As the year comes to a close I feel some clichéd compulsion to review ABR’s progress. Our place in the literary magazine market is assured due to the fine editors who have preceded me. There seems to be an increased awareness of ABR out there among the general reading public and this is verified by our increased sales. Of course, our position has been enhanced by a general push to bring the book out of the study and into the world. ABR’s circulation increase has certainly been assisted by the hard work of Dinny O’Hearn’s Book Show (SBS, Wednesdays at 8pm) and the continuing and comprehensive Books and Writing program produced by Robert Dessaix (Radio National, Sundays at 7.25 pm and Mondays at 3.05).

Browsing through the last ten issues I thought perhaps some figures might be of interest to our readers of all the material published in the March to December period:

38% of what we published came from NSW
37% came from Victoria
12% came from ACT
5% came from WA
4 % came from Queensland
2% came from SA
2% came from Tasmania

And for the ‘women-oriented-women’ or the ‘men-in-search-of-a-coven’: 57% of our reviewers were male and 43% of our reviewers were female.

What these figures suggest is that we have made inroads into the creation of a national magazine. We do still have some work to do down south and to the west and invite suggestions from all interested parties.

In the meantime we thank you for your support and encouragement and wish you a satisfactory secular holiday.

Next to the couch this month:

1.         Brendan Hennessy’s Australian Literary Calendar 1989

2.         Morris Lurie’s My Life as a Movie