Crikey posted an interesting article last week on the subject of agency pricing for ebooks and the sudden increase in some ebook’s prices. The article makes some very good points but it also overlooks a couple of issues.

The first one that ‘An international agreement between publishers has driven massive increases in the price of ebooks for Australian readers’ is not exactly accurate. Yes agency agreements have seen the price readers pay for some ebooks go up but the price of the ebook has not necessarily increased. Under the agency model retailers must sell the ebook at the price set by the publisher. Under the traditional wholesale model the publisher sets a list price (suggested retail price) and retailers can discount off that. Whether an ebook is sold under agency or wholesale the list price stays the same. To say an agency agreement has driven prices up is incorrect, the agency agreement just means the ebook is sold at is originally set price and cannot be discounted by the retailer. But it can be discounted by the publisher. You will not see flat pricing under agency (not if the publisher has half a retail mind). There will be days, weeks or even months when the price will drop, quite considerably in some instances, before going back up again.

The agency model is not new. Everything Apple sells is under the agency model from apps to music from Macs to iPads. In fact many electrical goods and kitchen appliances are sold in Australia under a similar agency model. Yes Apple instigated the agency model for ebooks when they launched iBooks in 2010 but it was not ‘a deliberate attempt by Apple to destroy Amazon’s dominance of ebook sales’. They achieved that just by entering the ebook market as did Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google and every ebook retailer.

Apple does everything by agency. The reason the big major publishers jumped on board was because Amazon’s ebook pricing was destroying their business model. And yes there is a business model for book publishing both print and digital. There are costs that need to be recouped. Just because a book is in a digital format does not mean it cost 3 cents to make. An ebook does not exist in a separate world to the print book. They share the same costs of production as well as marketing.

Publishers’ sales of $US25 hardcovers were being eroded by Amazon selling the ebook a $US9.95 regardless of the price (retail and cost) that the publisher had set. The agency model allowed publishers to gain a 70/30 split (publisher/retailer) on ebook sales, much higher than the print book split which can be up to 45/55 for Discount Department Stores (usually 60/40 for bookshops). This meant an ebook at $US14.95 agency vs a $US25 hardback would be at a ‘price of indifference’ (indifference for the publisher NOT the retailer). Unfortunately there are some publishers who have not priced their ebooks at this ‘price of indifference’ and Crikey can rightly argue that they have ‘gouged the customer’ (both reader and retailer).

The real story is not one of ebook rip offs and global pricing inequality. The real story is that Amazon is actually predatory pricing (see ACCC definition). They are setting ‘prices at a sufficiently low level with the purpose of damaging or forcing a competitor to withdraw from the market’ and they are doing this with a proprietary ebook format and device. This has also made it next to impossible for new competitors to enter the market. If it wasn’t for the agency model there would be a lot less competition in the ebook market. Barnes & Noble would not have been able to claw back marketshare nor would Kobo have made the inroads it has made and I doubt there would be independent booksellers selling ebooks like you have in the US with Google or here via Booki.sh and ReadCloud.

While many consumers enjoy Amazon’s predatory pricing the end result is not good. Once competition is wiped out Amazon ‘can disregard market forces, raise prices and exploit consumers’ something that can be more easily done if you have already locked your customers in to a particular format and device. It is a complex issue and one that is far from over. But it is a lot more complicated than is being reported. What is at stake is a competitive market which ultimately is good for authors, publishers, retailers and most importantly readers.

Jon Page is president of the Australian Booksellers Association. This post first appeared on his Pages & Pages Bite the Book blog. 

Tags: agency model, Amazon, Apple, bookselling, ebook prices, ebooks Category Opinion |

In Melbourne, author Eleanor Catton and I appeared in a session called ‘New New Zealand Fiction’. If the session’s blurb in the program is anything to go by, the festival organisers envisioned us talking about our own work and its relationship to broader national themes. I don’t think they expected us to be grilled by the chair, expatriate Kiwi Sue Green, about why most New Zealand books ‘just aren’t any good’ (I did my best to disabuse her of this notion) and why Australians don’t read New Zealand writers and vice versa.

