Agent to the emergents
The former director of the Emerging Writers' Festival, Sam Twyford-Moore, has been busy lately. Fresh from organising an open letter concerning the establishment of the putative Book Council of Australia demanding greater consultation with the younger generation, he has this week, along with editor of Kill Your Darlings Brigid Mullane, set up the Melbourne Agency. The agency will do the traditional representing of writers and Twyford-Moore says they are likely to be the best of the best of emerging writers and mainly non-fiction writers. "I think I can sell them and sell them overseas. The content may well be Australian, may well be local but will be universal." The agency will also work on some projects involving audio, visuals and podcasting. One of the many things he is concerned about is that the literary sector is losing "really talented writers, editors, to other industries". themelbourneagency.com
No struggle for Knausgaard
Fans of Karl Ove Knausgaard can begin salivating at the thought that not only do they have the last two volumes to be translated into English of his suite of autobiographical novels, My Struggle, to look forward to but also a novel, The Morning Star, about a murder of three members of a heavy metal band that, according to the Wylie Agency, which represents him, "builds, unforgettably, into an apocalyptic fantasy". But wait, there's more. He's also going to publish four volumes of short meditations that comprise a "personal encyclopaedia on everything from chewing gum to the stars".
Wallender and his creator
A different Nordic author was mourned this week – Henning Mankell, the man who created the wonderfully curmudgeonly Swedish detective, Kurt Wallender. When Mankell was guest at the Melbourne Writers' Festival in 2004, he emulated some of Wallender's grumpiness. One enthusiast for his brilliant books – so much more than crime novels – sitting in the Merlyn Theatre listening to him in conversation with Morag Fraser had brought along all his Wallender books for the great man to sign. He ducked out as soon as the applause started and was at the head of the signing queue as Mankell approached. The author was horrified that he had to sign six or seven books rather than only his most recent one and did his duty with little grace.
Kindles shown the bookshop door
Further to the reports about the slowdown in the growth of e-book sales in the US and in Britain, and an increase in sales of print books for the first time in seven years, comes the news from the influential British book-selling chain Waterstones that it will no longer stock Kindle e-book readers in its shops. That's because, according to Waterstones boss James Daunt, the sales are "pitiful". He went on: "It feels very much like the life of one of those inexplicable bestsellers; one day piles and piles, selling like fury; the next you count your blessings with every sale because it brings you closer to getting it off your shelves forever to make way for something new."
