The Quest for Australian Fantastic
Fiction
Is it merely the sort of stuff teenage boys read or is it the literature of the twentieth century? Is it just space ships, magic rings and mutilated bodies or is it the quest for transcendence?
The three strands of fantastic fiction – science fiction, fantasy and horror – evoke a vast range of reactions, but there can be no doubt that we are witnessing a boom in these genres unlike anything the local industry has seen.
For the first time the local publishers are actually serious about publishing fantastic fiction. A few years ago we witnessed the explosion of local detective and crime fiction as our publishing houses realised there was a market for Australians buying Australian authors. Science fiction, fantasy and horror have been patiently waiting their turn for a long time, and during the 90s it has started to happen.
Pan Macmillan have led the way – primarily in fantasy, but they are gradually branching out into the other genres. If Australian fantastic fiction has a Peter Corris, then it is Pan's Martin Middleton. When Middleton's first book, Circle of Light, was published back in 1990, the Association of Australian fantasy writers could have met in a coffin. Gradually their potential meeting venue has progressed from this to a telephone booth, and now we're looking at a small room.
Circle of Light was a landmark in Australian publishing. It was the first Australian fantasy novel by a major local publisher, and it was the first to benefit from a large, professional sales and marketing team. The book was packaged and marketed at least as well as Pan's overseas offerings – and it ended up selling more copies than its foreign cousins. Circle of Light's initial print run of around 8,000 sold out, it has been reprinted, and has to date sold around 15,000 copies. And it's a first novel from a previously unpublished author.
After dipping their collective toes in the water of fantastic fiction, Pan Macmillan then dived right in and started their Australian Fantasy line. The result can only be described as a phenomenon. Pan have published ten fantasy works to date and there are plans for exponential expansion in the field. Martin Middleton has produced five novels so far and Tony Shillitoe has contributed a trilogy to the line. Dirk Strasser's Zenith and Shannah Jay's Quest complete the current list. What is amazing is that they are all selling at exactly the same rate as Martin Middleton's first book. Other novels that have already been accepted are sequels by authors already on the list as well as novels by new writers Julie Haydon and Beverley Macdonald. The momentum is almost breath taking.
Science fiction and horror are also becoming more prominent on Pan's list. G M Hague's Ghost Beyond Earth, a horror/science fiction hybrid which was marketed as a Dean R Koontz clone, had a print run of 20,000 and had the full marketing treatment – dump bins, saturation distribution and all. Its sales have matched Circle of Light, and when it was first released it was literally walking off the shelves. Shannah Jay has an SF novel Envoy due for release in July – and most aficionados would argue that Quest, despite the packaging, is SF rather than fantasy anyway.
Roxarne Burns of Pan says they are looking for commercial books. They have concentrated on fantasy because their research here tells them that there is a significantly larger market in Australia for fantasy than science fiction. And like other major publishers, they are very keen to develop their horror lists. Everyone wants to discover the Australian Stephen King.
Other publishers have been a little more tentative but there are growing signs that almost no–one will be untouched by the boom. Hodder Headline published Terror Australis – Best Australian Horrorin 1993 and this was quickly followed up by Mortal Fire – Best Australian Science Fiction. Penguin will release another best Australian SF anthology Metaworlds in June. Heinemann have entered the horror market with Veronica Hart's Double God – an interesting marketing ploy with a slightly suspect photo of the author on the inside of the front cover. Omnibus will release two teenage SF anthologies this year The Lottery and The Patternmaker.
All this is occurring at a time when small press activity in fantastic fiction is at an all–time high. Chimaera Publications has been a major player at this level. Aurealis– The Australian Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a nationally distributed short story magazine with print runs up to 10,000 that has so far produced twelve issues. Chimaera's other magazine The Australian SF Writers' News has become the marketing bible of fantastic fiction writers in Australia. Adelaide's Aphelion Publications has successfully published books by many of the big names in Australian science fiction – George Turner, Damien Broderick, Sean McMullen and Terry Dowling. And on the horror front Australia's first professional mass market horror magazine Bloodsongs was launched in February. The Women's Redress Press have published a horror anthology Shrieks and another feminist publisher is planning an anthology of women's SF.
