I see that Jennifer Byrne is presenting four of Australia’s most popular and successful authors on a special edition of ABC TV’s First Tuesday Book Club. Jennifer Byrne Presents: Blockbusters and Bestsellers will feature Bryce Courtenay, Di Morrison, Lee Child and Matthew Reilly. These are authors whose books sell in the millions but they are rarely reviewed in the quality press – and when they are, the review is usually dismissive. I have read feature articles about two of these authors and both were clearly miffed about being ignored by literary critics and the prize shortlists. So we can expect to see this issue get an airing. And in the ensuing commentary we can also expect some of what we see on Amazon reviews: sneering at books that ‘nobody reads’ that do win the prizes and the kudos i.e. literary fiction.
I just want to say this. IMO reading popular fiction is like eating at home. Safe, familiar, tasty, predictable and undemanding. Nothing wrong with that, but your mum doesn’t win awards for her cooking even though it brings great pleasure to those who enjoy it. It’s top restaurateurs who win awards (and write expensive cookbooks for us to buy).
Some people are content with everyday cooking, and good luck to them. More adventurous souls like to experiment. Vue de Monde is not going to appeal to those who like steak and chips best, but I’m glad it’s there to offer an unforgettable culinary experience.
Popular fiction can take care of itself because the vast reading public supports it, just as popular taste supports commercial TV. But just as there’s a place for ‘Aunty’ ABC, catering for less mainstream tastes, there’s a place for literary fiction too. The trouble is that there’s not enough of us who buy literary fiction to support the authors who craft it, and whereas enough of us can afford a meal at Vue de Monde if we save up for it, the price of literary fiction would be commercially unviable if it reflected the real cost of rewarding the author i.e. provided an income for however many years it takes to write the book.
Literary awards are the means by which we in Australia provide a small income for the most innovative and adventurous of our writers. There’s not enough of these awards, and only the PM’s award is enough to support an author for a couple of years to write the next book. These awards belong to literary fiction, not genre fiction and not to Courtenay et al.
(I have commented elsewhere that I’d like to see some of our Rich List and big corporations fund some literary prizes; it’s shabby that someone like Miles Franklin beggared herself so that she could leave enough money to fund our most prestigious award – yet the richest people in Australia won’t add to our cultural capital with what would be mere pocket-money out of the millions they earn each year. How about the BHP Billeton Award for Best Book featuring the Outback, or the James Packer Award for Best Book featuring Fathers and Sons? Mr Courtenay himself could consider offering a prize, perhaps the BC Prize for Splendid Big Books?)
Popular fiction and literary fiction are for different but complementary markets: they aren’t in competition with one another.
Lisa, I love the analogy of popular fiction vs. literary fiction to our food…it works perfectly! I agree that popular fiction seems to support itself. I’m happy to see more literary fiction on the shelves at my Barnes and Noble here in the States…
By: Wendy on May 8, 2010
at 11:20 am
Well said Lisa, couldn’t agree more. Will be interesting to see how much discussion is given to this on Jennifer Byrne’s show. jb@LD
By: musingsofaliterarydilettante on May 8, 2010
at 11:21 am
Great post Lisa – spot on. Sometimes Mum’s cooking is a pleasant change from eating out. A lot of my reading falls in between though – I think I favour dining at great cafes :)
By: Melissa on May 8, 2010
at 11:54 am
I must try and remember to watch the program now!
By: Lisa Hill on May 8, 2010
at 12:06 pm
Good one Lisa … love your award ideas!
By: whisperinggums on May 8, 2010
at 1:02 pm
I had to restrain myself a bit, Sue. I had an idea for a Meredith Hellicar Prize…
By: Lisa Hill on May 8, 2010
at 1:35 pm
Great comparison, I sometimes see pop fiction like comfort food, good for a change, all the best Stu
By: winstonsdad on May 8, 2010
at 4:21 pm
I love the cooking analogy. And you’re right, literary fiction and popular fiction aren’t in competition with each other. I tend to prefer literary fiction but every now and then I like the comfort and ease of the popular stuff.
