Maybe Australia is catching up ? :p

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by jehane

Except...*do* they want to clear some hurdles for foreign companies, or do they want to put more up?

On that point, I have no idea.

I can only say that even if the AU government makes it easier to import goods, ebooks will still be subject to contractual restrictions, and to retailers who are willing and able to sell in AU.

[Pushka]

I think if I was a $10 book I would think it was rubbish. I cant even remember when paperbacks were that cheap in Australia. $19 is more like an entry level price here.

[sabredog]

While the Australian retail industry is dominated by people like Gerry Harvey, restrictive practices will always remain.

The publishing groups here are no different. The government folded to demands to keep the ban on parallel importing in place, so I really doubt this new committee will be any tougher.

[neilmarr]

Thanks for the advice, Jehane. The problem is with international editions that are largely sold on line, as with our own BeWrite Books titles, that an increase in cover price would be across the board, so whereas a new and higher price might be seen as reasonable and competitive in the general marketplace Down Under, they would appear to be overpriced elsewhere.

Brick and mortar bookstores in Australia that carry our titles seem to slap on whatever cover price they like quite arbitrarily to optimise retail profit. Our own publisher return, of course, is based on our Recommended Retail Price and not store price. So anything over and above what we set is 100% extra profit for the shops over and above the heavy wholesale discount we must already give them.

My feeling is that publishers themselves must make a stand against inflated retail prices to drive down the crazy prices demanded in pretty well all Australian shops. Online stores there are also guilty and seem to upwardly price our books according to whim/greed. The reader (not the publisher or author) suffers from what I firmly believe to be an unfair practice. We refuse to jump on this gravy train.

Best wishes. Neil

[jehane]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

My feeling is that publishers themselves must make a stand against inflated retail prices to drive down the crazy prices demanded in pretty well all Australian shops.

Hi Neil

Unfortunately in Australia it is most often the local publishers themselves who are pushing for higher prices, with the nonsensical idea that no Australian writers would ever be published again if parallel imports were allowed. I kid you not, that was the basic theme of the publicity campaign last year. In fact, so successful were they that the govt announced that there would not be any changes right before (as in, a matter of hours or possibly minutes) a nationally televised debate on the issue. I watched it anyway but had to switch it off after a while because Louise Adler was so rude, arrogant, overbearing and smug.

This is why I am really concerned about this review. Rather than imagining that the govt is looking to increase competition and reduce barriers to entry, I think it's much more likely, on recent past record, that the publishing industry will seek to raise additional barriers.

http://www.cheaperbooks.com.au/
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/conte...8/s2564086.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2009/s2740019.htm
http://www.npc.org.au/speakerarchive/bookdeb.html

[neilmarr]

I wonder what will happen in June 2011, Jehane, when Ingram's Lightning Source (the world's biggest book distributor and it's PoD print and dispatch arm) opens in Australia with reasonably priced books and cheap local shipping.

You see, ordering from an online store at the international price, the order automatically passes to LS and is printed and shipped from the depot cloest to the customer. In the past, this has involved high shipping cost and postal delay Down Under from mases in the US and UK. Next year, that will change.

Traditional publishing in Oz is nose-diving (inflated cover prices haven't helped). Cheaply sold PoD might well accelerate that decline and help produce a happy result for the hard-hit reader in your neck of the woods. Cheers. Neil

[jehane]

o.O That will be very interesting! I don't know the ins and outs of the law, but I wonder how that fits in with parallel imports? I'll be following developments with interest.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by jehane

This is why I am really concerned about this review. Rather than imagining that the govt is looking to increase competition and reduce barriers to entry, I think it's much more likely, on recent past record, that the publishing industry will seek to raise additional barriers.

Good post. You are echoing my concerns as well.

You go into a shop like Dymocks and the Science Fiction section's range is abysmal. There are a lot of SF books that they have not got for sale and have never heard of. These books are easily available online in paperback or ebook format.

This sort of restrictive practice is widespread. Just consider Kogan's online and locally based estore and the scathing vocal hatred of his business emanating from Gerry Harvey.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by jehane

o.O That will be very interesting! I don't know the ins and outs of the law, but I wonder how that fits in with parallel imports? I'll be following developments with interest.

If all the retailers die because of aforementioned bald-faced we want to charge you lots more protectionism it won't matter what the parallel import laws are, as no-one will be doing it (selling books).

[neilmarr]

***I wonder how that fits in with parallel imports***

Dunno yet, Jehane. But I will soon. We're currently setting up a fully staffed bureau in Adelaide and taking additional Australian registration for our own indie house next year. I'll report back when we're further ahead and know all the ins and outs. Cheers. Neil

[Blue Tyson]

Adelaide? Going to be a local, then?

[neilmarr]

Oddly enough, Blue, one of the first ever ebook publishers in the world, Jacobyte Books, opened in Adelaide in the 1990s. General apathy in Australia and an inability to get paperback versions of their books into major international distribution meant they handed their titles and authors over to BeWrite Books in 2004 to save as many as we could from obscurity.

Many of their original authors are still with us, releasing new titles in ebook and treebook, and newcomers have arrived on the back of their success, and Meredith Whitford (a superb author and pro editor), who owned Jacobyte, remained a close pal. In fact, we released her new 'Shakespeare's Will' historical fiction just last month. Drop me a line with your preferred format if you'd like me to send you a copy.

She'll be heading up BB's operation down under next year with her original Jacobyte tech and admin team and -- hopefully -- a growing stable of writers from Australia and New Zealand. There are some brilliant authors in your neck of the woods, who haven't so far been given much of a chance.

Ebooks are no problem for us, of course, but Lightning Source's new Australian operation and/or a quality printer in Adelaide (PDA) will help us make local inroads in print for them, too, as well as our coverage in other parts of the world.

Cheers. Neil -- the email address, by the way, is ntmarrATbewrite.net (use the @ sign, of course)

PS: And to play fair, the offer of a free ebook copy of 'Shakespeare's Will' is open to anyone in this thread. N

[Pushka]

Rupert Murdoch started off his publishing career in Adelaide.

[DarkRoast]

I love my Sony reader but the lack of ebooks and the excessive prices in Australia makes me wonder (fleeting) if I should have got a Kindle. I can't understand why we can't buy books from where ever we chose. The geographical restrictions seem bizarre at best.

[neilmarr]

Good to have your new company, Dark Roast. I'm afraid you'll also find those geographical restrictions applying to Kindle Store. The Sony is great hardware with rotten library software, though. Try downloading the excellent and free Calibre Library software and buy books wherever you like (as long as they're not country-specific editions). Good luck and best wishes. Neil