I left that session feeling as if I’d never got out of first gear. This isn’t to say there should not be discussions on either side of the Tasman about the lack of dialogue between our literatures, but that writers (however meagre their credentials) are best placed to come up with answers to broad questions when alone at their computers rather than on the fly and in front of an audience.

So what do I think about the trans-Tasman literary gulf now, secreted in my home office with several weeks to write this?

More can certainly be done to get us reading our neighbours. The internet is a woefully under-utilised tool in this regard. An Australasian version of the writing community Zoetrope.com would be a start (perhaps Peter Jackson could play the role of Francis Ford Coppola?). And  what about a trans-Tasman epublishing house that specialises in picking up all the zany manuscripts from MA and MFA students that over-cautious, overhead-burdened mainstream publishers shrink from taking on?

I also think the time has come to reconsider an overtly trans-Tasman literary journal, either in print or online, one with some real intellectual chops. Or perhaps expand the Best Australian series (Essays, Stories, Poems) to Best Australasian–though it may be easier to do a Dave Eggers and start a Best Australasians Non Required Reading.

Literature festivals can certainly play a bigger part, too. In Sydney this year, the only New Zealanders I noticed on the program were Bernard Beckett, the Goodbye Sarajevo sisters and me (and I was only there because if the Commonwealth Writers Prize). More New Zealand writers taking part in Australian festivals (preferably not cordoned off in a ‘New Zealand only’ section), and more Aussies coming here would be great. It’s great to see Kim Scott and Kate Grenville are coming to the Wellington Writers and Readers Week in March, but it’d be nice if you didn’t need to win a Miles Franklin to get an invitation. A few years of free events featuring new mid-list Australian authors (hopefully with some financial help from their Council for the Arts) should kick-start more trans-Tasman conversation and collaboration.

This article is excerpted from ‘The Festival Lowdown’ in the December/January issue of The New Zealand Author. Craig Cliff is the author of A Melting Man (Random House) and winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. He will be a guest of the Perth Writers Festival in February. For more from Cliff, visit his website or blog.

Category Fancy Goods, Opinion |

Alex Adsett writes:

After facing prolonged criticism over the first two drafts of its publishing contract, D Publishing have released a new version of their publishing agreement in time for the new year. While the latest version includes genuine improvement, providing additional explanations and addressing some of the concerns raised, it still has not remedied two of the biggest failings of the first.

Essentially, D Publishing still have the right to change the fee structure and (almost all of) the terms of the contract at any time, and the Author still has no recourse to terminate the contract.

Positives

To first look at the positives, D Publishing have amended the contract to properly reflect what they said were their intentions in the first place, and so the Author clearly now has the right to distribute their Work in channels not being exploited by D Publishing.

The Author has the option to nominate whether they want to (a) use D Publishing to publish in Core Distribution Channels only (ie. Dymocks stores, Dymocks online and Google ebooks), or (b) allow D Publishing to control Secondary Distribution Channels and subsidiary rights as well.

At present D Publishing have not nominated any Secondary Distribution Channels that they intend to exploit, but I understand this is intended to cover other e-retailers such as Amazon, or agreements with other Australian bookshops.  When they do commence selling in these areas, Authors that have chosen this aspect of the service may benefit from the superior clout of D Publishing, but are also restricted from exploiting this area themselves.  Although still subject to change completely at D Publishing’s discretion, the Rate Card currently sets out that D Publishing will retain 20% commission from exploitation of Secondary Distribution Channels.

D Publishing have also limited the Subsidiary rights they may hold to non-exclusive i) anthology & quotation, ii) extracts, and iii) condensations, with the license and fee split subject to the Author’s consent.  This is a big improvement from the previous position where D Publishing could claim exclusivity over all subsidiary rights and unilaterally decide their percentage of income.

In an important allowance, D Publishing must obtain the Author’s consent before adding any new channel to the Core or Nominated Secondary channels.

