Final Thoughts

As we come to the end of the conversation - its nearly six - its been a fascinating day, and the 3 "case studies" followed on perfectly from the scene setting.

To finish off, what is the impact of this on literary organisations? We shouldn't be doing things that other people are already doing or are specialised at (e.g. publishers.) An important focus is the way we communicate with the audiences that we work with.

Tim asks whether you can ask products e.g. a poetry book more "talismanic" of an event or an experience. By adding new channels to existing work it can excite a wider audience and expand that experience. That's what a reading does... the book becomes a memory of that event. e.g. An Arvon weekend is a rich experience for attendees.

Theres a difficulty in getting fans of niche artists (e.g. a particular poet) to be able to grow their interest further. Naomi Jaffa from the Poetry Trust indicates how difficult it is recompense or pay for clips of stories or poems. By giving something away you grow your audience.

Naomi Alderman talks about the New Yorker short story podcast which chooses a writer and has a reading followed by an interview.

As Chris Meade points out, writers - particularly poets - already operates like the web: it doesn't make money, yet its often not the writing that makes them the money, but ancillary things.

Organisations can provide time and help for writers - finding the right tools for writers.

Tim Wright makes the point that audio podcasts are very powerful way to distribute local or niche content - whereas high quality video production can be very expensive. Providing content that can be made available widely is a real opportunity.

Chris Meade sums up that the arts can have a much wider view of literary culture - richness and depth of particular niches - in other words, we've no real need to just promote one or two writers or books, unlike publishers who are looking for "hits" - its the long tail, but also an understanding that a rich, complex cultural life is a "good result."

Naomi Alderman mentions that some very successful writers write fan fiction to relax! Maybe they are the new folk tales. e.g. Was Odin a version of the Jesus story reversioned elsewhere? Stories are meant to have "legs" and change over time.

Tim's mentioned Richard Sennett's The Craftsman - a great book about how craftsmen learnt there trade and moved elsewhere - e.g. to the next village. Apparently Open Source software works like this!

Goodbye
Adrian