Book publishers tackle digital challenges (Australia)

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Well, the Federal Government has told publishers to pulll their collective fingers out...

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/167288...n-e-books.aspx

The Australian government is talking tough despite providing a shelter from the storm for Australian publishers by not allowing foreign parallel importing of books. Basically if an Australian publisher produces a book, retailers have to buy it from them, they can't import the paperback from other countries which produce it cheaper.

That means books sit at $30 and not $15,. The Australian government gave publishers an easy ride and consumers get screwed. Now they are talking tough in hopes of getting publishers to shape up - why should they, they know they are well protected by current arrangements. The government dropped the ball on the publishing industry in Australia.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by fugazied

The Australian government is talking tough despite providing a shelter from the storm for Australian publishers by not allowing foreign parallel importing of books. Basically if an Australian publisher produces a book, retailers have to buy it from them, they can't import the paperback from other countries which produce it cheaper.

Exactly. The media tycoons would like to have it both ways. Meanwhile an independent e-book reseller has the chance of a snowflake in hell of succeeding in setting up a serious business in Australia because of the publishers' oligopoly AND parallel import restrictions.
The only concern that the publishers have is how to fleece more money out of customers, while preserving their current business model.

[sabredog]

Very, very true and when the interested and keen go looking elsewhere for new releases they are stopped in their tracks by outdated business practices once again in the form of Geo restrictions.

and they wonder why the darknet is turned to....

Have you noticed Harvey Norman spruiking ads that they are the ebook central location? They are marketing the iriver ebook which from all reviews seems to be a poor man's choice of ereader. It is not cheap either! I wonder where the plethora of ebooks are coming from that they say are available to Australians?

[Katti's Cat]

Thanks Vicki for the link.

At least they are meeting. However, the sentence ""Australia gets the opportunity of learning from the mistakes that are made..." scares me. So far I haven't seen much of Australia learning from other countries mistakes. Looks to me as if they prefer to make their own before moving on.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by lene1949

I grew up in Denmark, and can confirm that Australia is about 10 years behind the rest of the world...

Do you mean to say that you had the feeling you became younger when you arrived in Oz? Or that you had the feeling that everyone behaved as though they were 10 years younger?

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Have you noticed Harvey Norman spruiking ads that they are the ebook central location? They are marketing the iriver ebook which from all reviews seems to be a poor man's choice of ereader. It is not cheap either! I wonder where the plethora of ebooks are coming from that they say are available to Australians?

Interesting ... I didn't know this, as I'm out of the country at the moment.
This may be one way to push the publishing big-wigs to put a rocket under their executive chairs. I think it is going to be a bit of a paradigm shift when consumers are able to see the product and test it before buying.
Non-Australians, please don't laugh. I know you have your Waterstones, Best Buys-es, etc, but we are still new at this

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

Do you mean to say that you had the feeling you became younger when you arrived in Oz? Or that you had the feeling that everyone behaved as though they were 10 years younger?

I agree with lene - it did feel like a time warp backwards when I arrived here in Oz. I even got paid in cash for my first office job here - in a pay bag with the taxes and deductions done in handwriting on the front.

Not even my Mum got ever paid in cash for a permanent job - I asked her.

Observing the things Australia has done since it seems they are always a step behind US & Europe. Eventually things get done here too, just a tad later.

[Blue Tyson]

Not for everything we aren't. They still paid for stuff with cheques in the USA when I was there! Not overly entertaining waiting in line while people do that at the supermarket certainly!

[alvico]

In case you missed it: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2822755.htm

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by alvico

In case you missed it: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2822755.htm

Thanks again, Vicky.

Regards, Alex