The PIRs will be reversed as soon as Rudd and Co. realise that an ever increasing percentage of bookbuyers buy their books from overseas, and it’s destroying Australian book retailing. This is simply a matter of time.

Finally, I couldn’t care less if the useless elitist Australian publish industry shrivels up and dies. Actually, I could care… it would be GOOD, based on their current rent-seeking behaviour. In the meantime, I’ll buy every single book from overseas, and save about 50% on each.

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/11/local-bookstores-social-hubs-and-mutualization/

I’m quite confident that pretty much any DRM scheme they come up with will fail. Though I do only buy ebooks in formats that I know are easy to break (thanks Microsoft!) – I want to make sure that I can transfer them to new devices in the future and not have to rebuy them in a few years time. Book publishers should look to the experience of the music and movie industries to see what works (many people will buy if its easy enough) and what doesn’t (DRM). Baen Books (http://baen.com) are an example of a publisher (sci-fi/fantasy) that sell their ebooks with no drm at all.

Adobe have just announced big expansion plans re ebooks – presumably further development of ADEPT, and as ePUB is now emerging as the mobile device friendly file format it will be ‘interesting’ to see how their DRM processes evolve. Which also makes Amazon’s use of a modified proprietary mobi file format look more like a grand case of inbuilt obsolescence.

In fact, ebooks offer publishers the opportunity to once again have adequate control over territorial rights. As it is internet based, each user comes with a handy ISP which immediately identifies their geographic location.

That is quite easy to get around if you want to, especially for small files like ebooks where you don’t need a lot of bandwidth (just bounce off a server in the country you want to pretend to be in). From what I’ve seen in practice for things like audio books they use your postal address for credit card details to decide which country you reside in. But the bigger worry of ebooks for publishers is that DRM doesn’t work and if they don’t make it easier to buy them than it is to just torrent them for free, then people will do the latter.

BBB

With the new International Kindle and its wireless download (can anyone comment on how well that works?) yes Australian consumers can download ebooks. However the titles that are available HAVE to have clear instructions from the originating publisher that yes they do hold territorial rights for ebooks to the Aust market (and by extension, contractual arrangements with the author(s) allowing the dissemination of their IP in the digitised format). It is the legal responsibility of the originating publisher to ensure that the information they provide to Amazon is correct.

In fact, ebooks offer publishers the opportunity to once again have adequate control over territorial rights. As it is internet based, each user comes with a handy ISP which immediately identifies their geographic location. Which can then be matched to the stated territorial rights for the particular ebook they are requesting. For books now in the public domain, this does not apply. Which is why Amazon had that god-awful stuffup with Orwell’s 1984. A ‘publisher’ had merrily told Amazon they had held copyright for an ebook edition in the US market. They didn’t (Orwell’s copyright is fiercely defended by his son, Richard Blair) – though you can download it from Project Gutenberg Australia because in Australia, Orwell is in the public domain. An American ISP would prevent download of that.

This must be one of the most inefficient industry/cultural support schemes yet devised, particularly when the restrictions don’t even target books of cultural merit.

It means that local consumers are paying higher prices to support Dan Brown novels! Brilliant.

I reckon the 10% to authors is a bit lean. I’d be happy to pay a further 10% surcharge that was guaranteed to go to Oz authors on prices up to say $40 declining to 5% over $50 or something and reducing when sales are over 20,000 or something.

I’ve read a lot about this over the years and I can say with some authority that your various clear and patient explanations untainted by self indulgence, on a variety of blogs are the best by a long shot.

Better than PC, ACCC, assorted lobbyists, almost all Australian authors and most publishers, the AFR and the dailies. Even trumping parliamentary library reports. You should gather it all together on a web site. Bloody brilliant.

Thanks from all of us.

Amazon – who sell the vast majority of ebooks (still a tiny portion of the market), frequently cap their ebook prices at $9.99 – roughly the same price as a “mass market” paperback. The catch is it’s a new release that’s typically in hardcover, where – as you point out – authors get much more for royalties, often because of both net cost, and percentage.

Worse (from an author’s perspective), Amazon is using their market power to effectively erase import restrictions, so they sell US content (ebooks) on Kindles in the UK, Aus, etc. The real kicker is that they don’t cap the price in those countries. Who pockets the difference? You guessed it: Amazon.

The only reason we haven’t heard more of an outcry from authors about this is because ebooks – riddled with DRM, on shitty & expensive readers with poor distribution networks are currently an infinitesimal part of the market – most of the time they’re not even making the money spent on ‘digisiting’ the copy.