All of this activity is on top of the writers who have followed the time–honoured tradition of by–passing the local publishers and going straight to the US or the UK. Greg Egan and Paul Voermans fall into this category and as a result both have higher profiles overseas than many of the locally published writers. George Turner, who has been sadly ignored by the Australian publishers for too long, is to have his entire SF output reissued by Avonova in the USA.
So much is happening and I haven't even touched on the areas of fantastic fiction that have traditionally been relatively strong in Australia. The children's area is one, and the other is the fantastic fiction novel marketed as a mainstream novel. Novels in the latter category include Gabrielle Lord's Salt and Rosie Scott's Feral City, and there could be strong claims for Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.
And if your heart missed a beat at the mention of Tim Winton in the roll call so far, then we have come to the heart of the problem of fantastic fiction in Australia. There have been few bridges between fantastic and mainstream literature. Science fiction, in particular, has always been judged by the general literary community on the basis of its worst examples. A ridiculous state of affairs. It is just as absurd to judge George Turner'sThe Destiny Makers by watching Star Wars as it is to judge Wuthering Heights by watching a soap opera.
Publishers have until recently avoided the local writers of the fantastic for the same reasons that most of the Australian literary community has avoided it – they simply knew nothing about the genre. They had no understanding of it; they had no feel for it. At times they have been unaware that they already have books on their lists which are clearly science fiction or fantasy. This sort of thing is finally changing and the bridges are being built. The major publishers are beginning to realise that we have the talent here in Australia to develop a strong and viable fantastic fiction industry.
Many of the major players in the Australian publishing scene are now looking closely at science fiction, fantasy and horror. There is no single discernible direction, although it is clear no–one is looking for 1950s style space opera with wooden characters blasting each other from one galaxy to the next. Several say they are sick of seeing post–apocalyptic novels set in a scarred Australian landscape. Some have an aversion to the fantasy trilogies that dominate the market and don't want a bar of elves, wizards and magic rings. A few will consider the horrors of splatterpunk, while many steer away from gratuitous violence toward the quiet, suggestive end of the scale.
So where is the quest leading us? I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Once the other publishers have had a good look at Pan's figures, they are going to jump on the bandwagon. They all know that science fiction, fantasy and horror sell well – that has never been at issue – what they haven't known up until recently is that there is more than enough expertise here in Australia to build a successful local industry. All it takes is a little imagination.
Australian Autthor Volume 26 No. 1 Autumn 1994
The three strands of fantastic fiction – science fiction, fantasy and horror – evoke a vast range of reactions, but there can be no doubt that we are witnessing a boom in these genres unlike anything the local industry has seen.
For the first time the local publishers are actually serious about publishing fantastic fiction. A few years ago we witnessed the explosion of local detective and crime fiction as our publishing houses realised there was a market for Australians buying Australian authors. Science fiction, fantasy and horror have been patiently waiting their turn for a long time, and during the 90s it has started to happen.
Pan Macmillan have led the way – primarily in fantasy, but they are gradually branching out into the other genres. If Australian fantastic fiction has a Peter Corris, then it is Pan's Martin Middleton. When Middleton's first book, Circle of Light, was published back in 1990, the Association of Australian fantasy writers could have met in a coffin. Gradually their potential meeting venue has progressed from this to a telephone booth, and now we're looking at a small room.
Circle of Light was a landmark in Australian publishing. It was the first Australian fantasy novel by a major local publisher, and it was the first to benefit from a large, professional sales and marketing team. The book was packaged and marketed at least as well as Pan's overseas offerings – and it ended up selling more copies than its foreign cousins. Circle of Light's initial print run of around 8,000 sold out, it has been reprinted, and has to date sold around 15,000 copies. And it's a first novel from a previously unpublished author.
After dipping their collective toes in the water of fantastic fiction, Pan Macmillan then dived right in and started their Australian Fantasy line. The result can only be described as a phenomenon. Pan have published ten fantasy works to date and there are plans for exponential expansion in the field. Martin Middleton has produced five novels so far and Tony Shillitoe has contributed a trilogy to the line. Dirk Strasser's Zenith and Shannah Jay's Quest complete the current list. What is amazing is that they are all selling at exactly the same rate as Martin Middleton's first book. Other novels that have already been accepted are sequels by authors already on the list as well as novels by new writers Julie Haydon and Beverley Macdonald. The momentum is almost breath taking.
