After looking over websites this week for class, I decided to examine a website from an international publisher to see how it differs from a national press. In particular, I looked at the website for Allen & Unwin (http://www.allenandunwin.com/), a publisher in Australia. Through Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_&_Unwin), I learned that this publisher has a relationship with Bloomsbury in the U.K., and also acts as a distributor for the Harry Potter books to Australia & New Zealand. This website had more information available about their children's authors, with most of them having a Q & A section.
But for me, the most striking difference was that this particular publisher had so much available information for potential writers under a link called "Being a Writer". This included the common details such as the publisher's submission guidelines and information on a writing competition, but also so much more. There were many exerpts from books about writing (published by this press), broken down into specific topics: Character, Setting, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, and Revision. Additionally, under "Getting Started", there are details about writing journals, memoirs, and family history. So, in summation, I found that this website set itself up to attract yet another type of user--new writers--by taking the time to consider what that group would be interested in seeing. The website staff clearly devoted some time and energy deciding what exerpts would be included from which books under each topic, so this was obviously something the publisher believes that potential writers are an important avatar to address.
With the budget crises most American publishing houses are facing at the present time, I think publishers in the U.S. are not likely to make the effort to cater to the desires of potential writers, as most presses cannot affort to publish very many books per year. But also, an American publisher might expect potential writers to spend their own time finding out about the publishing process and finding ways to improve their own writing skills.
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2 comments:
What a great idea to look at a foreign publisher. I didn't realize books were published outside of the United States, or that people not from this country could actually read.
Okay, that was a joke, but I will say this: no American company would ever use a name with 'unwin' in it.
I think this was an excellent choice. The site contains a huge amount of information that is well-organized. There's also a lot of extras and take-aways. The site doesn't have as much character as Tin House or McSweeney's but I think that's appropriate for such a large company.
I wonder, is there a difference between writer's who link to other sites (of editors or agents) with such writing information than having it on their own site? Tough I do think Allen & Unwin might actually have something in giving their own writing recommendations, especially if they give advice specific enough to give a feel for the kind of writing their looking for.
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