An arts programme dedicated to books, literature, and poetry. Alison Parr talks to publisher Barbara Larson, of Longacre Press in Dunedin and to writer and self publisher David McGill.
Barbara Larson is a publisher with Longacre Press in Dunedin. She says publishing is a very competitive field but the New Zealand publishers are very fair minded people and she is very fond of most of the people in the business. but it’s a small market and quite crowded. Trends and fashions in books are watched closely. It’s a risky business trying to pick ahead of time just what is popular. Sometimes an idea they think is great is too early or perhaps too late. Sometimes a novel will take off right away because its timing is right whereas a much better novel may not do anything. Barbara says it’s a very fickle business the way the trends go. Longacre Press have published some really good books that haven’t sold all that well although it is improving greatly and they are now selling more New Zealand books in Australia which helps a lot.
David McGill has self-published many of his books under Silver Owl Press. His most recent self-published book ‘I Almost Tackled Kel Tremain’ is now out of print. Kel Tremain was an All Black hero in the 60s. He made 1000 of these books and they sold out. His ‘Dictionary of Kiwi Slang’ is into its third recreation - Mills published it in 1989 selling around 28,000 copies which is still on the market. he himself did another edition on his own which sold around 2000 copies and Reed is going to publish the ultimate version called ‘The Complete Dictionary of Kiwi Slang’. David McGill’s recent work is ‘Landmarks’ - a book on historic buildings around the country photographed by Grant Sheehan. It is coming out some time before October and is being published by Godwit.