HARD WORK PLUCKING STORIES

OUT OF ONE’S IMAGINATION…

But the pay off is great for for authors who make it. A recent short chat about my demise of interest in the Hong Kong International Literary Festival and it’s dearth of well-known authors has brought to light that we in Hong Kong need sponsors, big ones at that if the HK International LitFest is to survive. We have enough number of millionaires here, it is time to get them interested in improving the Hong Kong culture of books and authors.

I read with some interest that  investors of start-ups in Bangalore are backing  literary culture in India’s technology capital. The Bangalore Literary Festival is getting a big boost, big sponsorships from the business sector.

And here in Hong Kong the festival has had yet another change at the top. We now have a new manager, 26-year-old Jessie Cammack. Her SCMP profile says she “has lived in Hong Kong little more than a year” and has “spent the first four months doing an intensive Cantonese course”. Here’s wishing her and the festival the best of luck.

Our festival runs from October 31 to November 9, 2014.

Become an award winning writer if you want to travel first class, live in mansions and get rich.

It is unfortunate that Sir Naipaul’s agents did not state upfront what fees are expected for his showing up.

And now to who is invited and how it works.

An extract from a longer article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“The late cancellation of Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul from next month’s Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has exposed the fierce competition and delicate negotiations behind the flourishing international festival scene.

Since Janet DeNeefe founded the festival 11 years ago as a healing response to the Bali bombings, the Australian-born restaurateur and writer has built a successful annual event that attracts almost 26,000 visitors to enjoy talks, performances and food amid Ubud’s hillside rice paddies, art galleries, temples and resorts.

While her main mission is to showcase Indonesian culture and social-political issues, DeNeefe knows she needs big names to appeal to the foreigners – mostly Australians – who make up half the audience. She has just signed the musician-writer Nick Cave – a guest in 2012 – as an international festival patron.”

V. S. Naipaul

Lost headliner: V.S. Naipaul was let go after a fee demand.

“For this year’s festival from October 1-5, she invited the American writer Paul Theroux, who had expressed interest after eating at her Ubud restaurant Indus. When she rejected his request for a fee for which, she says, “I could have got David Attenborough”, Theroux agreed instead to appear at the Singapore Writers Festival in November.

DeNeefe then invited V.S. Naipaul, the distinguished but difficult 82-year-old Trinidad-born British writer, who recently ended a long feud with Theroux. To her amazement the Wylie Agency accepted, with the promise of first- and business-class travel and a luxurious villa.

The festival program was launched on August 1, headlined by “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet a literary legend of the 20th century”. But this month the Wylie Agency contacted DeNeefe again, demanding a $20,000 fee, and after agonised consultation she decided to let Naipaul go.

As she announced his withdrawal on Friday, “the result of us being unable to accommodate Sir V.S. Naipaul’s 11th-hour requests”, he and Theroux were named as guests of India’s Jaipur Literature Festival in January.

“To be told about a week ago is pretty atrocious,” DeNeefe said. “When we did our sums we realised we would not be able to pay wages post-festival or move premises when we lose our donated space post-festival.

“Our cash sponsorship so far this year is less than $100,000, so we can’t spend 50K of that on him. I actually rejected some Indonesian musicians because we can’t afford them.”

Like DeNeefe, Australian writers’ festival directors resist appearance fees, and writers are generally content with travel expenses, a modest honorarium, publicity, book sales and a pleasant trip. Sydney Writers’ Festival brought Vince Gilligan, Alice Walker and Dave Eggers this year for no extra payment.

However, Perth Writers’ Festival is understood to have paid Martin Amis between $30,000 and $50,000 for exclusivity this year, perhaps to counter its isolation. The Sydney Opera House commonly offers $10,000 and paid more to bring Salman Rushdie to last month’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre pays some speakers on its year-round program.

While pressure is building to pay popular writers for their time on the road, most festivals run on tight non-profit budgets (though Singapore’s, for example, receives generous government funding – $A1.2 million in 2012).”