booklit

You may remember back in January that a petition was created to help save Dedalus Books form losing its Arts Council funding. Despite almost 2,000 signatories the funding, which amounted to £24,958 a year, was pulled and the small publisher of both British and European fiction was left wondering where their future was.

There’s good news today, though, as Dedalus announce that Informa will sponsor them for the next two years. Here’s the press release:

Dedalus is proud to announce that Informa plc, through its subsidiary company Routledge Books, an imprint of Taylor & Francis, will sponsor Dedalus for the next two years as part of Informa plc’s corporate responsibility programme.

This sponsorship means that Dedalus will be able to honour the commitments it has undertaken to its authors, translators, cultural institutions and other publishers. We will continue to encourage and support new writing, with special emphasis on the dialogue between cultures brought about by literature in translation

Dedalus’s readers can now look forward to translated fiction from Danish, Estonian, Flemish, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish in the next two years as well as more original English language fiction. Dedalus has just bought Made in Yaroslavl, a brilliant first novel by Jeremy Weingard, who lives in the East of England.

“Apart from financial support we hope to benefit from the technical expertise and advice of a large and successful publisher which should be of great benefit to Dedalus. We look forward to working with Routledge Books and making the most of the opportunities this sponsorship programme will provide for Dedalus.”

Eric Lane, M.D of Dedalus Publishers

While it’s certainly good news for Dedalus that they can go on producing the type of fiction they are known for, they must realise now that the business model needs a rethink. While Arts Council subsidisation always seemed a safe bet for such a niche corner of the arts, recent events have shown that a safety net is required in business. So, within those two years of sponsorship, let’s hope Dedalus use that time to adapt their business model to one that isn’t so dependent on monetary handouts. That way they can truly indulge in their literary interests without fear of future funding cuts.

British independent publisher, Dedalus Books, are, after twenty-five years in existence, threatened with closure due to the withdrawal of Arts Council of England funding. This is due to cuts announced recently which would see about two hundred companies across England losing their grant.

Dedalus Books, for the uninitiated, are a specialist literary publisher (more here) publishing both British and European names within their own niche market covering what they call “distorted reality, where the bizarre, the unusual and the grotesque and the surreal meld in a kind of intellectual fiction which is very European.” Some of the names on their list are recognisable Andrew Crumey, Honoré de Balzac, Eça de Queirós, and Nobel prizewinner, Luigi Pirandello. Of the greater unknown, they are, to me, a reading temptation.

In this Times article, a reason is given for the cut:

The Arts Council says the cuts are designed to concentrate its funding on organisations of excellence while penalising the average: “In the majority of cases this has been decided on the basis of . . . well documented issues with poor performance. It is the strength of artistic output.”

I don’t know about Dedalus’ performance over the years but it seems silly that they should withdraw funding from this niche publisher when, according to the Art Council of England’s literature policy for 2007-2011 (PDF), they list, amongst their priorities:

We want to increase the profile of international writing in this country by supporting those publishers committed to literature in translation.

And:

We want to increase the profile of international writing in this country by supporting those publishers committed to literature in translation.

The people at Dedalus Books must feel that their Arts Counci has failed them with such hypocrisy. What’s particularly galling is that the funding that has been withdrawn is, apparently, around £25,000. It seems like pocket change when you consider, according to this Observer article the Royal Opera House, over 2005 to 2008, stands to make £77m from Arts Council funding. In the Lords Hansard for May 2006, Lord Colwyn raised the point that “in 2005–06, jazz funding was £1 million; for 2006–07, opera received £62 million.”

While, in terms of audience share, both jazz and opera perhaps share parity, the funding is grossly weighted to opera, although that may be, as also noted in the Lords Hansard, the industry is worth £5billion. Since the bulk of the Arts Council funding goes to opera and that, as the figures would seem, is making enough to sustain itself, one wonders why they persist in funding such an art form when there are others, notably literature, that need the money.

Returning to Dedalus Books, they have a period of appeal which is coming up soon wherein they can state their case. What would be helpful to them is literature minded souls willing to sign their petition in order to get:

The Arts Council to reverse its recommendation not to fund Dedalus after January 2008 and to enter into a new partnership with Dedalus so the company can thrive and not merely survive.

The Arts Council of England also note on their priorities for the next few years that they “will create greater equality of opportunity for readers, writers and those in the publishing industry.” Well, as a reader, I would hope that the damning decision is reconsidered in order to give that “greater equality of opportunity” as I, for one, don’t want my only choices, in ten years’ time, being whatever Richard & Judy deem suitable for literary consumption. Okay, perhaps a tad extreme, but you know what I mean.

Further contact details and information can be found on the Saving Dedalus Books page.