Source : the age
In the book publishing world, small is beautiful. Often it’s the little guys who get their books onto the shortlists for the top prizes, and many go on to win.
The latest breakthrough is about as small as you can get. My Heart At Evening by Konrad Muller, shortlisted for the 2026 Miles Franklin Award, is the one and only book published this year by new Tasmanian-based publishing house Evercreech Editions.
When I spoke to its sole publisher Adam Ouston last year, he told me, “Australian readers are spoken down to a bit … people are crying out for more interesting, stimulating types of writing.” He aims to publish “the out of step, the weird, the boldly defiant”. (Ouston is also an author: his novel Mine, out in August with small publisher Transit Lounge, consists of one long sentence.)
This movement has been developing for some time. Six years ago, literary critic Emmett Stinson charted the rise of small press prizewinners for The Conversation. That year, small publishers swept three big literary awards: the Stella Prize, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Miles Franklin. A significant change because traditionally such awards were dominated by large publishers.
Since then, the little guys have been cleaning up. By 2023, all six finalists for the Stella Prize came from small publishers. Miles Franklin winners for the last four years have also come from small presses (one, Ultimo Press, is a boutique imprint with Hardie Grant).
Some winners and shortlisted authors, such as Muller, insist on publication with small presses. Others have approached the Big Five (Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan and Simon & Schuster) and have been knocked back. Michael Winkler’s debut novel Grimmish was the first self-published work to be longlisted for the Miles Franklin, in 2022. One of the publishers who rejected it said it was “repellent”. Clearly the judges didn’t agree.
Why don’t the Big Five take on these books? It’s not usually because they think the books are repellent: indeed, they may admire them. But in these difficult times, big houses are dominated by the need to sell a lot of books. Everyone is chasing blockbusters. Anything deemed different, risky, weird or of niche interest is not going to cut it.
But it’s often the different, risky, weird or niche interest books that appeal to award judges. Small publishers can live with small print runs and will take a chance with books they love. And if a book scores a win, it can mean a jump in sales.
This phenomenon isn’t confined to Australia. Oneworld, a small independent house led by a husband and wife, has published three Booker winners in the UK since 2015. International fiction translated into English is overwhelmingly snapped up by small companies such as Britain’s Fitzcarraldo Editions. The aim is to find books that are ahead of their time. Fitzcarraldo books have been nominated for the International Booker Prize 17 times, more than any other publisher. And it’s often small presses who publish Nobel prize winners.
Veteran publisher Christopher MacLehose told the International Booker website “The corporate publishers aren’t where it’s happening. Any editor today who wants to do interesting work must work for an independent.”
The downside is that small publishers under financial pressure sometimes either quietly disappear or merge with a larger publisher. One of the most enchanting books I’ve read recently is Nobel prizewinner Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night, which Fitzcarraldo published in the UK and Text published in Australia. Text is now part of Penguin Random House. I hope it will continue to bring us such gems.
What else is happening in the book world?
Jane Sullivan is a books columnist and reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
