Submission for inquiry into Creative and Cultural industries

Sophie Cunningham

My history:

Australian literature has been my life. I began working in publishing at the independent publishing house McPhee Gribble in the 1980s. I stayed on with that publishing house after it was acquired by Penguin Books and became publisher of the McPhee Gribble imprint within Penguin in the early nineties. I was then a Trade Publisher at Allen & Unwin for almost ten years. I edited the literary journal Meanjin for three years, was Chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, and a co-founder of The Stella Prize. I am now an Adjunct Professor at RMIT’s Non/fiction Lab. I’ve written six books: one for children, three non-fiction and two novels. In 2019 I was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for my various contributions to literature. This range of experience has given me a broad overview of the Australian literary sector.

I’d like to make the following observations. The success (in terms of books sales) of writers such as Tim Winton, Helen Garner, Peter Carey, Richard Flanagan, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Lucashenko or Charlotte Wood did not happen overnight. These ‘successes’ took decades of work: of long hours, the winning of the occasional award, or, at times, the receiving of a grant or fellowship. These successes also took the sustained support of publishers, editors and literary agents. It was an understanding of the complex range of support needed over the course of a writer’s career that led to a group of us to start the Stella Prize in 2011. We understood that if women’s writing was to receive more recognition in this country changes had to be made to the infrastructure that supported women writers. Change can’t be driven by individual successes alone.

I was Chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council from 2012-2014. Total literature funding at the Australia Council has decreased by 44% since that time, from $9 million in 2013-14 to $5.1 million in 2018-19. The abolition of specific literature programs such as Get Reading, Books Alive and the Book Council has been responsible for much of this decrease. Australian writers desperately need additional government-directed support such as the funding delivered to visual arts through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy ($6.6 million in 2018-19), regional touring delivered through Playing Australia ($7.4 million 2018-19) and the Major Festivals Initiative ($1.5 million 2018-19). Literature is the only artform that does not receive infrastructure support through a targeted government program.

Working in the year 2020: I hope that setting out the details of my professional and economic life provide a useful snapshot of what a writer has to do to earn an income in Australia today, and the circumstances under which that income had to be earned during COVID-19 pandemic. I mention my fundraising work here also as this was often done as a part of a team, and as it’s important to recognise the contribution that the literary community are always making to their culture.

This year I initiated #authorsforWildlife on the back of #authorsforfireys in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires. #authorsforfireys, set up by a group of YA and Children's authors including Emily Gale and Nova Weetman, raised more than $500,000. #authorsforwildlife raised approximately $11,000. Author Emily Bitto and I organised a sold out fundraiser for similar funds (cancelled due to COVID-19). Tippy and Jellybean: the story of a very brave koala, my first children’s book (illustrated by Anil Tortop and published by Albert Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin) has so far raised more than $10,000 for the Bushfire Emergency Wildlife Fund.

I edited Fire, Flood, Plague: Writers respond to the Year 2020, (ed), Penguin Random House Australia, a collection which published 25 writers, all seeking to document the challenges of this significant year; I have had essays (or will have essays) published in Meanjin, Griffith Review, the Guardian, the Age. I have written a new introduction to my book Melbourne — an introduction that had to be rewritten three times as first smoke, then COVID-19 shut my city down. I have contributed to the recently published anthology Living with the Anthropocene: Love, loss and hope in the face of environmental crisis. I have prepared (written) work for two art galleries (MUMA and ACCA) and got through the first round of pitches for Rising, the new iteration of the Melbourne Arts Festival (I did not make it through to the final round). I have co-written a book to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens if Victoria that will be published next year.

I have (with Emily Bitto, and through Allen & Unwin) taught in the How to Write a Novel Course for the Melbourne Branch of the Faber Academy during this year. That course went from being two semesters of in-person teaching to two semesters of teaching over Zoom. Quite a different skill set. I have recorded podcasts for the Byron Bay Writers Festival, and contributed (again, digitally) to the Melbourne Writers Festival. I am also on the board of management at University of Queensland Press (UQP) and on their acquisitions committee. As a result of the pandemic I now attend all meetings remotely.

The economics of the writing life:

It goes without saying that a freelance writer does not get overtime, superannuation or sick pay. I’d also note that I, like most writers, am often asked to work for no money at all, or offered a small honorarium. If the cause is important to me I accept working on these terms. I am motivated to do my work for a range of reasons, not just economic. I find fundraising for important causes enormously rewarding, and enjoy communicating with audiences on subjects I care about and that inspire me creatively, similarly rewarding.

I have been paying full rent (without rent relief) on my office at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne throughout the pandemic but have not been able to access that office. For the last four months I have worked from my bedroom. I am not eligible for JobKeeper (my income is low, but it has not become worse during this year).

My income has averaged $35,000 a year over the last five years. I must stress here, that despite earning $50,000 less than the average Victorian each year, I am earning about $20,000 a year more than most writers — the average writers ’incomes before COVID was $12,900. For the four years before that my income averaged $51,000. This drop of $16,000 a year points to the increasing difficulties for freelance writers in finding an income stream: writing work is more scarce and pays less when you get it, the number of grants on offer is reduced. Book sales have declined (slightly) over the last five years. Revenue for the publishing industry is expected to decline by 2.9% in 2019-20 and further deterioration in sales is expected as we ride out the current Recession (or, perhaps, Depression).

Conclusion:

A wide range of measures and surveys indicate that various sources of support available to writers: financial cultural and emotional, are being eroded. Yet almost three-quarters of the adult (and young adult) population read for pleasure. Reading is one of the most common ways in which Australians engage with arts and culture. Writers ’festivals are flourishing and attendances growing. Children’s books are the basis on which a lifelong love of reading can develop — and the memory of books read when young drives many editors, writers and publishers to enter the industry.Writers are the primary producers of content that inspires other parts of the creative economy: art forms including film, television, theatre, visual arts, music and opera.

I love my country, and I love my work. I am buoyed by the knowledge that many Australians get much pleasure and feel supported by stories, by literature. Writing is how we share and grow our understanding of the world around us, the challenges, both historical and contemporary. Australia’s identity was formed by writing and the literary world is — finally — beginning to engage with the rich diversity of that identity, and, specifically, the depth of knowledge and experience that has existed on and in this land for millennia. ‘Australia’ is not a static concept: it is dynamic. The truths our stories encompass grow ever more complex and exciting. We need literature more than ever and it would be wilfully naive and careless to imagine that such literature can leap forth fully formed. It grows out of community and place. It responds to good governance. Sophie Cunningham AM, October 2020