Science fiction and horror are also becoming more prominent on Pan's list. G M Hague's Ghost Beyond Earth, a horror/science fiction hybrid which was marketed as a Dean R Koontz clone, had a print run of 20,000 and had the full marketing treatment – dump bins, saturation distribution and all. Its sales have matched Circle of Light, and when it was first released it was literally walking off the shelves. Shannah Jay has an SF novel Envoy due for release in July – and most aficionados would argue that Quest, despite the packaging, is SF rather than fantasy anyway.
Roxarne Burns of Pan says they are looking for commercial books. They have concentrated on fantasy because their research here tells them that there is a significantly larger market in Australia for fantasy than science fiction. And like other major publishers, they are very keen to develop their horror lists. Everyone wants to discover the Australian Stephen King.
Other publishers have been a little more tentative but there are growing signs that almost no–one will be untouched by the boom. Hodder Headline published Terror Australis – Best Australian Horrorin 1993 and this was quickly followed up by Mortal Fire – Best Australian Science Fiction. Penguin will release another best Australian SF anthology Metaworlds in June. Heinemann have entered the horror market with Veronica Hart's Double God – an interesting marketing ploy with a slightly suspect photo of the author on the inside of the front cover. Omnibus will release two teenage SF anthologies this year The Lottery and The Patternmaker.
All this is occurring at a time when small press activity in fantastic fiction is at an all–time high. Chimaera Publications has been a major player at this level. Aurealis– The Australian Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a nationally distributed short story magazine with print runs up to 10,000 that has so far produced twelve issues. Chimaera's other magazine The Australian SF Writers' News has become the marketing bible of fantastic fiction writers in Australia. Adelaide's Aphelion Publications has successfully published books by many of the big names in Australian science fiction – George Turner, Damien Broderick, Sean McMullen and Terry Dowling. And on the horror front Australia's first professional mass market horror magazine Bloodsongs was launched in February. The Women's Redress Press have published a horror anthology Shrieks and another feminist publisher is planning an anthology of women's SF.
All of this activity is on top of the writers who have followed the time–honoured tradition of by–passing the local publishers and going straight to the US or the UK. Greg Egan and Paul Voermans fall into this category and as a result both have higher profiles overseas than many of the locally published writers. George Turner, who has been sadly ignored by the Australian publishers for too long, is to have his entire SF output reissued by Avonova in the USA.
So much is happening and I haven't even touched on the areas of fantastic fiction that have traditionally been relatively strong in Australia. The children's area is one, and the other is the fantastic fiction novel marketed as a mainstream novel. Novels in the latter category include Gabrielle Lord's Salt and Rosie Scott's Feral City, and there could be strong claims for Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.
And if your heart missed a beat at the mention of Tim Winton in the roll call so far, then we have come to the heart of the problem of fantastic fiction in Australia. There have been few bridges between fantastic and mainstream literature. Science fiction, in particular, has always been judged by the general literary community on the basis of its worst examples. A ridiculous state of affairs. It is just as absurd to judge George Turner'sThe Destiny Makers by watching Star Wars as it is to judge Wuthering Heights by watching a soap opera.
Publishers have until recently avoided the local writers of the fantastic for the same reasons that most of the Australian literary community has avoided it – they simply knew nothing about the genre. They had no understanding of it; they had no feel for it. At times they have been unaware that they already have books on their lists which are clearly science fiction or fantasy. This sort of thing is finally changing and the bridges are being built. The major publishers are beginning to realise that we have the talent here in Australia to develop a strong and viable fantastic fiction industry.
Many of the major players in the Australian publishing scene are now looking closely at science fiction, fantasy and horror. There is no single discernible direction, although it is clear no–one is looking for 1950s style space opera with wooden characters blasting each other from one galaxy to the next. Several say they are sick of seeing post–apocalyptic novels set in a scarred Australian landscape. Some have an aversion to the fantasy trilogies that dominate the market and don't want a bar of elves, wizards and magic rings. A few will consider the horrors of splatterpunk, while many steer away from gratuitous violence toward the quiet, suggestive end of the scale.
So where is the quest leading us? I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Once the other publishers have had a good look at Pan's figures, they are going to jump on the bandwagon. They all know that science fiction, fantasy and horror sell well – that has never been at issue – what they haven't known up until recently is that there is more than enough expertise here in Australia to build a successful local industry. All it takes is a little imagination.
Australian Autthor Volume 26 No. 1 Autumn 1994