For some time, I've been trying to sort out my
ambivalent feelings about a key feature of bookstores here in New Zealand - the NZ fiction section.
My instinctive feeling has always been This is pure protectionism, the books should stand on their own merits, alongside everyone
else's but on reflection, I've changed my mind. Not because the books aren't
good enough to measure up to their competitors from the UK, the US,
Canada - they decidedly are - but because they never
get the opportunity to do so.
The chances are that if you aren't from New Zealand you won't be able to name three living New Zealand authors - and if you're from further afield than Australia, you'll be lucky to think of one. If you majored in English, you'll probably know Janet Frame. Perhaps you've heard of Alan Duff, because of Once Were Warriors, or Keri Hulme's Booker Prize winning The Bone People (and it's interesting that if you look up either of those on Amazon, the other will be offered you as a paired purchase).
However, I'd be willing to bet that not one of you remembers idly picking a book up off the shelves and discovering that it was set in New Zealand. They aren't there to pick up.
But why not? Even if settings and colloquialisms are Kiwi, that doesn't make them inaccessible elsewhere - why should anyone fail to enjoy beautifully written, complex, character-driven stories simply because they take place under macrocarpa trees rather than oaks, or because cows graze in paddocks rather than fields? Certainly background and slang seem to cease being a problem when the books are coming in our direction.
The issue, of course, is cash. The home market is so small that it can't support pushing many books - even our best - beyond our national boundaries. Talk in the publishing industry currently is that it can't even support the number of books published domestically every year.
So, that precious, specific shelf space is essential to stop New Zealand writing dwindling away to nothing.
But it's not enough. We have some really great writers here, who deserve an audience. So, in each of the next few editions, I'm going to showcase six outstanding - and all very different books - they're all available online from http://www.nzbooks.com/ or http://www.amazon.com so no need for special orders.