you). This site also has a glossary of poetic terms and links to poems, poets (dead) etc. Useful.

Here's a picture of Cavafy's death mask. The mask is at his place, now a museum, in Alexandria, Egypt.

 

World Wide Words

World Wide Words is addictive. You can sign up for regular emails as well.

Ebooks

The Literature Page is a place to read classic books, plays, stories, poems, essays, and speeches online.

PoemHunter's Free Poetry Ebooks

Shearsman Ebooks - contemporary poetry books online.

Bookshops

There are many many bookshops that are easy to find online. If you can't find the book by googling, try specialist bookshops such as Dark Horsey Bookshop at the Experimental Art Foundation which specialises in books on art, architecture & design, cultural studies,feminism, philosophy, film & media, as well as small press literature, artist's books & catalogues, and local & international art magazines. Managed by the poet, Ken Bolton. PO Box 8091, Station Arcade, South Australia 5000. Phone: +618 8211-7505

Recordings

CD Baby - for recordings of spoken word and almost anywhere these days that has music.

PUBLISHING AND REJECTIONS

Publishing

There are many more presses - of course. These are some which might otherwise escape your notice. They are mainly specialist presses: some of them publish poetry exclusively. If you are interested in commercial publishers or large educational publishers their contact details can easily be found on the net and you don't need me to point them out to you. Look at the Scams and Ripoffs post.

AB

Ahadada Books - 'finely crafted limited editions'

CDEFG

Cahiers Bleus

Cornford Press - Comes out of Tasmania. No longer publishes, but still has a backlist.

H

Hale & Iremonger

eHarlequin - Romance

IJ

IP (Interactive Publications). Publishes in book and digital forms. Based in Brisbane, Qld

KLMNO

Kardoorair Press Poetry and education publisher based in Armidale, NSW. Has the excellent good sense to publish me, as does Interactive, and PressPress. What a coincidence that they are all listed here.

PQ

Paper Bark Press - Robert Adamson's press.

papertiger media has expanded from its original role as a publishing vehicle for their annual poetry CDROM, to publishing poetry and art on the web and in print.

Pardalote Press Poetry press with good production values, out of Tasmania.

PressPress Possibly the smallest publisher in the known universe. Publishes small poetry chapbooks only. Based in Australia.

Paroxysm Press says about itself: “Paroxysm Press rose from the gutter of the Australian music scene in 98’. It’s been fighting tooth and nail ever since to publish the type of hard edge, honest and high impact writing we all love and live for ourselves.”

R

Rubicon Press is a small Canadian poetry chapbook publisher. Go to their site for subscription and purchase details. Do not send ms by email. Snail mail to: Rubicon Press, Suite 304, 10750-78 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6E 1P.

S

Salt Publishing

Small Change Press run by Graham Nunn. Based in Brisbane, it publishes poetry chapbooks.

TUVWXYZ

Transita - contemporary women's fiction based in the UK.

Agents

For a list of agents, go to the Australian Literary Agents Association site. It has useful material on finding an agent, various literary contacts (including manuscript assessment services) and a list of members. A useful and informative site for very new writers to those who have been around for a while. This American site has some useful information on it as well: Agent Query.

And you've got to go and visit this blog: Miss Snark, the literary agent - all manner of useful advice, with humour and grace. She no longer adds to this blog, alas, but there are many useful items there: in summary, read the instructions, try not to be an idiot. Fair enough.

Go to the Australian Society of Authors page also lists another half dozen Australian agents.

Rejections

The general rule is: people who publish stuff, don't have to like your stuff and don't have to publish it if they don't want to.

Mostly they'll be kind, but the various words of rejection ('not enough space on our list', 'unable to offer at this time' etc) add up to the same thing: 'Nope'. Be angry, get drunk, get over it; then have a look at this blog: Slushkiller on Making Light or if you want to indulge go to the Rejection Collection. Once you've got over that, see what can happen to you if you get too many rejections.

I've got to say, though, that the best rejection (of a poem) I ever had consisted of a carefully typed (yes) form where the boxes reading 'Wrong shoe size' and 'Wrong type of fish' had been carefully xed in. I laughed for days.

Self-publishing

Anyone can self-publish. It's easy to do, although not necessarily a good thing to do.

'Publishing' is changing big time. Not everybody likes it; not everyone embraces it. We are in the middle of a revolution and it will be some time before the dust settles and the new form/s of publishing are accepted, commonplace or used at all.

My prediction, for what it is worth, is that some sectors of publishing will remain hardcopy because some sectors want a beautiful artefact, but most will go digital and that we will probably be walking around with an all-purpose electronic device (somewhere between a computer and an iPhone but more interactive than a Kindle) and we'll store our lovely books there. Remember how we used to store music?

It is possible to publish and ebook, or some version of an ebook, very very quickly. This is fine if you want to give a publication away - for example you might be very happy to do this is you have just written a family history.