Negatives

Unfortunately, despite the improvements with clarity and transparency, the D Publishing contract still does not allow the Author to reasonably terminate the contract. In a small concession, the term of the contract is now ten years, with automatic ten year renewals if the Author fails to nominate otherwise.  Although D Publishing have the right to terminate the contract upon 30 days notice at their convenience, this right has not been extended to the Author.  

Read the rest of this page »

Tags: Alex Adsett, contracts, D Publishing Category Industry news |

Man of mystery.

Some say he is an exiled royal of the Russian Empire, living an anonymous life of wealth and good taste in the states of South East Australia.

Some say he is the real-life inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond—an international man of mystery with a penchant for classic cars and even more classic watches.

Some say he is a lover of the simple life, happiest with a good book in one hand, an (Irish) coffee in the other and a cat on his lap.

Some say he speaks twelve languages.

Some say he is the publicity-shy author behind such hits as the Twilight series and the Four Ingredients cook books.

Man of intrigue.

Some say he is the fiendish puppet master controlling Prince Philip and the international drug trade.

Some say he can tweet in his sleep.

Some say he suffers apoplectic fits at the misuse of the word decimate, sentences containing ‘myriad’ followed by ‘of’, the use of impact as a verb and the phrase ‘predominantly comprised of’.

Some say he once impacted a stakeholder meeting intended to incentivise participants to leverage synergies going forward.

Some say he wears the hell out of tweed.

Man of many hairstyles.

Some say his filing technique is as mysterious as he is.

Some say he was the moody guitarist for a rock band composed entirely of librarians.

Some say they were called The Leptons.

Some say he taste-tests gin and tonic for a living.

Man of means.

Some say he likes hats.

All we know is that he’s been an exceedingly excellent publisher, a quiz-answerer extraordinaire, stylish to a fault and we’ll miss him dreadfully.

That said, we doubt he’ll be going too far afield.

Bless you Tim Coronel, it’s been a lot of fun.

Category Fancy Goods |

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves (Macmillan) is Matthew Reilly’s fifth book in the Scarecrow series (including the spin-off novella Hell Island, produced for Books Alive in 2003). In the latest instalment, Reilly has ‘humanised an often superhero-like character’ while creating his ’most cruel and violent villains yet’, says reviewer Emily Smith. (See her review here.) She spoke to the author.

You’ve featured many different nations and organisations as the villains in your books. To what extent do current affairs and politics affect who you cast as the bad guys?
My books—especially the Scarecrow series—are set in the real world, so current events are very important. In fact, the reason it’s been eight years since the last Scarecrow novel is that I was waiting for the world to change. And around 2008-2009, it did!

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves reveals the characters’ personal lives more than in previous books: we learn more about Schofield’s family and Mother also opens up about married life. What made you decide to explore this?
I put Scarecrow through hell in Scarecrow, and I felt that readers would like to know how he dealt with the horrible things that happened in that book. That meant delving into his personal life, and that of his friend, Mother, as well. I am older now, too—I am 37 now, whereas I was 23 when I wrote Ice Station—and I think as I get older, I like to find out more about my characters. That said, while I wanted to explore Scarecrow’s and Mother’s characters, I wanted to do it in the middle of an absolute rampage of a story!

You set the first Schofield novel, Ice Station, in Antarctica. What made you choose to return to a frozen landscape?
I have always wanted to set a book in the Arctic. It is very different to the Antarctic, with its own dangers (polar bears, extreme cold) and unique features (the sea ice, the leads, old Soviet bases). I also like setting my books in faraway places as they allow readers to escape; they also allow me to escape when I write the books.

Your novels keep getting faster and faster. How do you juggle a fast-paced plot with character development and back story?
My theory is this: try to develop character during big action scenes! I wanted Thieves to be both fast and intense, to be relentless in its relentlessness. And I think I have succeeded in this aim. I want every new book that I write to be somehow better than the one that came before it—with this one, that would be in its intensity. But action and thrills are worthless if readers don’t care about the characters, so I needed to thread character moments and back story into the action. How do I do it? I’m not quite sure. If you’re going to have a character moment, why not have it on a runaway missile train!

