11.12.19
And…
ONLY 4.5 FTEs ASA staff members (full-time equivalents)
What an exciting year this has been! We are delighted to have brought you so many new services, offered advice where it was needed and fought for positive change on your behalf. We have expanded on a few of our, and your, achievements this year in the below article.
PIRACY
2019 sadly saw an increase in complaints about ebook piracy and website scams, including Open Library, Ebook Bike, EC publishing and the Miami Book Fair offer.
We responded promptly, both directly to the sites and by alerting the membership to these issues. We made some progress when the ASA met with Google to discuss this type of ebook piracy and the issues surrounding take-down notices.
RAISING AWARENESS
In February the Parliamentary Friends of Australian Books and Writers held their 5th event at Parliament House in Canberra to present their Books Create strategy - a united industry group representing publishers, authors, libraries and booksellers - as well as thank the two co-chairs, Senator Linda Reynolds and Graham Perrett MP, for their huge support for the book industry. Sadly Senator Linda Reynolds had to subsequently step down from this role when she was appointed Minister for Defence.
In September the PFABW held a further gathering in Canberra, to welcome the new co-chair, Senator Hollie Hughes, launch Australian Reading Hour and announce the first book chosen for the newly constituted Parliamentary Book Club. Dark Emu was the very popular book club choice and author Bruce Pascoe, will attend the next PFABW event to discuss his work.
Parliamentary Friends Groups are a very effective way of raising political awareness of a sector and the book industry is no exception.
In March, CEO, Juliet Rogers, appeared on a panel at the Australian Digital Alliance Conference in Canberra, with Associate Professor Rebecca Giblin and Professor Kimberley Weatherall. The panel was a constructive discussion on copyright reform, with consensus on the fact that authors' interests are central to the debate.
In May, thanks to the Australia Council for the Arts, the ASA was able to take a delegation of 15 writers and illustrators to join their Visiting International Publisher's Program for the day. This is an excellent opportunity for our members to hear first hand about international publishing trends and challenges.
We also held met with the Australian Literary Agents Association to discuss issues of common interest. Since that meeting we have developed a new Literary Agent template Agreement with some valuable input from the Association.
In September the ASA added two helpful guides published by AIPI to our website and marketed them widely to our membership. We are proud to be part of the Australian Inclusive Publishing Initiative (AIPI), a multi-sector group made up of print disability peak bodies, publishers, libraries, editors, authors and government agencies to progress accessible publishing in Australia.
In October the ASA, along with highly respected children’s author, Jacqueline Harvey, were delighted to meet the Hon Paul Fletcher, the Minister for Communications, Cybersafety and the Arts. We had the opportunity to explain the issues of concern to authors and illustrators:
In October we ran our Tax Free Literary Prizes campaign to raise awareness of the fact that literary awards, prizes and grants continue to be subject to personal income tax. The campaign gained widespread coverage.
In November we called on the University of Western Australia to reverse its decision to close UWA Publishing, a highly successful university publisher for almost 85 years.
Several times this year, we met with DOCA to progress discussions on the expansion of PLR/ELR to digital formats (ebooks and audiobooks).
Distribution
In April we announced that we had negotiated an agreement with John Reed Books, to provide on-going sales and distribution for ASA members' NEW PRINT books. This is an extension of the temporary arrangement that was put in place following the liquidation of Dennis Jones & Associates in September 2018 and provides much-needed access to the retail market for independent authors.
Award mentorships
Also in April, we launched the new Award Mentorship Program, made possible by the generous funding support from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. The ASA was able to offer twenty 20-hour mentorships with an experienced writer, editor or illustrator. In addition, the winners received a one-year membership to the ASA, a free ticket to our popular Literary Speed Dating event and access to a newly-developed Pathways to Publishing Program. The five highly commended winners received an appraisal on the first ten pages of their manuscript or portfolio, as well as access to the Pathways to Publishing Program. The feedback to this program has been very positive, especially as it has also helped the mentees to develop their own ‘support’ group.
