Grimmish - Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin

This is not a book I would normally pick up. I am definitely not a fan of boxing. In fact Michael’s incr.dibly vivid depictions of violience sometimes made me recoil in horror. However I wanted to pay my respects to the Author, Micheal Winkler, so I overcame my scruples and read on.

The reason? The book had remarkably been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Why remarkably? Because it is the first self -published book to make the shortlist.

Why should this be such a notable acheivement? Michael Winkler is a well renowned writer who has published a lot of high quality work. But as he himself says in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald “being a self-published author feels undignified. Second-best.” But surely that should not be the case. There are many high quality self-published works that are incredibly well written and professionally edited and published.

Why don’t more authors self-publish? Perhaps it is the need for validation from a traditional publishing house. Or could it just be the huge amount of extra work that is involved in the self-publishing process? Or are we in Australia still catching up with the UK and USA in terms of respect for self-published works.

I made the deliberate decision to self-publish for a number of reasons. It was a lot about the goals I had for my first book. I wanted to write a family story knowing that the audience for this novel might be limited. I did not have any aspirations to make money. My father often said that farming was an “expensive hobby” rather than a well paid occupation. That’s a bit how I feel. I wanted to prove to myself that I could write and publish an entire novel. I have no regrets despite still feeling a little “second-best".