What’s in store next for Shane Schofield?
I have an idea for a new Scarecrow story. I now have to decide whether to write a new book about him, or do another Jack West novel. This is the decision I must make.

What was the last book you read and loved?
I am loving Boomerang by Michael Lewis right now. I have loved all of his books, especially Moneyball. Lewis is a gifted nonfiction writer, who writes with clarity and humour about subjects like pro sports and the Global Financial Crisis (in Boomerang he goes to  countries like Iceland, Greece and Ireland to find out why they suffered as they did in the GFC). I read a lot of nonfiction, but Michael Lewis is the man. If I see a new book by him on the shelves, I will buy it without even reading the jacket. I just know it will be good.

Tags: Army of Thieves, Emily Smith, Macmillan, Matthew Reilly, Scarecrow, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Shane Schofield Category Interviews |

Andrew McGahan (credit Jason Froome)

In November, Miles Franklin Award-winning author Andrew McGahan will publish his first young-adult novel, The Coming of the Whirlpool, book one in his ‘Ship Kings’ series. Reviewer Heath Graham describes it as a ‘classic adventure tale’ which ‘captures the mystery and the romance of the sea’. He asked the author about his sailing background, his favourite adventure stories and the importance of having a map in the front of the book.

Why YA? Was it very different to writing your other novels?
I’ve always loved reading fantasy, and have often promised myself that I would try writing it one day, so it seemed perfectly natural, when I started dwelling on the ideas for ‘Ship Kings’, to give it a go. And no, the work involved is no different really from any of the other novels—a little more lighthearted in the invention, maybe, but no less demanding when it comes to getting it down.

As for YA, I didn’t particularly conceive the series as being that way, it was more that I saw it as belonging to the type of fantasy that’s mostly about the wonder and adventure and mood of its own strange world, and less about say the complexity of its politics or relationships. A classic style of fantasy, in other words, and one which, as it happens, can be pitched at YA readers—but which can be enjoyed by the young at heart too, no matter how old.

You capture the feeling of the ocean brilliantly. Are you a sailor yourself?
Alas, no, I’m strictly a landlubber, with little other than foolish and romantic notions about life at sea. But then maybe that’s the point—who knows, being an experienced sailor might even have proved more of a hindrance than a help when it came to imagining an ocean in fantasy. That said, I’ve read up plenty, and tried to keep the basic sailing details at least minimally authentic.

This is the first book in a series of four. How much detail have you already planned for the series?
For someone who normally launches off into a novel with almost no planning, the series ahead has been fairly well plotted. On the other hand, nothing ever turns out as expected when it comes to the actual writing, so while I’m sure book four will end up roughly as planned, there’ll be surprises in it too, even for me.

Was there much research involved in writing this book? How did you approach it?
I read up enthusiastically on the technical aspects of sailing, but at the same time I didn’t go overboard. The romance of sailing was always the more important thing, and for that I’ve been researching for years anyway—I have a particular hunger for sea tales, the more mythical and fantastic the better. Mind you, given the unusual properties of the ocean in the Ship Kings world (something which becomes more apparent in book two and onwards), I’ve been led into some odd nooks of research—the physical behaviour of non-Newtonian fluids, for one.

What were some of your favourite adventure stories growing up?
Tolkien, of course, anything he wrote. Stephen Donaldson’s ‘Thomas Covenant’ chronicles. Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ series. T H White’s Once and Future King. Monsarrat’s The Cruel Sea. Oodles of others too—but I have to give a special mention here to Poe’s classic short tale of horror, A Descent into the Maelstrom, which transfixed me so profoundly when I read it at about age 10, that even now, more than 30 years later, I’ve felt compelled to try (in vain) to match it with a giant whirlpool of my own.

