Support
Last year I bought every issue of Poetry London, Poetry Wales, and The Rialto. In the second half of the year I also bought all the issues of Interzone. I also bought occasional issues of New Welsh Review.
Amongst the books I bought are On Beauty, Arthur and George, Mister Monday, The Smile of a Ghost, Was, Smoke and Mirrors, Untold Stories, Marking Time, Lirael, Abhorsen, Predator, The Devil You Know, Thud, Between Dryden and Duffy, The Egg of Zero, & the concept of zero, Vicious Circle, The Eight, and Nocturnes to name but a view. That doesn’t include the books I got given or the non-fiction books that I bought.
Why am I giving you this list? I think that list is good for someone on low income being firstly a student and now working for a small new (if you can call just over a year old publishing company new)company. I think I’ve done quite well in supporting the industry that I have a passion for. This list isn’t the books I’ve actually read last year as I tend to read a mixture of new buys and those that have been shelved for a while – in the case of Every Dead Thing it was six years. I got there in the end.
I’m currently reading Letter from America, and just about to start The Dante Club (I got that via a swap from readitswapit.co.uk)
But I started reading a post on 101 Reasons to Stop Writing about reading, which asked ‘How many debut novelists have you read this year?’ That got me thinking. I bought and have read The Devil You Know, but that’s it.
And after thinking about it, if I can afford it this year I’m going to buy more debuts. That is going to be my new form of support. I’m also going to buy Poetry London, The Rialto and Interzone and if I have some spare cash Poetry Review. But I want my focus to be the newbies to the industry.
I hope you’ll join me. And if you have any suggestions on any début authors that have had books out last year or have them coming this year I have £8 left on my WH Smith Gift Card to get me started.
