More expensive books are a tragedy for us all

Shane From Melbourne says:

05:22pm | 12/11/09

Not allowing parallel imports of books is almost as bad as slapping a GST on books. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Both Liberal and Labor have had their chances on this issue and both have squibbed it. Neither party got it right on this issue.

Bec says:

06:17pm | 12/11/09

As an English teacher, I am STRONGLY opposed to any raise in prices of any books. It is hard enough to get kids to read these days without making it more expensive! They’ll just use their money to buy playstation games or go to movies, instead of exploring other worlds through the use of imagination.

And to all of those book snobs who bag out Twilight - I know it’s crap, but it’s very good crap that has encouraged about 90% of the female population of the school I teach at to read books, many for the first time. So proud to see my special needs kids actually finishing a huge novel. As an educator, I will support ANYTHING that will get kids back into our library - Twilight, Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket - none of whom are Australian, but dammit, they get kids reading. The only Australian author I can think of that does that is John Marsden - and his books are looking a little dated now. So why penalise kids for finding something they like, just because it is from another country?

Jasper says:

06:47pm | 12/11/09

Parallel importing would not have made any difference to the cost of most university texts as they are pretty much all imported anyway and the specialist publishers who produce them don’t do print runs large enough to bring about an economy of scale.

The issue of parallel importing was always about increasing the market share of the big players who move the mass market stuff.

But even then there are plenty of opportunities for cheap books, notice the release of all those $10 Penguin paperbacks you see everywhere? They weren’t going to get any cheaper with parallel importing.

But as to the assertion that “You might just find that it is cheaper to buy books overseas and have them air-freighted to your front door”, like most politicians you don’t seem to be living in the real world. The only books I’ve found cheaper on Amazon were the ones that would have to be ordered in anyway and the out-of-print stuff that no-one (let alone Australian publishers) prints anymore. And even then, air-mail (especially from the US) & exchange rates will, more often than not, push the price to within spitting distance of the Australian price.

Don’t forget that parallel importing has been available for music CDs for some time, but most of them are still $30 a pop. That sort of sinks your argument, doesn’t it? If the wholesalers & retailers choose to keep prices where they are, the origin of the product is totally irrelevant.

Andrew Goff says:

12:35am | 13/11/09

This decision is possible the worst political decision of the last 25 years.

Vile.

I’ve no words for it.

Matt says:

06:36am | 13/11/09

Jasper, you and the other publishing industry luddites just don’t get it. Online retailers like Fishpond and Book Depository air freight for free and you end up getting books for about 30 per cent less, delivered to your door.
Gee, that’s just the extra amount the Productivity Commission said the publishing industry was gouging the Australian consumer by.
And as for Amazon, the Kindle device - with free wi-fi in Australia - gets you seriously cheap e-books delivered for free!
All the publishing industry has done here is kill two sectors - the local bookshop, which is going to go under within about five years, and their own.
Hope you’re happy when your neighbour’s daughter loses her job at Angus and Robertson because sales are down and the store is cutting back to a couple of Margaret Fulton cookbooks and a shelf of Dan Brown.
As for the greedy, grasping authors who want to keep prices artificially high - if you can’t compete on a level playing field your writing clearly isn’t good enough, so give up. All YOU did was ensure that the Great Emmo ruled out any Federal funding for you. Ever. Live with your unfair tarriffs for another five years and then try to get your work published overseas, because the Australian publishing industry has just commtitted seppuku.

Matt says:

06:45am | 13/11/09

My own personal protest is to stop buying any Australian authors who campaigned to keep book prices high.

I’ll buy overseas authors from bookdepository.

