First Published in Editions Issue 2 September 1989
Going Down Swinging Issue 9, 1989
Distribution has always been a problem for small literary magazines. The economics of producing a literary magazine means that, in most cases, editors would have to pay one of the mainstream distributors to take on their products. Most magazines, therefore, rely on direct sales to a handful of more or less sympathetic bookshops and subscribers. Even here, however, things are not all they should be. Bookshops will generally take between 25% to 40% of the retail price of the magazine and, as most bookshops will only take magazines on a ‘sale or return’ basis, the editors only get paid for the number of issues sold (or so the theory goes). Building up a subscription list can be just as daunting.
Without the funds for effective publicity campaigns most magazines are forced to rely on ‘word of mouth’ and mentions or free ads in other magazines to attract potential subscribers.
There have been various attempts to change this situation by setting up co-operative based small press distribution networks and small press publicity campaigns. But to set up such a project costs money and the funding authorities, for the most part, seem content to hand money– out to a handful of magazines on an individual basis rather than to build up an infrastructure which would help all magazines.
Recently a group of six magazines combined resources to produce what they call ‘The Small Press Package’. This scheme is essentially a sampler: for $21.50 you get the current issues of all six mags. Presumably, once you have a copy of all the magazines you can then decide which ones to subscribe to.
The six magazines on offer are Going Down Swinging ‘a prose and poetry magazine that publishes the writing of new, unknown, and/or young writers’; On the off beat ‘a publisher of women’s short stories and a focus for continuing support of good contemporary women’s fiction’; Studio a Christian literary journal ‘publishing poems, short stories and articles from established, new and aspiring writers’; Brave New Word ‘a publisher of contemporary Australian short stories and poetry, and sometimes interviews related to Australian writing and publishing’; Writing ‘a magazine coordinated by the Victorian Community Writing Committee. Writing gives preference to unpublished, or as yet unpaid writers, and to writing groups’; and The Famous Reporter ‘a short story magazine publishing the work of both new and established writers in a wide range of styles and themes’.
One of the most ‘established’ of these magazines is Going Down Swinging which has just published its ninth issue. It was established by Myron Lysenko and Kevin Brophy in 1980 and has produced an average of one issue a year since. Like many magazines it seems to have been born out of a feeling that the existing magazines were ignoring a section of the writing and reading community. In the editorial for the ninth issue Brophy and Lysenko, along with Associate editor Nolan Tyrrel, make the point that it is through magazines like Going Down Swinging that many writers make their first contact with editors. The comment and reaction they receive can be the first steps away from keeping their work to a small circle of friends’. Going Down Swinging has therefore always had a policy of ‘reacting specifically and personally to all submissions’.
Probably as a result of this policy Going Down Swinging has become one of the more innovative magazines in Australia, consistently publishing original, interesting and non-mainstream work by new and/or unknown writers. Issue number nine is a good example of the success of this policy. The work in the issue ranges from the realism of Leah Nischler’s opening piece ‘Barbara Cartland does a bunk’ to the fast-moving prose in Doreen Sullivan’s ‘Johnny Fish-Face’ and the measured emotionalism of April Phillips’ (I’m sure that’s a pseudonym) ‘Cage, manger, rack’.
There is also some impressive poetry in this issue. Colleen Farrell’s seven poems stand out. Her opening lines are constantly a particular highlight, an example being the Plath like opening of Ten Tulips’:
‘Do you know the dying stages of a
tulip? I do I’m learning.’
I also liked Rosanne Musu’s descriptive poem ‘Ship building’ and Christine Lindberg’s ‘All that jazz’
It’s interesting to note that the majority of work in this issue of Going Down Swinging is by women. Their confident experimentation is in contrast to the generally ‘safer’ more literary work by the male contributors.
Another strength of Going Down Swinging has always been its reviews and interviews. Over the years it has contained interviews with writers such as Peter Carey and Murray Bail. In this issue there is a very interesting interview with Adelaide writer, performer and, most recently, children’s verse writer, Jenny Boult. Boult, who has been a long-time champion of small presses paints a gloomy picture of creative writing in the late 1980s: The sixties and seventies were boom years for poetry but the late seventies and eighties have put the lid on it to a great extent… publishers .are tending to publish much more mainstream, popularist kinds of poetry rather than taking risks with new people and different styles of writing.’
If you’re interested in writing outside of the mainstream then Going Down Swinging number nine will provide you with an enjoyable introduction to a range of new(ish) innovative writers. Or better still choose from a cross-section of small literary magazines from the Small Press Sampler.
Going Down Swinging is published once a year and a subscription costs $10.00 for two issues from PO Box 64 Coburg, Victoria 3058. For more information on the Small Press Sampler contact Walleah Publishing, PO Box 319 Kingston, Tasmania 7051. (All six magazines cost $21.50, any five $18.50, any four $15.50, any three $12.50).*
Mark Roberts is an editor of P76 magazine and has had wide experience in small press publishing. He will be writing a regular column on small presses and magazines for Editions.
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*NOTE: The contact details and prices above are now out of date.
- Going Down Swinging is still very much in existance and can be contacted through it’s website: http://www.goingdownswinging.org.au/
- Brave New Word is also still around – though it will fianlly end publication later this year. It can be contacted through Walleah Press http://walleahpress.com.au/
- Interesting to note that Walleah Press were responsible for the Small Press Pacakage.
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