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Friday, January 12, 2018

Australia’s Favourite Author - Heat 3!

An interesting list this time. I have come to the conclusion that I misunderstood the way it works, because this list is completely different from Wednesday’s. They seem to be going through all the nominees and only after that will they start shortlisting. So, important to keep voting.

You can do that here!

Again, some children’s and YA authors are there, including the children’s favourites, Andy Griffiths and his artist partner Terry Denton. Melina Marchetta is there, which is nice. I gave a tick also to Tara Moss, for her delicious YA fantasy novels which are a sort of cross between Buffy and The Addams Family. I gave another to Zana Fraillon, whose CBCA shortlist book The Bone Sparrow made me terribly sad. Michael Pryor was there - yay! There were also some classic writers, such as Ethel Turner(Seven Little Australians) and Joan Lindsay whose Picnic At Hanging Rock is definitely going for classics level. Meredith Costain is there and, of course, got my vote, as did several others... just go and look it up, and vote if you can. The shortlist will be out soon enough and if your favourites don’t get enough votes now you won’t have them on the shortlist to vote for later.

Do check out the list and let me know what you think, in the comments box below.

4 comments:

Lan said...

I am being reminded of a lot of great Aussie authors as I go through this list! Placed my vote for Melina as well.

Sue Bursztynski said...

A wonderful writer! Did you know Looking For Alibrandi was rejected about seven times? Her fantasy novels are very powerful stuff. None of your quest stuff or long lost princes, thry’re about people, and in one of them the city is pretty much a character in its own right.

Lan said...

I'm not surprised by how many times great books have been rejected by traditional publishers. I actually hated her fantasy series. At least the first book anyway. Haven't bothered to pick up the rest.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Yes, publishers do tend to consider whether a book will sell or not. Sometimes they get it wrong and are kicking themselves when someone else makes a fortune. Mostly they’re right. Publishing is a business. And when this one was published, very few people self published and those who did tended to find themselves with a room full of unsold books, unless they knew exactly what they were doing. :) And even if they did sell, how many copies could you sell by yourself? A few hundred?

Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy Finnikin of The Rock - I loved it. And the sequel was even better. You got to see things from the viewpoint of the other side, ordinary people whose sons had been marched off to fight and die in a war that had nothing to do with them. And that city - wow! Take a look at my review some time; I found pictures of the real cities which had inspired the one in the story.