I’m boycotting:

Tim Winton (pretty easy to give up - Cloudstreet has inflicted more than enough pain on Australian students over the years)
Nick Earls
Garth Nix
Shane Maloney (unfortunate, because I sort of like his books…)
Sheryl Gwyther
Tom Kenneally (nowhere near as hard as giving up Shane Maloney)
Anything from Melbourne University Press (again, not hard to boycott the publishing house that gave us such literary gems as The Latham Diaries)
And, from the “Saving Aussie Books” campaign:
Dee White
Kathryn Apel
Sally Murphy
Angela Sunde
Sharyn Lilley
Kim Rackham
Sandy Fussell
Nicole Murphy
Maree Kimberley
Meryl Harris
Trish Puddle

Jack Robertson says:

07:03am | 13/11/09

Nice piece, Scott.

Book lover says:

07:25am | 13/11/09

The argument as I understand it is that local publishing provides enough funds to be able to publish Australian authors works.  Parallel importation of books would mean no profits for local publishers, which would eventually go out of business altogether. 
This means any Australian author or budding author would have to enter the US or UK markets in the hope of getting published, effectively putting them up against thousands of locals in those markets. 
US and UK publishers are not really attuned to Australia - english isn’t just ‘english’  - Australian english has its own vocabulary and idioms. Australian authors may be rejected, as our use of english may not appeal to their tastes, or a US editor with little knowledge of the language nuances might seek to change the language of the book (assuming they decided to ever publish one), and either by accident or design, turn it into US english, which is quite different to ours.  Worse still, they might change the language so they don’t have to do separate print runs, as that would cost more.  Ditto for UK publishers. 
As a reader for most of my life, I would object quite strongly to having to read everything in American spelling with American terminology - over time, this would become ubiquitous in Australia, and we would lose yet another part of ourselves - its bad enough we already have so much American ‘culture’ over here - everything from the endless US TV shows to McDonalds - not all of it is good. 
Australia may be large on the map of the world, but we are small in terms of population - compared to the US where there are nearly 300 million people.  A ‘successful’ author in the US may have sold the same number of books as we have actual people, and it is still only a fraction of their market.  Publishing a title over there for export to Australia would mean just adding a few thousand to a print run.  But would they be willing to just print a few thousand, in the original voice of the author, for the purpose of export only? If not, what would happen to the Australian voice? 
The idea of future generations not having a unique voice in the world is vile, and I have no words for that.

Cecily says:

07:31am | 13/11/09

I agree with everything in the article.  Some Australian authors are simply not good enough to be published.  This is greed packaged as ideology.

My family spends literally thousands of dollars on books every year - atleast 95% of that is through amazon.com.  We order a huge box of books every few months.  We always do a price comparison beforehand using local book retailers inlcuding online stores and they simply cannot match amazon.com prices… and with the AUD as high as it is, it simply does not make financial sense to buy books in Australia. 

Our family is a book sellers dream.  We read everything from children’s books to literature to sci fi to pulp fiction to non-fiction - there is nothing we wont read!  But we wont be taken for a ride by the Australian industry - we have read widely enough to know that quite often the publish crap and call it Australian culture.

John says:

07:44am | 13/11/09

I would like to buy from Australian book stores or websites but they are just too expensive. I continue to buy all my books from the Book Depository (try both .com and .co.uk as the prices do often differ) as they are cheaper than any other site I have tried… including Amazon. So not only does the Australian industry miss out so does the government as there is no GST on buying books overseas.

Glenn says:

08:56am | 13/11/09

Has anyone noticed how much worse off we are under the rudd government. Doctors, teachers, nurses, blue collar workers are all worse off for all their hard work. We seem to be governed by someone who wants to control everything yet we get so little results from his management style. Why are australians putting up with this? Now book prices are going up? When a hardworking australian has to pay for cataract surgery, expensive books, increase utility bills from a government who has wasted our hard earned money, I say we need to see if voting rudd in for a 2nd term is going to leave us worse off. IS the ETS another tax to get more money to waste rather then spend on improving our quality of life?

Isabel says:

09:14am | 13/11/09

so, still will not be able to purchase many/most books in ebook form for use on ereader from UK or USA?