If you're publishing through a blog or site (or even through something like googledocs) the process is instant - though you might have an audience of one. There are many creative geniuses out there, not just you. Some have taken this route though and succeeded. Have a look at this article Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature.

If you have enough money you can self-publish in hardcopy (ie produce traditional books) - selling and distribution are the difficult areas however. You might consider the many small publishers listed above. You might also want to see if your manuscript is a total dog before you inflict in on the public or publishers. PressPress has a manuscript assessment service if you want to go that route. You could think of getting a mentor and or editor to help you.

Here are two sites relate to science fiction/science fantasy although there are many more sites out there - including companies which will ease the process of publication such (as Lulu) for you: The Hal Spacejock Series, 'How to self-publish a book ...and who should be doing it' and Ian Irvine: The truth about publishing

ORGANISATIONS

Join a writer's organisation if you want more information and/or to meet other writers. Try to join at least one which will broaden your experience.

ABCDE

Australian Society of Authors - Writer's organisation. Join this is you're serious about being a writer

Asia & Pacific Writers Network - an alliance of writers, individuals and organizations working with language and stories, in all their forms. As a PEN initiative they aim to: promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere; fight for freedom of speech; work for good understanding and respect between nations; and, champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in one world.

Australian Writers Guild The AWG is the professional association for all performance writers, that is, writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video and new media.

FGHIJ

Fellowship of Australian Writers The FAW has regional groups and is often the place where writers first meet other writers. Go to the 'Regional groups' button and scroll down (eg to S for Shoalhaven).

KL

Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre is the oldest writers centre of its kind in Australia. The centre is in the Perth hills, in the former home of Katharine Susannah Prichard. The Centre facilitates readings, workshops, writers in residence and other services for writers at all levels. More info: kspf@iinet.net.au or phone (08) 9294 1872.

M

Melbourne Poet's Union - self-evident really. The Melbourne version of the Poets Union which used to have branches all over the place. This and the Poets Union (below) are the last independent remnants, and excellent remnants they are too.

NO

NSW Writer's Centre - Writer's organisation. There are a lot of writers centres. Find the one local to you. Start here.

Boolarng Nangamai - Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Studio, Gerringong, NSW

PQ

PEN exists to 'emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views.'

Poets Union - Australian poet's organisation

RSTUV

Romance Writers of Australia RWA aims 'to promote excellence in romantic fiction, to help writers become published and establish careers in their writing field, and to provide continuing support for writers within the romance publishing industry.'

WXYZ

Watermark Literary Society - carries the tag: 'Writers & readers celebrating the literature of nature & place'.

Society of Women Writers NSW This society 'aims to enable women writers in all genres to meet and network, and to benefit from regular seminars and workshops. It also aims to encourage aspiring writers to achieve professional status.'

COPYRIGHT, LENDING RIGHT, LEGAL

Copyright is a cluster of rights which you should familiarise yourself with if you're going to be a writer. It's best to get this from the horse's mouth. The horse, in this case, is the Australian Copyright Council This is an authoritative site. Also runs training sessions and has information sheets.

The Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL) 'is an Australian copyright management company whose role is to provide a bridge between creators and users of copyright material.' If you've published something it's a good idea to join (it's free).

Lending Rights

'The Public Lending Right (PLR) scheme makes payments to eligible Australian creators and publishers whose books are held in public lending libraries. The Education Lending Right (ELR) scheme makes similar payments for books held in educational libraries.' Here are links for Public Lending Right and Education Lending Right.

Legal

The Arts Law Centre of Australia 'is the national community legal centre for the arts.'

AWARDS, PRIZES, GLORY, FUNDING

Prizes and competitions

The best source of material on competitions is through your local writers centre or in the latest edition of The Australian Writer's Marketplace available from the Queensland Writers Centre. It can't possibly have everything, but it runs close. There's also a lot of other information there which you might find useful.

Bear in mind that entering a competition is, by it's nature competitive. You have a greater chance of getting published than you do of winning a competition.

And sometimes good material doesn't win, but sometimes it's on the 'no' or 'maybe' pile because it's poorly constructed, unoriginal, uninteresting, badly written, under-edited, boring, the same as all the other entries, or not what the particular competition is about. Or it's the work of an undiscovered genius and the judges are fools who should not be let loose with blue pencils.

A note about conditions:

When you enter competitions it's as well to look at the conditions carefully and decide what you think is all right for you and what you think isn't.

I had a note from a writer about the conditions of a prize which read in part:

    I assign the copyright in my entry to the [the organisers].

And

1. 
   
   
   
   You agree that the [organisers] can copy, edit and publish your entry (including using quotations or extracts from your entry) for the purposes of the [organisers] and that no fee will be payable to you for this use.

