David Day, Chair Australian Society of Authors
The Australian Society of Authors views with dismay the government’s renewed plan to allow the parallel importation of books. Australian authors will be particularly threatened by such a move. Allowing overseas publishers to dump remaindered copies of Australian authors’ books published elsewhere onto the local market will undercut the investment of local publishers and reduce pay to our authors.
Authors have already been hit hard by a big drop in book prices, which has caused an average halving of their writing income over the last decade. As if that wasn’t enough, the government has exacerbated their plight by making savage cuts to the Australia Council in its last two budgets.
Using academic theories about competition to interfere in the creation of Australian culture is sure to make the situation of authors even worse. Removing territorial copyright for Australian authors is likely to cause all sorts of negative outcomes: making local publishers more risk-averse; erecting a barrier to the entry of new and emerging writers into the Australian publishing industry; making the export of local books more difficult; and ensuring that the publishers of London and New York get an even tighter grip on the Australian book market.
If authors’ incomes are reduced any further, some will be discouraged from writing altogether, which will be a loss for readers and for Australia’s literary culture. It is self-defeating for the government to introduce a measure that will adversely affect local authors, bookshops and publishers for a hypothetical reduction in book prices.
David Day
ASA Chair
