ADVICE TO AUTHORS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18589, 27 December 1934, Page 6

ADVICE TO AUTHORS

PUBLISHER’S VIEWS

“BE NATURAL AND UNASHAMED”

MELBOURNE', Dee. 15

Mr. Jonathan Cape, of tho London publishing house of Jonathan Cape, Limited, said on his arrival in Melbourne to-day, that ho advised aspiring Australian authors to “he natural and unashamed.” Many books of fiction were most unnatural. They were written by persons who apparently should not have turned to fiction as a means of expressing themselves. Why should (non and women with the ability to write well imagine That, as a matter of course, they had to turn to fiction to express themselves? “The book of personal experience,” Mr. Cape said, “is becoming increasingly popular. Jlut a writer who sets out to produce such a work must forsake what was supposed in the past to he the proper attitude of humility, and must write about himself unashamedly and naturally. That is the only thing winch will make his book vital and readable.”

Mr. Cape said Now Zealand was an even better market for his firm than Australia. As the firm issued books oi general literature of a type that would appeal to the observant loader, he was keen to visit New .Zealand to ascertain the reason for the larger sales there. Mr. Cape is on his first visit to Australia.