There has been a big fuss over the past few days about the proposal from Culture Minister Ken Skates to cut the budget of the Welsh Books Council by 10%, and thereby to reduce the subsidies paid to the Welsh publishing industry:
Famous writers have attacked cuts they say will lead to fewer books being published in Wales
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/famous-writers-attacked-cuts-say-10758012
There was even a 38 Degrees petition, signed by almost 2,000 people:
We ask Ken Skates and the Welsh Government to stop the proposed 10.6% cut to the Welsh Books Council, which comes after a decade of standstill funding for the Welsh publishing industry.
The cut is more than twice as much as planned cuts to other cultural organisations such as the Arts Council of Wales, and represents a major threat to the future of Welsh publishing and literature.
Stop the proposed 10.6% cut from being approved, and protect the future of the Welsh books industry.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-unprecedented-10-6-cut-to-welsh-books-industry?bucket&source=twitter-share-button
The great and the good have come out in force to condemn the proposals, on the grounds that somehow Wales will become "less civilised" if grant aid is reduced. The Society of Authors (of which I am a member) and the New Welsh Review have joined the campaign to stop the cuts, and after coverage in The Guardian, BBC, The Bookseller and the Western Mail, the Minister has backed off and has agreed that the budget for this year should remain the same.:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/planned-cut-welsh-books-council-10763396
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35360904
So it's a bad idea for fewer books to be published in Wales? Hang on a moment. Why should we accept that simply because a few well-known authors and grant-aided publishers say so? The Welsh publishing industry is very heavily subsidised, to the extent that many books are published which would never have seen the light of day in England. That is because across the border publishers do not, by and large, publish books if they do not think they will sell and turn a profit. They have to carry the risks. In Wales, in contrast, many publishers inhabit a comfort zone in which subsidies enable them to publish books which hardly anybody actually wants -- and which will never repay their costs via sales. In other words, they are entirely non-commercial, and are products of a system entirely dependent upon subsidies and grants. It's easy to say: "Ah yes, we need those books anyway, because we need a vibrant publishing industry and because these books help us to define ourselves as a nation." Hmmmm....
Actual sales figures for books in Wales are seldom publicised. That is because it suits everybody to keep as quiet as possible. It is widely known that in Wales a book is counted as a "best seller" if it sells 700 copies. At that level, if the publishers were operating in a real commercial world, a book might just about cover its costs -- there is no way it could be considered as a best-seller.
Don't get me wrong. I have had fantastic support from the WBC, as have all other Welsh publishers, and I would be very sad to see its staffing and its services reduced because of budget cuts. But I wonder if a little more exposure to the hard commercial world might actually make the Welsh publishing scene a bit leaner and more efficient, without in any way threatening our civilisation and our great Welsh cultural traditions? For example, just to encourage publishers and writers to think a bit more seriously about what the market actually wants, and to take marketing rather more seriously, it might be rather a good idea to insist that if a book sells fewer than 1,000 copies in its first two years, any grants and subsidies paid must be paid back.......... and by that I mean REAL sales, involving real money, and excluding all returns.
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