They have the British Book Awards here (also known as the Nibbies), which are voted by the public and hence loads of popular fiction gets the nod. There’s about a million categories, from best crime thriller to best sports book, which gives everyone a relatively good chance of taking a prize. It gets loads of TV coverage, too.
I’d like to see Mr Courtenay, who’s obviously made a bomb from his bestsellers, put his money where his mouth is and create a prize to support popular fiction writers.
By: kimbofo on May 8, 2010
at 9:49 pm
Fabulous post Lisa. Thought provoking. I too really enjoyed your food analogy. I think you’re right about literary fiction winning awards like top chefs, although I guess the chefs have an even better money stream than the authors. As you are aware I love dining out, and indeed I too dined at Vue de Monde about 2 years ago, but think I had a somewhat different experience. I thought it overblown and pretentious. We had dramas with the bookings (did you know if you need to cancel- my friends flight was running late -you have to pay anyway? it was going to cost us $450 to NOT go! I was never going to have the best night ever after hours of dramas).
By: Louise on May 8, 2010
at 9:50 pm
Oh, Louise, what a pity! I think you should go back and give them a chance to redeem themselves. We had a lovely time.
There are quite a few restaurants now that charge anyway if you don’t turn up. After all, what can they do with your table that should have brought in whatever profit it generates? You have to book months ahead for restaurants like that so if you don’t show no one is going to drop in off the street to take your place but they’ve hired staff and bought expensive ingredients on your behalf, and even top restaurants like VDM operate on knife-edge profit margins.
You don’t get your money back if you NoShow at the opera or a rock concert, or, these days, Tiger Airways etc.
The Spouse and his 11 piece jazz orchestra (the Australian Cotton Club Orchestra) who all had to be paid at union rates used to do a gig in a pub in South Melbourne. The dining room had to be – and always was – booked out for the owner to make a profit on the night. If a table didn’t turn up, his profit for that Saturday night vanished. This happened a couple of times in a row and the stress on The Spouse was awful…
By: Lisa Hill on May 9, 2010
at 12:02 am
[...] ANZ LitLovers comments on the literary vs. popular fiction divide. [...]
By: Sunday Spotlight « The Black Sheep on May 9, 2010
at 6:56 pm
Lisa
I have just watched the video of this program and it was very interesting. Especially in regard to marketing popular fiction and Lee Child discussing the reasons behind choosing particular cover styles and the advantages of having your name near the top of the alphabet.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/
By: Jenny on May 13, 2010
at 10:29 am
Lisa,
I am a little late to this post, but it is fabulous. I like your take and, as many commenters have said, the analogy to cooking is spot on. McDonald’s serves far more customers than any restaurants with Michelin rated chefs, but there is no serious dispute regarding the quality or originality of the food.
I also agree that awards for literary fiction are more necessary because authors of literary works often cannot make a living while they are honing their craft.
On a related note, I am happy that Summertime won the Christina Stead prize for fiction, but he probably doesn’t need either the prize money or the sales boost. I am in favor of specialty prizes for good, but authors who are struggling financially. Of course, I cannot immediately think of how such a contest would be designed to limit contenders to quality unknowns, you know, an author with two or three books of good literary quality under their belt but insufficient sales to devote themselves to writing full-time. My understanding is publishers used to carry these midlist authors, but, due to financial realities, no longer do.
Anyway, great post and discussion.
By: Kerry on May 19, 2010
at 9:42 am
Hi Kerry, thanks for your kind remarks:) It’s a tricky issue, whether prizes should be awarded partly on the basis of need… I think that the proliferation of Best First Book prizes is in part a response to this, but in the end, who can judge the financial circumstances of anyone without prying? I think Patrick White had the right idea when he withdrew from various awards to give others a go, but maybe also there could be a kind of prize where there’s honour and glory but the $$$ is left for less established writers? Like an emeritus professor?? Lisa
By: Lisa Hill on May 19, 2010
at 8:31 pm