It's up to you, of course, what you sign, but it's as well to know at assigning rights means you're giving over copyright (better to licence the work which means it's for a specified use and for a specified time). The copyright holder is the one who decides what can and can't be done with a work. You should check out the legal implications of what you sign. It's not up to other people to tell you (including me. I'm not a lawyer.)

The second paragraph also seems to be too generous to the organisers for my tastes. I'd be a bit wary of unknown editors being given all this freedom without the writer being able to object.

It's up to you, but think carefully about offering your work when these sorts of conditions apply. It might be that it's a fund-raiser and all very innocent, but exercise your judgement. Sometimes I'm quite happy to give away all sorts of things in a good cause - and sometimes I'm not. Guideline: Choose rather than be suckered.

Tips: when entering a prize or competition...

1.  It’s competitive - so compete: put in your best stuff. Don’t think that your third best stuff will be okay.

2. Put in material that suits the thing you’re entering ie do some research on previous winners. (For the PressPress Chapbook Award reading a couple of chapbooks and trawling through the site would be A Good Idea.)

3. Read the conditions and decide if they suit you.

4. Follow the instructions eg unbound means unbound, etc

A great prize

I would say this is a great prize because my PressPress runs it, but it is anyway.

2010 PressPress Chapbook Award - this is an annual award which began in 2008. Carolyn Fisher from Tasmania the inaugural award with The Unsuspecting Sky. In 2009 WA writers Scott-Patrick Mitchell won with his Songs for the ordinary mass. This year the prize is worth $600 (AUD) and publication with PressPress. You can go to the PressPress site for the award conditions. Poetry only of course.

Some other good competitions

(but you still have to make up your own mind and read the conditions):

The ABC Fiction Award 'Recognising emerging writers'

Allen & Unwin runs competitions - check out their site.

Arvon International Poetry Competition. First prize is five thousand pounds.

The Australian Centre Literary Awards. Part of the University of Melbourne.

The Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize

Griffin Award The famous award is $5000 for a new playscript. The Griffin has long been a force in Australian theatre.

Island Magazine which is one of Australia's premier literary magazines also runs a couple of prestigious competitions.

Poets Union runs the Broadway Prize.

PressPress Chapbook Award prize for a short manuscript. Prize includes publication of a chapbook.

Funding sources

If you can manage to make your project self-funding, so much the better. Applying for funding is time-consuming and your project must conform to criteria laid down by someone else. There are many sources of funding other than these, but this is a good enough start.

A word to the wise though, be very well-prepared if you are going to apply. Take the guidelines very seriously.

You might also think about being inventive and consider that there might be ways to generate income other than waiting for someone to give it to you.

Australia Council for the Arts Ozco is the federal government's main funding organisation.

All the state governments fund the arts, some generously, some not. They all have different guidelines and place different importance on different things. In NSW it’s the NSW Ministry for the Arts.

A good source of information about grants, prizes and other opportunities for artists is the Regional Arts NSW e-Bulletin: a free monthly online publication. Sign up for at the Regional Arts NSW website at www.regionalartsnsw.com.au

For more sources of funding etc this is a great place to go:

SCAMS, RIPOFFS, LEGIT PUBLICATION

It's hard to tell a scam from a non-scam sometimes. But a scam often goes like this: You get sent an email or a letter (or maybe you respond to an advert) asking you for some poems. You send some and you get a letter back saying some poetry organisation in America or somewhere loves them and that you have been specially selected to appear in their prestigious publication. They don't offer to pay you for this. In fact they say you can get a special price on the resulting publication. You also get an invite to a big convention or prize giving but they don't offer to pay you or put you up, but they do emphasise the size of the plaque or trophy (which you may or may not have to contribute to financially). You get very excited by this - and that's fine if you know what it is and you're happy with this arrangement.

There are other set-ups which are cooperative and might involve you paying (but they're upfront about this and tell you). You decide if you want to be involved in them on their merits. Some local projects (for example) are like this.

There is also what is called 'partnership publishing'. This involves the writer paying something upfront to assist with printing/distribution. There have been considerable developments in this area. Random House with Ex Libris and Amazon's Booksurge now have imprints which have this sort of this arrangement.

Then there's 'vanity publishing' which is a sub species of 'self-publishing'.

Vanity publishing is where a writer goes through a printer or a press and pays for everything but sets it up as so that it appears that they have been published by standard publisher.

Self-publishing is the author publishing their own work and being open about it. This often happens when the runs might be small, apply to a niche market, or be the special passion of the writer. Family histories etc are often self-published. Some self-published books have gone on to great success. It's rare though. There are a few links about self-publishing on the Rejections page.

What I'm calling 'standard publishing' is where the publisher pays the printer, arranges distribution, advertising and pays the author royalties (ie a percentage of the retail or other price).

There are recommended rates for publication in anthologies (lots of different writers in the same book). Go to the Australian Society of Authors site to find out what the current rates are.