How important to a fantastic adventure novel is having a map in the front of the book?
It’s all part of the fun. I loved consulting, for instance, the Tolkien or Donaldson maps while reading those books, and used to wistfully draw maps of my own fantasy realms as a kid—so it was a poignant moment indeed when I sat down to sketch the first proper map for the Ship Kings world, not long after I’d finished the first draft of book one. It was one of those dislocating instants when you become aware that your childhood self would be dancing about in utter joy if they could somehow fast-forward to it.

Tags: Allen & Unwin, Andrew McGahan, Ship Kings, The Coming of the Whirlpool Category Interviews |

Well, the stylish November issue is in the house. As well as the usual reviews and news, it’s got interviews with author and bookseller A S Patric, whose short story collection The Rattler is published by Spineless Wonders in November, Brian Falkner who has a new YA series kicking off in November with Recon Team Angel: Assault (Walker Books), Frank Moorhouse, whose ‘Edith Trilogy’ wraps up with Cold Light (Random House, November) and, of course, Ray Martin, whose new book Ray Martin’s Favourites (Victory, November) contains the stories behind some of his favourite interviews.

In the same issue, Eloise Keating looks at changes to sales repping and Andrea Hanke investigates the finer details of digital rights. We report on the Melbourne and Brisbane writers’ festivals, Reuben Crossman reflects on the international book design awards and Kate Cuthbert interviews two digital advocates working in romance publishing.

Tags: A S Patric, bookseller+publisher, Brian Falkner, Cold LIght, fiction, Frank Moorhouse, Random House, Ray Martin, Ray Martin's Favourites, REcon Team Angel: Assault, short stories, Spineless Wonders, The Rattler, YA Category Bookseller+Publisher Magazine, It's all about us |

The first episode of the eight-part mini-series adaptation of The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U) is due to air on ABC1 on Thursday, 6 October at 8.30pm. Each episode, like the book, focusses on the lives of eight different characters. The first is episode is about Hector, a handsome and financially secure man in his early 40s, married to the beautiful veterinarian Aisha, with two children and adoring Greek working-class parents, yet for the past year he’s been having an affair with 17-year-old Connie, part-time assistant to his wife.

The relationships can get complicated, so we thought we would post the family tree the ABC has provided to help you get your head around all the characters and their connections (see below).

The Slap has been an incredibly popular book, winning a slew of awards including the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the ALS Gold Medal and the Booksellers’ Choice Award. Bookseller Scott Whitmont reviewed the book for us back in September 2008 and said ‘it would not be inappropriate to describe it as a contemporary Australian masterpiece’. Here’s hoping the television series is a masterpiece of its own. You can read Whitmont’s full review here.

Of course, The Slap isn’t the only book by Tsiolkas to reach the screen. His debut novel Loaded (Vintage) was adapted to film as Head On in 1998, starring Alex Dimitriades as Ari. In The Slap, Dimitriades will play Harry. Fans of Tsiolkas should also look out for the movie adaptation of Dead Europe (Vintage), which is currently in production by See Saw Films. The film will be directed by Tony Krawitz, best known for his production Jewboy.

Keep up-to-date on twitter by following @theslaptv and tweeting the hashtag: #theslap.

Tags: ABC, Allen & Unwin, Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap Category Fancy Goods, Reviews |

Did we mention the October issue of the magazine hit our desks a couple of weeks ago? Here are the reviewers’ top picks from the reviews this time around:

Foal’s Bread (Gillian Mears, A&U, November)

‘ Mears is up there with Tim Winton and Kate Grenville,’ writes Fairfield Book’s Heather Dyer in her review of Foal’s Bread, Mear’s first novel in 16 years. The novel tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family, set in the horse-jumping circuit in rural NSW prior to WWII. ‘The relationships between the characters in Foal’s Bread are rich and varied, and Mears rarely takes the obvious route as she explores emotions of love, jealousy, frustration and disappointment … Foal’s Bread is a book to be read slowly and savoured.’