International Marketplace Catalogue
In May and September we ran our International Marketplace catalogue; an online catalogue providing publishers, agents and scouts in territories outside of Australia, the opportunity to discover new Australian writing talent. Over the past year, we have spent countless hours meticulously fostering relationships and can now boast that our lists include over 700 publishers, agents and scouts worldwide – an increase of over 3,000% since 2017. In fact nearly 5% of authors showcased in the catalogue have engendered interest and an even higher percentage of publishers and agents told us they found the catalogue a useful tool that they want to receive regularly.
Three-hour mentorships
With the success of our mentorship program, we decided to launch another mentoring opportunity for members: a three-hour consultation on your first ten pages including reading time and feedback, either verbally or as a written report. So far we have been very pleased with the up-take and feedback.
Notice Board
In July we announced the launch of a members-only Notice Board on our website. This is an area where you can all share news about events and meet-ups: a place to reach out to other members with your news.
ASA HQ Prize
We were delighted in August to announce the ASA HQ Commercial Fiction Prize. The prize was for an unpublished manuscript, with the winner receiving a publishing contract with HQ, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, and a $10,000 advance against royalties. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner in 2020.
Illustration Award Mentorships
In the same month we were thrilled to announce the introduction of the inaugural 2019 ASA Style File Illustration Award Mentorships. Thanks to a grant from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, we were able to offer 8 winners a 5-hour mentorships for either their portfolio or picture book projects, as well as free ASA Style File access for a year.
Rates Trackers
We then turned our attention to the development of a rates trackers to help accurately record trends and monitor rates that are being paid on the open market. We launched with a publishing agreement tracker and an author/illustrator appearances tracker and hope to extend into other areas in 2020. This will be a significant help in our ability to benchmark appropriately and thereby keep the rates of pay relevant and useful.
Blake Beckett Scholarship
In September, thanks to the generosity of one of our long-term ASA members and supporters, Wendy Beckett, we were able to announce the launch of the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. This wonderful opportunity is worth AU$20,000, and provides valuable time for an ASA member to work on their current manuscript.
Flash Fiction Competition
In October we ran our first Flash Fiction competition. The winner Kathy Sharpe
received $300 cash and free ASA membership for a year. The two runners up received free ASA membership. We had a brilliant 80 entries and the standard of the submissions was very high. We look forward to running another competition soon.
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) was delighted when David Marr presented The ASA Medal to one of Australia’s most loved and respected writers, Thomas Keneally AO. The Medal is awarded to an Australian author or illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian culture as both a creator and an advocate.
The ceremony was held on Thursday 14 after the ASA AGM. After the medal presentation and speeches, Benjamin Law delivered the Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture 2019, entitled Stories from the Margins. Benjamin Law is an acclaimed journalist, columnist, screenwriter and author. Full transcript here.
The Australian Society of Authors and Varuna the National Writers’ House were also delighted to announce Hayley Scrivenor as the winner of the 2019 ASA / Varuna Ray Koppe Young Writers Residency.
Our 2019 events series included a two-day illustrator workshop, an exclusive event with journalist Hedley Thomas about his Teacher’s Pet podcast , a Money Matters workshop and a successful Ask The ASA series. Individual workshop presenters have included; Shaun Tan, Alison Lester, Ian Mcdonald, Garth Nix, Belinda Murrell, Andy Griffiths, Walter Mason, Kathryn Heyman, Ross Bell and many more. Our sincere thanks to all our brilliant presenters.
Virtual Literary Speed Dating was a big highlight this year with 17 publishers and agents attending, 174 pitches by members across 2 days, 522 minutes (8hrs 42 minutes) of pitching time and 80 requests for further material. Participants joined from all over Australia and even from Hong Kong and Myanmar.
We are delighted that our 2019 survey revealed member satisfaction has also increased. In 2018 87.19% of respondents said we had met or exceeded expectations, which increased to 91.16% this year. There has also been a steady increase in recommendations over the past 3 years. In 2017 80% of members said they would recommend the ASA, in 2018 this rose to 82.93% and in 2019 this has risen again to 89.53%.
We are sad to see Juliet Rogers, CEO for four years, go this year. She has been a true beacon, injected so much energy, and brought about constructive change for our organisation. We also welcome our new CEO Olivia Lanchester, who will continue to shine a light on the most pressing issues for authors and illustrators and ensure relevant and useful services for our members in 2020 and beyond.
Thank you for your loyalty. The ASA exists only because of your support; and we look forward to working hard on your behalf next year.
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