The constant author

Richard Webster

After selling two million books, Richard Webster stopped counting.

New Zealand's least-known bestseller is a gently humorous former magician who has written 84 books, ranging from Feng Shui in the Garden to Is Your Pet Psychic?, and already has plans for the next 20 titles.

At home in Howick, Auckland, Webster taps out 2000 words every day to maintain his schedule of four books a year, exploring his fascination with all matters spiritual and his beliefs in karma, reincarnation and Old Testament angels.

For the past five years he has sponsored annual prizes worth $6000 for unpublished New Zealand "popular fiction" authors, whose manuscripts are then published by the local Hazard Press, a move that stemmed from Webster's frustration that genres such as romance, western and thriller get "no recognition in New Zealand whatsoever".

"I just don't think it's regarded as literature, unfortunately. Popular fiction gets overlooked because most of the fiction published in New Zealand is done with the help of a literary grant, and that goes into [the more highbrow] literary fiction," says the 58-year-old grandfather of four, who lives with his wife Margaret.

"It saddens me to think that publishers are doing books they know are going to sell only 700 or 800 copies but because they've got a literary grant, they know they're going to make a profit.

"There is a chance of finding the next John Grisham or Danielle Steel - wouldn't it be great if we could find one of those in New Zealand?"

Webster's career path was set around the age of 9 when he had twin epiphanies; seeing a magician pulling rabbits from hats at a birthday party and meeting his favourite adventure novelist, Ronald Syme.

As a young man he worked for publisher Collins but quickly became disillusioned by the towering "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts, none of which ever got published.

Webster started writing how-to guides for magicians and ghost-wrote 20 autobiographies for celebrities and business leaders. Confidentiality agreements prevent him naming names.

"I've been on the New Zealand bestseller list twice under other people's names," he says with a smile.

In the early 1980s he submitted a spirituality manuscript to American new-age publisher Llewellyn, which has now released 34 of his books. Another four are due for release next year.

"I've sold 2 million in English in the last 10 years, but they're in 20 other languages as well so I've no idea what the total figure would be," says Webster, who has done 20 book tours in America but only one in New Zealand.

That lack of fame at home "used to annoy me a bit, but now I appreciate the anonymity. Most of my books sell about 2000 copies in New Zealand, so it's a nice bonus market".

Only a handful of New Zealand writers make a living from writing - the rest are forced to get unglamorous jobs in dish-washing or press-releasing, says Liz Allen, executive director of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

Advances commonly range between $2000 and $5000, and only three adult fiction books (The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera and Once were Warriors and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? by Alan Duff) have sold more than 50,000 copies in New Zealand - so better international sales would help enormously, Allen says.

"New Zealand really, really needs a literature strategy; a well-researched, thoughtful plan where the Government and the industry decide what sort of literature we want and provide the support.

"At the moment Creative New Zealand provides funding for literature in the most strictly literary sense; they support basically poetry and fiction.