In Alison Flood's story in The Guardian, Peter Carey talks of it as if it is an 'end of the world as we know it' scenario. He says it is a 'battle for the sake of our readers and writers' and a "cultural 'self-suicide'". (Is there another form of suicide?)
Another writer, Kate Grenville, says that it is 'A tragedy which would force many Australian authors to stop writing,' while Thomas Keneally is convinced it would cause "irreparable harm". It appears that the entire Australian book industry, from major authors to publishers, booksellers and agents, is up in arms about a proposed review of Australia's copyright laws.
Currently, the report says, Australian publishers are given 30 days to bring out an Australian edition of a book after its release anywhere in the world. If an Australian edition is released, Australian bookshops are required to sell the Australian version, and they can't import the book from overseas. As a result, books are more expensive in Australia than elsewhere. This has, apparently, allowed the country's local publishing to flourish, at the expense of cheaper overseas editions.
Carey's fear is that if the current copyright laws are taken away "global companies will decide that their Australian offices will be much more profitable as distributors of product than publishers of books. If this sounds creepily colonial, it is because it is." He (and the others) argue further that if not for the present government support, Australian authors (like themselves) would never have become internationally renowned. Grenville also says that her "experience shows how uninterested publisher are in our work", particularly if they are of literary nature.
But a government spokesman says, "Any policy reforms in this area will be aimed at enhancing Australia's longer term growth prospects."
An Australian publisher visited me some time ago. She was, of course, trying to persuade me to buy some Australian titles. I balked. And then I asked why books from Australia were so expensive? Her excuse was the small market size and logistics.
A typical Australian book would cost about RM60.00 as opposed to RM35.00 for one of similar quality from Britain or the US. When a customer walks into a bookshop, all books are equal. They do not necessarily have more loyalty to books from any specific country (unless they are particularly chauvinistic). Price is important, and with Australian titles costing almost twice more, it is not surprising that they are rarely found on the shelves of Malaysian bookstores. Granted, the Malaysian market is small, but how many Australian books get into Britain or the US?
(I had a minor misunderstanding -- or that's what I learned later -- with a Malaysian author who had her book published in Australia some years ago. Understanably, no distributor from Malaysia or Singapore would import it, and she could not understand why I was reluctant to bring in a book that would have cost at least twice as much on the shelf as another equivalent title -- notwithstanding the fact that she was an 'unknown'.)
The truth is Australian books are available in this country -- in stores that deal with remaindered books. Yes, that is right. There is a huge trade in Australian remaindered books, a trade from which the Australian author does not get one cent. (In fact, Australian barn sales are almost legendary.) And these remaindered books are extremely popular, particularly children's books. I (and several people I know) have for years acknowledged that Australia produces some of the best children's books in the world -- far better produced and more wonderfully inventive than similar stuff from Britain and the US. Seriously. I know of adults who collect and read them voraciously. But they are not found in regular bookshops because they simply cost too much. (Now, India is getting into that market with surprisingly creative and well-produced children's books at a fraction of the price, so watch out.)
For example, it is almost impossible to get Penguin Malaysia to import books from Australia and New Zealand. They either flatly refuse, or else give you such a ridiculously long delivery time that you'd think you'd grow old and die first. When Elizabeth Smithers was a guest in Kuala Lumpur in 2007 we had to use quite a lot of (governmental) muscle before they finally agreed to import some copies with great reluctance. To us, it was like extracting the books from them with forceps; to them it must have been like we were doing it without anaesthetics. (By the way, they still remind us of that.)
But it is not just in children's titles that they are outstanding. I have browsed the shelves of several 'remaindered' stores in KL and I have been impressed with many of their titles.
It is fine for Carey, Grenville and Keneally; they have arrived. And, that point about problems faced by 'literary' authors is taken. Literary writers all over the world face similar problems. Still, they have been recognised, as more Australian writers will be in future, because they are good. As for publishers and booksellers, what is there not to like about high prices and a 'closed shop' policy?
It is quite apparent that Australia has more to look at than its copyright laws as it increasingly prices itself out of the market. The world will not stand still. There is a potential new 800-pound publishing gorilla in the room. It is called India. And, many smaller ones snapping at the heels too.
No comments:
Post a Comment