Today there was a large ruckus in the Australian Publishing industry. Its a long story regarding opening up of the Industry and allowing parallel importation of books.
Parallel importation would allow booksellers to import overseas editions, irrespective of whether they’d already been published in Australia. It’s a measure resisted by most authors and all Australian publishers, who fear that exposure to open market will wipe out the local industry. Full article here
The recommendation by the Productivity Commission—that the market be opened and that parallel importation of books be freely permitted except for the first 12 months in a book’s life—appears to be nothing other than meddling with an existing successful model with no predictable outcome, except the dismantling of an industry. It is excellent news for publishers and distributors in the United Kingdom and America. The amazing Agent Sydney has the full story.
Well yesterday the Australian Government released a statement saying that the rules in place will not be changed and that the recommendations of the Productivity Commission would not be put in place - largely because it would lead to the Government having to subsidies the publishing industry if we were going to have any industry at all.
This is brilliant news. BRILLIANT. My dream of walking into an Aussie bookshop and seeing one of my books published by an Aussie publisher is alive. ALIVE I tells ya.
:)
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