RB says:

09:16am | 13/11/09

@ Matt 0736: You must be joking about Fishpond!  They play the old three card trick beloved of jewellers
1) Increase supposed “regular” price by a significant margin
2) offer discount on that price that looks like it gives a good discount but in reality remains above full RRP in other shops
3) Watch the suckers roll in and pay over teh odds for their books.

Interestingly they also claim on their website they don’t have to pay GST as they are a NZ registered company.  Yet when I buy from them the books are shipped from within Australia.  Sooner or later the ATO will reveal another part of their scam and take action.  But in the mean time legitimate local businesses go bust.

@ John at 8:44 - I take it then you have no problem with Australian businesses outsourcing jobs, including yours, as Australians are just “too damn expensive”?

Grumpy says:

09:32am | 13/11/09

@ Andrew Goff - spt on, a complete snafuby the Government. The Productivity Commission can lead the Government to water, show it where it is, demonstrate the currect use of a straw, but they just won’t drink.

Anyone who thinks parallel imports are a bad thing stop and think about music where there have been parallel imports for what, ten years or so? Ten years ago a CD in the top 40 charts of the day was about $25 to $30. Now, its maybe a few nominal dollars less, thus much cheaper in real terms. This was so even a few yeas ago before the surge in online buying.

Did the Australian music indutry collapse? Look around you.

Garry says:

10:37am | 13/11/09

@Grumpy… you can be lead to believe by music industry sources that CD piracy has caused the CD to remain at high prices.

I am horrified at the prices for books, I love them, that feel that companionship I have with the writer who takes me on their journey but many Australian writers do not do that for me. So I have to look elsewhere and be penalised for doing so???

As to prices, okay, why does an Autobiography of an Australian politcal person cost me about $50 to buy when I can buy the same of an American President for just under half that? Can that be explained.

A writer must engage its reader, a publisher must promote the writer and everyone between writer and reader must not price the reader out - is that not biting the hand that feeds you?

We also need more Australian writers published, don’t be so picky and publish those who are ‘more of a risk’  than an established writer you never know the mood of the people they will read what THEY enjoy.

AdamC says:

11:35am | 13/11/09

This story isn’t about a craven government caving in to a laughably small and politically marginal lobby group. (The literati will vote Green and preference the ALP whatever Kruddy does.) In reality, Labor didn’t give in to anyone, and the publishers didn’t win any argument. Labor’s own union-backed luddites did.

The fact is, as a government, when you have reformers like Craig Emerson subordinate to unreconstructed, protectionist dinosaurs like Kim Carr, you are not serious about any productivity reform. That is, unless that ‘reform’ involves shovelling money at uncompetitive industries or building ‘infrastructure’ monuments.

And, for anyone who wants to make the case that featherbedding publishers is necessary to promote Australian authors, the PC notes that most of the economic rents the current regime squeezes out of the reading public go to overseas authors, not Australian ones. What an utterly ridiculous system!

Artiste says:

01:55pm | 13/11/09

Grumpy says:
10:32am | 13/11/09

Did the Australian music indutry collapse? Look around you.

That depends on your definition of “collapse”. I work in the music industry, and thanks to parallel importing and piracy, it’s a shadow of its former self.

Record labels used to have 50-100 local acts on their rosters; acts of many different genres and styles. The major label that my company is associated with now has 8.

CDs may be around the same price, but record companies aren’t getting the same margin: stores insist on heavy discounting, or “they’ll buy from overseas”. I wonder who’s pocketing the difference?

So, sure, as long as you’re happy with bland “chart” books from a handful of cookie-cutter writers that all sound the same, bring on parallel importing!

On the other hand, if you appreciate a diverse range of high-quality literature, protectionism maybe isn’t such a bad thing.

Grumpy says:

02:19pm | 13/11/09

@artiste - “The major label that my company is associated with now has 8”

I might be missing something from what you’re saying, but isn’t that the point? My point is that blocking parallel imports is good for record labels, not musicians.

In the same way, the government’s decision yesterday was good for publishers, not authors.

It is like AdamC says ‘the rents don’t go to Australian authors anyway’.

