AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 953, 15 November 1957, Page 19

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

"(NE way. or another, I have found myself, over the years, involved in a good deal of publishing,’ says Denis Glover (who is seen above) in the first of four talks, Herewith My Manuscript which will start from 2YC at 9.35 p.m. on Saturday, November 23. "When I say publishing," he explains, "I mean real publishing. Today anyone who disseminates great flapping sheets of newsprint or pours a pestilence of racebooks over the fair face of the land is described as a publisher. And no doubt for the purposes of the Act he is. By a real publisher I mean a publisher of books," With this definition out of the way, Mr Glover warms to his theme: the sad story of the necessary dependence the publisher has .on those strange beings-‘"the craziest crew since Noah’s’-,authors, "Authors," he says, "ah, yes, authors ... creative geniuses who pepper at the door like hailstones." Some, however, he admits, do not come into this category of "creative genius"-retired Chairmen of County Councils, for instance, who write the history of their district "from the sighting of the first Captain Cooker by the white man down to the completion of the main drain during the author’s tenure of office,’ or clergy, "usually so likeable," who are apt to produce church histories with brief notes on all worshippers since the *40s of last century. From types of authors Mr Glover goes on to describe their methods of approach, from the "desperate hand-to-hand encounter" to "swords crossed by courtesy of the Postmaster-General’-an approach illustrated by author’s and publisher’s correspondence on a "typical" New Zealand historical _novel where we move "from a first glimpse of Rangitoto to the frigid unfriendliness of Mt. Earnslaw. Tourist stuff, interwoven with the breath of romance." Once he has his author, the publisher must still finish the race and get the work through to the book-buying public, "who are at once his hope and _ his horror." To do this he must treat with those "peculiar people" the printer and the bookseller. In the third and fourth talks of Herewith My Manuscript, Denis Glover will describe the unhappy publisher dealing with his printer and give a running commentary on a bookseller’s conference.