Like books? Like Australian books? Like Australian jobs in the publishing and book selling industry? Yep, me too.
But if changes to territorial copyright proposed by the Productivity Commission are passed, it could all go. Yes, the good folks at the PC have decided books are too expensive and their “solution”, based on pre-2009 data, would see Australia’s publishing industry decimated.
This may sound dramatic, but I’m not overstating the point. On Monday 27 July 2016, independent senator, Nick Xenophon, held a press conference at Matilda’s bookshop in Stirling, at the behest of Books Create Australia. The who’s who of publishing, as well as many writers enraged by the proposed changes to their livelihood, attended to put their case to the media as to why the changes should be quashed. And not just quashed, but squashed, flattened and done away with once and for all because this is the fifth time the PC has attempted to removed territorial copyright since 1999. Possibly writers and publishers are sick of fighting so frequently to save their industry. An industry, I might add, that is without government subsidy, the seventeenth biggest publishing industry in the world employing approximately 20, 000 people and which generates $2 billion in revenue.
Copyright law is technical and I won’t go into details here. If you want to know more, go to www.copyright.org.au, or www.bookscreateaustralia.com.au. The effect of the changes, however, is simple. It would flood the market with cheaper books. Cheaper books is a good thing, right? Um, yeah, except that when New Zealand did this in 1998, the result was book prices dropped minimally, while publishing companies closed and less New Zealand writers got published. Their book industry is a pale shadow of its former self so why, oh why, would Australia want to emulate it?
Sure, book prices could drop by as much as 10% if the changes go through here. But in real terms, they’ve dropped by around 25% over the last decade anyway. And that’s before taking big supermarket chain discounts into account (the PC doesn’t, by the way). The cost is that publishers won’t have the financial resources to put into nurturing new Australian authors. There will be less opportunity to become a published author in Australia and those cheap books we’re all so eager for are likely to be “blockbusters” determined by the US and UK market. Kardashian biography for $10, anyone?
An example of an immediate and local threat posed by the changes is to Griffin Press based in Salisbury: “There is a very real possibility the whole local publishing and print industry could disintegrate,” Griffin Press chief executive Ben Jolly said. Griffin Press currently employs 105 people and all those jobs are at risk.
The sentiment of those gathered to support Australian industry and culture echoed Senator Xenophon, emphasising their educated views that the proposed changes are idiotic. Perhaps I’m biased. I am, after all, an Australian writer and reader. But if people like me who love Australian books and the fact that the Australian publishing industry employs so many people (many of them women in flexible roles— another thing our PM is apparently hot on) don’t speak up, who will? Yes, I’m biased. I want my children to grow up reading Australian stories (other too, but I want Australian ones in the mix). I want them to have books in which it’s hot at Christmas time. I want Australian language, places and idiosyncrasies in my books. I want our culture reflected and our authors to make enough money to keep writing their fabulous, entertaining, moving and life changing work. I don’t want to lose what is, next to my family and friends, the thing I love most — Australian books.
So, I ask you this: think of your favorite Australian book. Is it The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, perhaps? Cloudstreet by Tim Winton? Back-to-back Ned Kelly Award winning crime writer, Candice Fox’s Eden Archer series? The Broken Shore by Peter Temple? Fiona McIntosh’s The French Promise? That’s just a glance at my bookshelf. I’ve got many, many more. What about Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Tomorrow When the War Began, or Dr Blake’s Murder Mysteries – each successful Australian novel serials that have been turned into a popular television series.
Had the proposed new rules existed at the time those manuscripts were submitted for publication, those books, that very one you love more than any other, may never have seen the printing press.
The gauntlet must be thrown down to those in Parliament able to alter this path forward. We must let them know that this isn’t okay. Support our books, support our industry, and support Australian jobs.
For more information, go to www.bookscreateaustralia.com.au
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