But if this changes, it will alter publishing and its networks in a truly unrivalled way. The mp3 conversion of the music industry will look very tame in comparison. Of course, this is assuming no real competitors to Amazon emerge (publishers themselves, eg), and Amazon doesn’t fall afoul of any anti-competition laws.

Not only is there a huge difference between a chain store such as A&R and an independent in terms of say discount off RRP (their margin); there is also large differences between independents.

Chain store on frontlist (new releases) might get 55% on titles. Usually about 50% I believe for backlist; the supermarket chains get a bit more(book retailers would sooner pluck out their eyes than tell anyone what discount they get apparently). Large independents are usually on 42-45% – particularly if they belong to a buying group such as Leading Edge where I think they get bigger discounts again on selected titles. Wee tiny stand alone independents might get anything from 20% to 35% off RRP – discount is determined by volume. More you buy, the more discount you get. Education publishing is however lower – often 25% – 33%.

Recommended retail price is that – a recommended price, but for the most part, most booksellers stick to it to ensure margins. I’ve been told that bookselling has the second lowest margin in retailing; only CDs and DVDs are lower. Unlike the US & UK, Aust booksellers do not pay for freight on books supplied by the majors.

Something else often forgotten is that any seller sets the price to that which the market will bear. Until the rise of online bookselling, it was tedious and expensive to buy from overseas. Given that Australians are the highest per capita consumers of books, the pricing structures were viable as far as the seller was concerned. Which is also why presumably the PC report’s methodology re prices as laid out in Appendix D compared bestsellers between the UK, US & Aust to determine price differentials – these are the premium goods in the marketplace in terms of demand.

Australian authors generally receive 10% royalties on books published in Australia, though with some publishers this will decrease as a book ages. Not quite sure what the standard is for ebooks – looks like the US rate is going to settle at 20% but here? Still a marginal area (and access to ebooks for consumers is pretty shambolic, particularly in retail settings).

In the US, there is usually variation between hardback and paperback royalty rates; hardbacks are usually 10% and slide upward if sales reach certain figures (usually best seller level). Paperbacks vary between 6-10%. However, I don’t know anyone publishing in the States as Aust authors receiving under 12%. I suspect this is because they were already established authors here and had greater bargaining power? And a damned good agent. Don’t under-estimate that.

With royalties, more and more publishers are shifting to a percentage of nett sales to the publisher, not a percentage of the retail price. Given the huge range in discounts retailers can receive from 20% to 55%, it pleases the accountants. Remainders, the Trojan horse of doom as far as authors were concerned re the PC report, do not pay royalties to authors. Anywhere. But some authors have anti-dumping clauses in their contracts – the remainders cannot be sold into markets where a viable edition is available.

Those tight-fisted neo-liberals here have shown yet again how indifferent they are to this country and its culture. Most probably hold it in such contempt that they would doubt we even have a culture – certainly not one anyone should care about.

Why don’t you all just buy your own island – call it Ayn Randia – where you can buy all the cheap stuff you want free from “market distortions”? Instead of a parliament you could have a $2 shop.

I find it hard to believe its all so mysterious that a good spreadsheet can’t be provided with some examples. Because I’m not even against a levy or some assistance to small bookshops if it helps Australian authors. But its hard to support anything that only relies on rhetoric and bluster and in some cases outright lies.

I’d accept that $4 per transaction might not be enough – but there must be some model that will work for small bookshops (I’m assuming they are a good thing)

It’s going to be a bad time for small bookshops. When supermarkets came in thousands of small grocery shops closed up. Then years later Health Food Shops opened up and thrived – a bit more niche but filling agap the big super markets couldn’t fill. Then butcher shops all over town when to the wall as people got their meat from supermarkets and butchers didn’t know how to respond. Now their butcher shops springing up everywhere and doing god business by doing what the supermarkets can’t do – add a bit of value with pre prepared cuts and helping people get good meat rather than just chewy bits of animal.

I’m disappointed that the PC didn’t get into International Transfer Pricing (at least in the main report) as I suspect thats where the real info and tax dodging and book cooking goes on.

In fact you are the only person that seems to know what they are talking about. You mention that Oz author sometimes (often?) get more royalties on an overseas edition (would that be higher % or higher $ figure)

booko looks interesting. I usually use http://www.bookshops.com.au which is good for local second-hand, though, if I can’t find a copy of what I want I generally end up buying from the depository or ABE as either is nearly always massively cheaper than buying from Australian bookshops, including the on-line ones. Just so as we’re clear on that.

Do you mean in relation to the iinet issue Bernice? Is there movement at the station w/r/t our copyright legislation?