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Parallel Importation of Books disappointment

This week Australian publishing was rocked by the recommendations of the Productivity Commission into Parallel Importation of books. The Australian said there'd be elegantly expressed outrage as authors and publishers as they talked about how importing books from overseas would seriously damage the local industry.
Several writers have spoken out about the report's findings including Sophie Cunningham, Shane Maloney and, previously, Tim Winton using his Miles Franklin acceptance speech to point out what this means even to mega-sucessful authors.
But what about eloquent voices for the Productivity Commission? In the interests of balance I've animated the report so you can hear the commission's own words (there will be no reading in the future obviously):




Want more of the commission's report? You can buy it in book form off the website for their $18 (possibly cheaper in Britain). It's good to see someone can still make money out of books.

Comments

  1. err, George, there's a pop-up ad on this page offering your latest book ... from Amazon ... at a discount! Oh, the irony!

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  2. It's a good point on Amazon discounts, Tim. My defence is that my local publisher doesn't offer a very good deal for authors selling their own books. This subject though is rich with irony and hypocrisy though.

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  3. How much for the Kindle version of the Productivity Report?

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  4. Interesting point about publishers providing a model for authors to sell their own books, George. Is your situation usual or unusual - I don't know how the big publishing houses work? Do they expect/hope authors will sell their own books and give good discounts or is the expectation that the publisher only will sell? Bit off-topic but there you go...

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  5. Lisa, some big publishers use an affiliate kind of program of some kind, others will just help you out with a link to their shop. Depends on how onto it they are. It's not a huge revenue source for authors probably because it involves too many clicks and users will just think "Sod it" and go to a bookstore. Here's the Lonely Planet version:
    http://www.lonelyplanet.com/about/affiliate-program

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