government
Welsh Book Publishers
The Welsh Books Council gets cash from government, about £4.5 million, I understand. It doesn’t promote or sell any decent Welsh writers so I guess most of that money must just get dished out to the so-called ‘Welsh book publishers’ – there’s Seren, Cinnamon, Parthian, Gomer, Y Llofa, Gwasg and maybe some others hidden away in somebody’s cousin’s uncle’s wardrobe. Anyway, heard this the other day and thought what a joke!
Those nice people at Chapter are allowing Seren Books (and Parthian) to try to flog their truly awful books to the Cardiff, Evian-drinking, pseudo middle-class.
The shop was opened on 6 December as part of small business Saturday, a nationwide campaign which aims to highlight small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities. Wait! Hang on a minute! Did I just read ‘small’ three times?!
How is a publisher that gets a large share of £4.5 million a ‘small’ publisher! They are only small in their ambition! They are only ‘small’ because they don’t sell any books! And we all know why. Because they are rubbish. Oh dear!
Welcome
Literature Wales is the national organisation that is supposed to be responsible for developing and promoting literature in Wales.
It runs Wales Book of the Year, the National Poet of Wales, writing courses at Tŷ Newydd and numerous other events, most of which they charge an entry fee for.
They also get rather a large wad of taxpayers money to help them do this.
Literature Wales is supposed to represent the interests of Welsh writers in all genres and languages. It is also supposed to offer advice, support and bursaries to writers.
Literature Wales works with the support of the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government. It is one of the resident organisations of the Wales Millennium Centre.
Scandal
In early 2013, the UK national press including the Daily Mail and The Telegraph revealed some astonishing facts and figures about how literature is run in Wales.
‘In the past five years the Welsh Books Council and Literature Wales have received more than £42m from the Welsh Assembly and Arts Council Wales, which in turn receive their funding from Westminster.
Welsh authors can apply for grants of up to £10,000 to work on any kind of book, and they keep the money even if their work is never published.’
– By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter, Telegraph, 01 Jan 2013
The reports were critical of the cost to British taxpayers, with the Daily Mail stating that the money went to pay for Welsh books that only sold ‘a handful of copies’.
Makes you wonder where all those millions go doesn’t it? Some would even say that this level of funding is in dire need of some serious scrutiny.
We have done a bit of digging around and found that the same names seem to crop up time and time again. It seems taxpayers money is being given to a small, select group of people, in the form of bursaries, prizes, judging and appearance fees, year after year after year.
So please read on and be disgusted. Oh yes, and maybe tell your friends about us too. Just send them this link:
LiteratureWales 