Culture, Welsh Language and Sport Committee
Policy review - English Medium Writing In Wales
Contribution: Francesca Rhydderch, Editor of New Welsh Review
Introduction:One of the major points to emerge from the Assembly’s previous scoping study was that Wales’s publishing industry suffers from a fragile infrastructure, insufficient funds, commercial weakness and cultural invisibility. Rather than repeating the points that I made in my contribution to the scoping study (see attached appendix), I should like in this paper to frame some of the 'same old’ questions in fresh new terms. In doing so, I hope to offer concrete suggestions for new developments in the field of media coverage of Welsh writing in English which would impinge directly and rapidly on creative output, publishing and a strong reviewing culture.Media coverage of English-medium Welsh writingWales’s publishing industry clearly suffers from an inherently weak infrastructure in comparison with that of England, or even Scotland. Instead of asking why this is the case, and seeking historical reasons for this situation, we should be asking what it is that Wales doesn’t have that prevents the development of a stronger publishing industry and literary culture now? The answer is simple. We have no broadsheet media. Not one newspaper that has an iota of interest in the arts in Wales. On the day that I write this paper, The Western Mail’s 'Arts & Entertainment’ section features a piece on Alice Evans, Ioan Gruffudd’s actress girlfriend, a feature on the contenders for the Panasonic Mercury Prize and a full page feature on actor Michael Praed (formerly of Robin Hood fame). While this is all lively, entertaining material which evidently has a place in the tabloid media, there is very little mention of theatre and none of books (which receive a couple of columns’ treatment in The Western Mail’s weekend magazine). It’s hardly surprising that readers in Wales aren’t rushing out to buy the latest novel released by a Welsh publishing house. They don’t even know that it’s out there, let alone whether it’s considered to be any good by the reviewers, or even available in their local bookshop. Until we address this root problem of lack of media visibility in Wales and beyond, then no amount of extra funding for book production and marketing is going to help the current situation.Thousands of people across the UK read broadsheet coverage of books, the visual arts and theatre in The Independent, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Guardian Review. Those looking for something a little more highbrow turn to The Times Literary Supplement and The London Review of Books (both of which are weekly). Readers with specialist interests in poetry and literature subscribe to one of the small literary magazines, such as Poetry Review. What do we have in Wales which might be seen as an equivalent of these publications? We have three magazines, each of which falls into the small magazine category. New Welsh Review covers literature and theatre, Poetry Wales focuses solely on poetry, and Planet: The Welsh Internationalist has traditionally adopted a broader cultural brief which includes coverage of politics and sport as well as literature. Each of these magazines has what is considered to be a relatively good readership (around 8,000 readers per issue between them). Each has a strongly individual identity and each is well regarded as a publisher of reviews and comment of a high standard. Equally important is the opportunity that each offers to writers new and established to publish their latest work. This is frequently an important stepping stone on the road to publishing a collection of poems or a first novel, and its vital importance to the publishing industry in Wales must not be disregarded. Finally, each of these magazines pays critical attention to the classics of Welsh writing as well as contemporary work. New Welsh Review is the only magazine devoted to literature and theatre in Wales. It enjoys a prestigious historical tradition extending back to 1949, when the magazine Dock Leaves (which subsequently became The Anglo-Welsh Review) was first published. New Welsh Review was launched as its successor in 1988. Today, the magazine works in partnership with the Welsh Academy and the Association for Welsh Writing in English, as well as more recent collaborators (University of Glamorgan, Welsh Literature Abroad and the Theatre in Wales website). New Welsh Review is funded by the Welsh Books Council: of the £51,000 grant that we receive per year, we are expected to cover all design, production, printing and direct distribution costs, the editor’s salary, and all commissioning fees. With that funding, we produce a 128-page colour-illustrated issue each quarter, which features five articles, at least three new stories, 15-20 new poems, a 20-page full-colour Theatre in Wales supplement and a 20-page Reviews section. By way of an example, our most recent issue included the following:Features:The National Museum’s Thomas Jones Exhibition reviewed by Peter LordKaite O’Reilly on writing about mortalityStevie Davies on the re-writing of her novel Impassioned Clay as a radio playLewis Davies profiled by John PikoulisValuable new information on Dylan Thomas’s early years by David N. Thomas (the Dylan Thomas tapes)Poems:Welsh Writers Against the War: Menna Elfyn, Fiona Owen, Gillian Clarke, Owen Sheers, Stevie Davies and Richard JonesCardiff International Poetry Competition 2003:First Prize Winner:Emma JonesSecond Prize Winner:Jamie WalshThird Prize Winner:Jenny SwannFiction: new stories by Gee Williams, new writer Rhys Thomas and Huw LawrenceRegulars: Reviews, In Brief, LettersTheatre in Wales Supplement: Post-devolution Theatre, Film & TVA profile of playwright Charles WayReviews of Caitlin at the Sherman in Cardiff and Ed Thomas’s recently published Selected WorksI offer this example in order to demonstrate (1) the balance of interests represented by the magazine - we cover both the classics (such as Dylan Thomas) and the new and the groundbreaking (such as a new book about the experience of terminal illness and disability) and (2) that the creative constituency to which New Welsh Review reaches out is an audience on whom the success of English-medium Welsh writing, both as an industry and as a creative enterprise is profoundly dependent. As