There have also been other changes in the industry than just allowing parallel importing in the ten years or so since it was removed, like pretty much the appearance of the internet, that might have had one or two things to do with this.

I see no reasonable basis for regional restrictions If it is a legal copy, book, CD, software, DVD, whatever, in the country where it is offerred (and that country has a genuine IP regime in place), then I see no reason to prevent it from being sold here.

@artiste and @ garry - Piracy is a whole different issue. I never said that wasn’t harmful for musicians. Hence the requirement that the place where a parallel import comes from needs to have a genuine IP regime in place). Piray is bad for all but the pirate, although some artists see to be innovative enough to almost turn it to their advantage by using it as free publicity, but maybe thats not really piracy anyway.

Artiste says:

03:00pm | 13/11/09

Grumpy @ 03:19pm | 13/11/09

Yes, blocking parallel imports would have been good for labels, but it sounds like you are missing something: It’s all inter-related. How can it be good for the other 96 acts that lost their deals because the label couldn’t afford to take risks on them? The companies are still expected to make profits, and the only way they can do that is by concentrating on international music, where the only costs they bear are in marketing and manufacturing. They can no longer afford to invest in a broad range of local talent, and when they do invest they cannot afford to maintain investment unless an act is immediately successful - so musicians lose out too.

It’s also not much of a stretch to say that the public loses out too, because the range of music and acts that is available is much smaller and less diverse. Everything that’s released and marketed is homogenised pap.

Musicians no longer have the luxury of having time to develop and hone their craft whilst being supported by a label, because the label isn’t making enough money to do so. Sure you can find thousands of bands on MySpace, but how many of them are any good? How many of them can afford to go on the road for a year to build a following and develop?

“the rents” do go the artists and authors way - but not in a “follow-the-dollar” manner. It goes their way in opportunity. In providing the label and publisher with enough profit to be able to take risks and reinvest. If they aren’t making enough profit, they can’t take those risks - so all you’ll get to hear is American R&B and top 40, and all you’ll get to read is Dan Brown and J.K Rowling. If that’s what makes you happy, then I can appreciate that you’d have a gripe about protectionism - but that protectionism provides an opportunity for Australian artists and authors.

Personally, I’m over the moon for the print publishers. Hopefully they’ll never have to go through the hell that our industry has, and hopefully many more Australian authors will get the chance to publish, and maybe grow into something great.

Voxpop says:

04:30pm | 13/11/09

All you have to do is look to New Zealand who lifted these restrictions years ago - did their books fall in price? - NO they are actually more expensive.

Also the other territories (UK, USA etc) protect their markets and wouldn’t be so stupid as to take away the PIR’s.

And all you need do is look at the instigators and interested parties - they are looking to exploit and increase their market share.  Thank god the Govt didn’t bow down to them as small business would be annihalated by it and you’d end up with a duopoly in books much as we’ve seen with groceries and fuel.  Oh and if you think they would have given you cheaper books think again - sure you’d get cheap crap but you can get those remaindered books now for around $2 to $5 anyway.

Yes, I work in the industry and have a good understanding of how it works and how it would play out if things were to change.  So, I’d be one of the thousands to loose my job (that’s OK cos I can get another one) but believe me the devastation to small business would be huge.  And then yes there would also be a dramatic decrease in Aussie authors (who I love and support - I don’t understand why some want to take it out on them)

Bev says:

07:26pm | 13/11/09

Has anyone ever thought of using their local public library - I agree owning and appreciating a book is special but the library is accessible, free to use and offers an alternative to complaining about the cost of buying books. I am sure there would be readers out there who would get a pleasant surprise if they visited their local libraries - they are no longer the quiet, sombre places they used to be - we no longer wear twinsets and pearls.

Rob says:

09:44am | 14/11/09

Well written piece. Liberals should fight hard on this.  More expensive books flies in the face of Labor claims to support education and equality. 

I disagree that the gutenberg press is THE most revolutionary invention though. I think space travel is first as it transcends this planet.