Forecast: Turbulence (Janette Turner Hospital, Fourth Estate, November)

‘Janette Turner Hospital’s anthology of stories gathers together a striking array of disturbed and disturbing characters—the forthright daughter of a cult leader, a young woman facing her father for the first time in years, the devastated parents of an abducted youth, and two young girls who bond though self-harm,’ writers reviewer Portia Lindsay. ‘Turner Hospital’s writing is both sharp and intimate. She doesn’t shy away from brutality, and in this—and the theme of individuals struggling among forces much larger than themselves—it contains similarities to Due Preparations for the Plague.’

Silence (Rodney Hall, Pier 9, November)

‘Silence should be approached with senses attuned to the sounds, images and emotions that are evoked so vividly by this master storyteller,’ writes reviewer Toni Whitmont of Rodney Hall’s short story collection. ‘The stories cover several continents and ages. They are told from the points of view of rulers and minions, victors and vanquished, and even, occasionally, animals (well, a dreaming bird) … I came to this book unprepared, and I was completely overwhelmed by the tapestry of its imagery and the echoes of its stillness.’

HipsterMattic: One Man’s Quest to become the Ultimate Hipster (Matt Granfield, A&U, November)

Dumped by his hipster girlfriend, Matt Granfield ‘decided to turn himself into The Ultimate Hipster … embarking on a series of sure-fire markers of Ultimate Hipness: getting a tattoo, starting a band, acquiring a fixed-gear bicycle, learning how to knit, selling organic cupcakes and scrabble jewellery at a market in a laneway, and so on,’ writes reviewer Hannah Francis. ‘While this sounds like a potentially annoying premise, Granfield writes with a light-hearted humour that is refreshing and at times laugh-out-loud funny.’

Tony Robinson’s History of Australia (Tony Robinson, Viking, November)

This book ‘is a companion book to the TV series Tony Robertson Explores Australia, which aired on the History Channel earlier this year,’ writes reviewer Jessica Broadbent. ‘As always, Robinson pokes just the right amount of fun. He unearths some interesting events from the history books, including some that may come as a surprise to many locals. For example, who knew there was a Founding Orgy? … He also covers more recent events such as the apology to the Stolen Generations, and takes a stroll with the award-winning author Anh Do.’

For more information on forthcoming books, sign up for the free Bookseller+Publisher Newsletter, published fortnightly.

Tags: Allen & Unwin, australian book reviews, Bookseller+Publisher Magazine, fiction, Foal's Bread, Forecast: Turbulence, Fourth Estate, Gilliam Mears, HipsterMattic, Janette Turner Hospital, Matt Granfield, nonfiction, reviews, Tony Robinson's History of Australia, Viking Category Bookseller+Publisher Magazine, It's all about us, Reviews |

The winners of the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) Book Design Awards 2011 have been announced.

The winners are:

Gerard Reid Award for Best Book sponsored by Nielsen Book Services
	Hill and Hole (Kyle Mewburn & Vasanti Unka , Penguin NZ) design by Vasanti Unka.
HarperCollins Award for Best Cover
	Lives of the Poets (John Newton, Victoria University Press) cover design by Greg Simpson.
Mary Egan Award for Best Typography
	Stunning Debut of the Repairing of a Life (Leigh Davis, Otago University Press) cover design by Christine Hansen.
Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book
	Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918–1964 (Chris Bourke, Auckland University Press) design by Spencer Levine (cover) & Katrina Duncan (interior).
Hachette New Zealand Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book
	The Great Wrong War: New Zealand Society in WWI (Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Random House NZ) design by Pieta Brenton.
Pearson Award for Best Educational Book
	School Journal Part 3 Number 3 2010 (Learning Media Te Pou Taki Kōrero) design by Jodi Wicksteed.
Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book
	Hill and Hole (Kyle Mewburn & Vasanti Unka, Penguin NZ) design by Vasanti Unka.

See the shortlisted books here.

Tags: Blue Smoke, Book Design Awards, Chris Bourke, Hill and Hole, John Newton, Kyle Mewburn, Leigh Davis, Lives of the Poets, PANZ, Publishers Association of New Zealand, School Journal Part 3 Number 3 2010, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Stunning Debut of the Repairing of a Life, The Great Wrong War, Vasanti Unka Category Awards |