such, New Welsh Review has a crucial role to play in promoting discussion of books and theatre, and thereby promoting sales of books and boosting theatre attendances. When I took over New Welsh Review in June 2002, it was clear to me that, in addition to offering stimulating and intelligent coverage of literature and theatre to committed arts readers who already subscribe to the magazine, New Welsh Review needs to go some way towards filling the enormous gap left by the lack of broadsheet coverage of the output of the Welsh publishing industry. Since I took over the magazine last year, shop sales of New Welsh Review have doubled, and subscriptions have increased by 40%. I have forged partnerships with the Theatre in Wales website, Welsh Literature Abroad and the University of Glamorgan in order to strengthen New Welsh Review’s financial position and to increase the magazine’s profile. What the magazine needs now is an increase in resources, however modest, in order to reach more readers by means of targeted campaigns, in schools and colleges, for example, and via the internet, a means of marketing which we are currently unable to exploit due to a serious lack of resources. As Gwerfyl Pierce Jones, Chief Executive of the Welsh Books Council, has noted, grants for publications are currently skewed so that production costs are covered but marketing budgets are small. To this I would add the point that, in the case of magazines, production costs cover minimal commissioning fees, so that none of our writers are able to earn professional fees for their work. The issue of professionalism in literary journalism in Wales is one which has yet to be seriously addressed.Proposals- That the Committee review the current funding provision for literary magazines with a view to strengthening their commercial potential by offering financial support which would (a) enable them to enter the professional arena by offering commissioning fees at a rate which will mean that the magazines no longer have to rely on the goodwill of freelance writers (b) enable them to market themselves seriously. At the moment, for example, New Welsh Review is not in a position to spend more than £1000 (maximum) on marketing per year, and our marketing efforts are therefore severely constrained.
- That the Committee consider working in partnership with the Welsh Books Council in order to appoint a sales representative with responsibility for the distribution of magazines (in both English and Welsh). Currently magazines are repped by individuals who already have an enormous portfolio of books to sell, and magazines can be marginalized as a result. Waterstone’s in Cardiff, for example, has not stocked New Welsh Review since it was allegedly decided that it was too local and specialist in interest - quite a blow for Wales’s national literary quarterly. If magazines are to sell more widely, we desperately need dedicated support in the area of distribution.
- That the Committee review the proposal that I put forward in my previous paper (see attached appendix), i.e. that money be channelled into a prestigious new literary prize and also into associated marketing for existing prizes such as the Welsh Book of the Year Award. Broadsheet literary coverage by New Welsh Review could emulate the successful relationships between the broadsheet UK media and the Man Booker Prize which have greatly enhanced sales of shortlisted books. This is a role that we are keen to develop, and properly funded literary events and awards would enable us to play our part in national promotion.
Academi and the Association for Welsh Writing in English)Survey of the current situation(i) Welsh writing in English - a summary of recent developmentsCultural historical research in the field has revealed a long history of Welsh writing in English. Nevertheless, it was during the twentieth century that a whole generation of 'Anglo-Welsh’ writers - that is, writers who did not speak Welsh, but whose parents still had some knowledge of the language and culture - came to the fore. Their inheritance has been a great body of work - mainly fiction and poetry - written out of the different areas of Wales, from north to south, but with an emphasis on the socialist mining communities of the south and the experiences of the people who lived there.The last decade has seen the increasing urbanisation and metropolitisation of Welsh writing in English, and also a broad range of work by very different writers, few of whom still retain a close relationship with the Welsh language. Several excellent new poets have emerged, such as Deryn Rees-Jones, and there has been a great upsurge in fiction. Many of the new generation of novelists write about the city, mainly about Cardiff (John Williams, Trezza Azzopardi and Sean Burke), but there are also new writers who choose to represent rural Wales; for example, a very good first novel was recently written by Chris Keil about the foot-and-mouth crisis. One of the most interesting new books to have been published in recent years is Charlotte Williams’s autobiography, Sugar and Slate, which explores her black Welsh identity.There is clearly a traceable relationship between notions of citizenship, external perceptions of a country’s identity and literary output. The establishment of the National Assembly and the re-invention of Cardiff as the capital of a 'new’ Wales has offered young new writers a revitalised sense of place and identity, and it is all the more important, therefore, that their work is considered a vital contribution to the artistic expression of modern Wales.One of the major problems faced by the Welsh publishing industry in the current situation is that the most popular, and frequently the most talented, of these novelists are published by London publishers. Independent Welsh publishers are not in a position to offer substantial advances on royalties, and also, due to the difficulty of distributing books outside Wales and the total lack of resources across the board for marketing books from Wales, they are unable to sell them on the same scale as a London publisher. Unlike most publishers, therefore, Welsh publishers are unable to balance their lists effectively between large and small sellers, for example, between best-selling popular fiction or commercial books and equally important but non-commercial