What Nick said! Nick Earls, that is ... back in 2009

Author, Nick Earls spoke out eloquently against Parallel Imports six years ago. His words are as valid today as then....

Cheaper books - it's a great carrot to dangle, but are things really that simple? Australian author Nick Earls thinks not.

 First, are books in Australia more expensive than elsewhere? The Productivity Commission worked hard to prove that was the case, but couldn't. In the end they decided that measuring the magnitude of any actual price efforts related to territorial copyright was 'problematic' and in its recent draft report did not 'put a figure on them'. 

The entire argument from the Coalition for Big Business (sorry, Coalition for Cheaper Books, ie, Wesfarmers, Woolworths, Dymocks, etc) is that abandoning territorial copyright would make books cheaper, but no one has proven that it does.

If good data existed demonstrating a clear and sustained price benefit, it would need to be weighed against possible detriments. If there is no good data to demonstrate conclusively the benefit of change - as is currently the case - the change should simply not be made.

The fact is that some books are cheaper in Australia, some are more expensive and some cost around the same as elsewhere, and prices vary from book to book, time to time, retailer to retailer and with changes in the exchange rate. 

Either side in this argument can cherry pick individual books - and times with exchange rates that favour their case - and wave them in the air in order to make their point, but it doesn't prove a point about an entire industry. Beware of economic rationalists waving Tim Winton novels, and the comparisons they make.... 

To read the rest of this article, click ABC TV - The Drum July 16 2009 

SIGN THE PETITION NOW!

Please SIGN and SHARE the official Australian Society of Authors 

PETITION AGAINST PARALLEL IMPORTATION OF BOOKS.

AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF AUTHORS to set up a PETITION

We'll let you know when the PETITION is put up on the ASA website. I do have reservations about Petitions. People sign them and think, 'There, I've done my bit, and that's all I need to do'. But it's not. 

It's only one tiny part. 

The only true action is badgering politicians, relentlessly. 

Take it from those who lived through the relentless civil justice atrocities and political chicanery of the Jo Bjelke-Petersen era in Queensland, nothing is as effective as ordinary people pestering their local politicians because they are deeply concerned about an issue that will affect their lives. 

Pro-PI lobby, naysayers and economic rationalists come out to play ... right on cue

Right on cue, the naysayers begin their insults ... 'greedy authors and publishers who just want to make more money'; and who 'don't care about making books cheaper for Australians to buy' etc etc. And as they did in the last anti-PI campaign, economic rationalists and conservative naysayers rarely look beyond easy slogans. 

Do they honestly think authors can feel wealthy on 3% - 10% (i.e. if you have a great publisher) royalties? Snort.

They don't appear to understand, or even care what will be lost intellectually, culturally, economically at all level and genres of Australian books ... and far worse in the case of children's and YA books.

We all buy books online nowadays, we can always access cheaper books if we want - so the pro-Parallel Import crowd's argument is non-existent. Of course, being supporters of Independent bookstores we should all still be buying some books across the counter as well.

The problems of allowing PIs goes deeper than what the pro-lobby say. They don't acknowledge the threat to the publishing industry as a whole - like competition from cheaper, inferior books the big booksellers push in their stores, in supermarkets and chain stores = less money for publishers = less books being published in Australia by Australian writers and illustrators = less money to take on new writers and support their midlist authors (tell me about that one! No, you don't need to). 

The  biggest concern for many of us who are children's books creators is how Parallel Imports will impact upon Australian children’s books in far more insidious ways. Caught up in this are children's books publishers and Independent Bookshops who have been so supportive of and enthusiastic about books for young people. (Like here in Brisbane ... the brilliant Riverbend Books, Avid Reader, Where the Wild Things Are, The Mad Hatters Bookshop and more.)

Concerned Australians won this same battle against lifting the Restrictions in 2009, but we did not win the war. The Federal Government is pushing for opening up Parallel Imports again in 2016.

The only way left open to us is to use People Power - that means authors of all genres, illustrators, parents, grandparents, teachers, young readers, librarians, editors, publishers, agents, writers of text books ...yes, anyone who cares about literacy, literature and our unique Australian books.

Will YOU add your voice to the protests this time around? 

Will you sign a petition (once it's organised) and write a concerned letter to your Federal House of Reps MP and to the Senate? 

10 excellent bookshops in Brisbane if you want to explore the alternative to Big W, Target, Kmart, Myers.

It's on again! Federal Government plans to lift Restrictions against Parallel Imports on Books

The latest bulletin from the Australian Society of Authors exposes the Turnbull LNP Government’s renewed plan to allow the parallel importation of books into Australia. Lifting the restrictions will add many burdens to Australian authors and the publishing industry.

'Mum' not 'Mom' in our Aussie kids' books!

Many of us (on behalf of our whole industry not just for ourselves and the books we love) fought a hard-won battle to stop a previous government doing it. Those who are free-marketeers on both sides of politics promote it. 

Yes, we all buy books online nowadays, but our biggest concern is how the lifting of restrictions will impact upon Australian children’s books.

We won this same battle in 2009, but not the war. Will YOU add your voice to the protests this time around? Will you sign the petition and write a concerned letter to your Federal MP? Or will you leave it to others?

 The surest way anything positive happens is through People Power, and that means you, me and everyone in our industry who cares about Australian children’s books and young readers.

Lifting the Restrictions against Parallel Import threatens all those Australian publishers who took the risk of publishing the books in the first place and who invested in the development, editing and publication of the books.

There have been massive cutbacks to our industry - this will add so many more difficulties and restrictions. Less money means less books published, less new authors, less risks taken at all levels of authorhood.

The most insidious threat from Parallel Imports is how Australian children's `picture books and novels that have been Americanised would be allowed into this country and sold in competition with the Australian versions.

Some may say, so what? Anyone thinking that must be ignorant about how Australian children's books republished overseas are changed in so many ways.

Books written in our country give Australian children insights into our unique culture; those books speak our language, colloquialisms, our English-Australian spelling, even common words (like Mum instead of Mom; pavement instead of sidewalk; tap instead of faucet, and so many more), our Aussie humour that Australians 'get', but is mostly misunderstood overseas, and most sad of all are how the subtleties in picture books can be changed to suit the American market.

It's brilliant for an author to be republished in the States as so many more copies of books are printed. We can't influence those adaptations in another country nor would we want to, but we can stop how any remaindered copies that failed to sell in the US are dumped into the Australian market and sold cheaply in bookshops, 'masquerading' as the authentic versions.

A notice to all politicians of all flavours ... Children's books creators, industry workers, and those who love Australian children's books will not give in without a fight.

SAVING AUSSIE BOOKS ... remember the name

Federal Government threat to lift Parallel Importation Restrictions on Books ... again

Concerned Australians won this same battle against lifting the Restrictions in 2009, but we did not win the war. Now the Federal Government is pushing for opening up Parallel Imports again - deadline set for mid-2016.