The half-a-million-dollar decision that still haunts the book industry
The Spinoff Daily, Monday September 23
Ahiahi mārie, welcome to The Spinoff Daily.
Today on The Spinoff: Tory Whanau keeps making unforced errors, Christopher Luxon talks business to business people, and why supermarkets are hiding their hummus and installing additional security measures.
Claire Mabey: “In 2021, the results of successful Innovation Fund recipients were posted and the arts sector learnt that a little-known tech startup had been awarded the astounding amount of half a million dollars — enough to publish 50 books as a ballpark equivalent — ‘to help New Zealand content producers of books, movies and TV increase sales of content’.
The response from within the books sector was swift. Newsroom reported that members of the industry were ‘aghast’, that the decision was ‘a shocking undermining of the New Zealand books sector which works so hard to support authors and publishers.’ The various responses essentially boiled down to: What the hell is Narrative Muse? And, They better have something excellent up their sleeve to justify all that money.
This is the story of all that’s happened since.”
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