titles such as experimental poetry. (ii) The Assembly’s Culture Strategy for WalesIn its Culture Strategy for Wales, the Assembly quite rightly focuses on 'writing’ as opposed to 'literature’, and also upon the need to develop Wales as a bilingual, multi-ethnic, culturally diverse country. It is precisely this image of a 'new Wales’ which I aim to foster in New Welsh Review, and recent commissions include: a piece on writing by asylum seekers in Wales; an in-conversation piece with two black Welsh women writers, one from north Wales and the other from Cardiff; a profile of award-winning Welsh-language writer Angharad Price; features on Welsh books in English for children; and, finally, profiles about best-selling Welsh writers published out of London, such as Sarah Waters and Maggie O’Farrell.2. Recommendations(i) Culture Committee Policy ReviewThe transfer of responsibility for Welsh books in English from the Arts Council of Wales to the Welsh Books Council has the potential to strengthen and support this area of the Welsh publishing industry. This is therefore an ideal time to flag up the specific needs of English-language readers and writers in Wales, which are, it must be said, quite different from those of the Welsh-language market currently served by the WBC’s system of grants and distribution. I would urge the Culture Committee to pay serious consideration in its proposed policy review to this area of Welsh writing in English. I would also suggest that any new polices and strategies that result are thought through laterally (as proposed by Jenny Randerson in her introduction to the Culture Strategy), since issues such as the quality and extent of media coverage of Welsh writing and how it might also be fostered through literary magazines, for example, are also vital to such a review.(ii) Chainstore bookshops in WalesThe Assembly culture strategy quite rightly flags up the current problems in distribution faced by English-language publishers, especially outside Wales and in chainstore bookshops in Wales. The WBC has worked hard to attempt to increase sales via shops such as Waterstone’s of books from Wales, including literary titles, but the chainstores remain notoriously resistant to stocking titles from smaller publishers. They consistently push the bestsellers from large London publishers who can afford to pay for major marketing campaigns, as a result of which people tend to buy from the top ten list and no more broadly than that, thereby confining high numbers of sales to a relatively small number of books at any one time. Independent Welsh publishers are finding it almost impossible to sell indigenous literary titles in any numbers via these outlets. It could be argued that the resulting discrimination amounts to nothing less than a form of internal colonialism, which will only ease if the Assembly applies considerable political pressure upon the chains in question - Waterstone’s and W H Smiths, to name but two - to stock Welsh fiction and poetry alongside titles from major London publishers, not tucked away in a corner under 'Welsh interest’.(iii) Review of grant provision to include marketingGrants for book production should include provision for a marketing campaign for each title individually in addition to more general marketing support for publishers. Individual book grants barely cover production costs at the moment, and it is no surprise, therefore, if the books fail to sell. There is currently some provision towards salaries for Marketing Officers at some Welsh publishing houses but funds need to be channelled into associated costs e.g. flyers, advertisements, visits to the London Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair to meet with potential distributors, etc. Having said that, more funding for marketing posts is desperately needed. The same applies to magazines. New Welsh Review’s grant, for example, covers commissioning, production, design and distribution costs, but it leaves me with no more than a few hundred pounds towards marketing in any one year. As a result of this, the magazine is not reaching the readership it deserves. Even more importantly, the role that it plays in promoting books from Wales (a little like the role played by the broadsheet newspapers in England) is severely limited. A review of cultural policy needs to consider the connections between magazines and book publishing, and how one can better serve the other.(iv) Increasing and establishing major literary prizesMore money needs to be channelled into prizes such as the Welsh Book of the Year Award and the Tir na n’Og Children’s Book Award to bring them into line with their Celtic equivalents. For example, the newly established Scottish Books Council Book of the Year Award is worth £10,000 as opposed to the £3,000 offer to Welsh winners. Money needs to be set aside in order to bring in a range of high-calibre judges, and more work needs to be done in collaboration with the Hay Festival in order to ensure a stronger presence for both the ceremony and associated publicity at the festival.I would also encourage the Culture Committee to consider establishing major new literary prizes, for example:
- A Welsh international literary prize on a par with the recently established Artes Mundi prize (£40,000)
- an unpublished first book prize which would offer a writer £20,000 in collaboration with the writer’s selected Welsh publisher. The prize would thereby function as a royalty advance on sales. In collaboration with a fully funded UK-wide marketing campaign, this might enable a Welsh publisher to compete with other independent UK publishers such as Canongate in Edinburgh, who published this year’s Booker-winning novel by Yann Martel.
- considerable political pressure is placed upon book chains in Wales to stock and promote Welsh fiction and poetry alongside titles from major London publishers.
- grant provision is radically reviewed in order to make possible the effective marketing of individual titles.
- existing book awards are increased in value and new awards established in order to (i) increase the prestige of Welsh literary awards and (ii) to enable Welsh publishers to hold on to Welsh talent by offering them a major advance in royalties.
- The role played by the literary media in promoting the Welsh book industry needs to be encouraged and properly financed.
