Children’s authors protest outside Dymocks
Children’s authors took to the streets in Brisbane last week on Thursday 16 April, in protest against the ‘Coalition for Cheaper Books’, and its stance on an open market being...
Dymocks petition attracts 18,000 as PC submissions close
Final submissions to the Productivity Commission on its study of Australia's book parallel importation laws have now been lodged, with the overwhelming majority of those so far posted online rejecting...
APA critical of Prod Comm ’roundtables’
APA CEO Maree McCaskill has criticised last week's 'roundtables' held by the Productivity Commission to discuss its draft report on parallel importation.'In all my years of doing this sort of...
Productivity Commission: final submissions due Friday
As Friday's deadline approaches, trade bodies are busily preparing their final submissions to the Productivity Commission and encouraging their members to do likewise. The APA is continuing to inform and...
Parallel import debate: battle of the petitions and the price comparisons
Hitting back at the Dymocks petition launched last week, Australians for Australian Books (an umbrella group comprising the APA, Australian Society of Authors, Printing Industries Australia and the Australian Literary...
Children’s authors to picket Dymocks
A group of children's authors has announced that it plans to stage a protest outside Dymocks' central Brisbane store tomorrow (Thursday), protesting against the chain's support for an open market....
Quote of the week
'Dymocks believes that the Australian book industry should be driven by the Australian book buyer and not the local subsidiaries and agents of overseas publishers'--Dymocks CEO Don Grover in a...
APA warns on children’s books
Media Release: 2 April 20092 April 2009 Children's books endangered by plan to weaken copyrightAustralia's extraordinary success story in children's books is threatened if the Productivity Commission recommendations on changes...
Dymocks’ pro open-market letter to its Booklover customers
7 April 2009Dear [ ],We need your help to bring you cheaper books.The Australian Government, through the Productivity Commission, is reviewing the restrictive laws that unnecessarily inflate the price of...
Productivity Commission: Dymocks appeals to customers; APA warns on children’s books; support from UK publishers; ASA says ‘move on’
As the Productivity Commission's inquiry into parallel importation regulations comes to a close, Dymocks has taken the extraordinary step of using its Booklovers loyalty scheme to urge its customers to...
Quote of the week
'If anything, the recommendations are in danger of putting upward pressure on all new titles as publishers seek to maximize their returns during the 12-month period of exclusive territorial copyright'--Australian...
ABA: PC recommendations could increase book prices
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) has claimed that the Productivity Commission's proposed changes to Australia's book parallel importation laws ‘are in danger of putting upward pressure on all new titles...
Australian book trade critical of PC draft report
As reported in a WBN special bulletin on Friday, the Productivity Commission has recommended that some of Australia's ‘parallel importation restrictions' (PIRs) be retained, but that the current 90-day rule...
APA on draft PC report
Australian Publishers Association spokesperson Jose Borghino writes: 'The PC estimates the Australian publishing market at $2.5 billion, whereas we have extrapolated from the last ABS stats available (2003-4) and say...
Henry Rosenbloom on the Productivity Commission’s draft report
Henry Rosenbloom writes: 'This is a deeply cynical and political document. Its central recommendation is unworkable and absurd, and is based on neo-liberal theory and not industry evidence. 'It is...
Bad news for Australian authors
The ALAA writes: 'The Australian Literary Agents' Association (ALAA) believes that the Productivity Commission's draft report on Australia's Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books released on Friday 20 March...
APA: ‘unworkable and destructive’; ABA: disappointed; industry bodies respond to draft PC report
The Productivity Commission has recommended that some of Australia's ‘parallel importation restrictions' (PIRs) be retained, but that the current 90-day rule be abolished and that PIR protection should only apply...
APA: ‘unworkable and destructive’; ABA: disappointed; industry bodies respond to draft PC report
The Productivity Commission has recommended that some of Australia's ‘parallel importation restrictions' (PIRs) be retained, but that the current 90-day rule be abolished and that PIR protection should only apply...
Australian Industry Group, SA and Vic governments support status quo on parallel imports
The Australian Industry Group has become the most recent body to lodge a Productivity Commission submission in favour of retaining the current laws pertaining to the parallel importation of books....
APA survey: a bookseller responds
In response to last week's story on the Australian Publishers Association (APA) survey of book prices, a bookseller writes ... ‘Using the same standards of "impartiality" I ran my own...