Kevin Rudd’s inability to stand up to Australia’s lightweight publishing industry and a bunch of angry authors betrays his lack of policy backbone in supporting the free market, says Michael Stuchbury.
Publishing industry
Rudd ducks again: book import slug stays
So we retain parallel import restrictions on books. Those of us who don’t buy our books online will continue to pay too much, with the bulk of that extra cost going to overseas authors and publishers.
media death watch 
The Time Inc. carnage begins
Forced to cut $100m in expenditure, publisher Time has begun trimming the fat, announcing layoffs at Sports Illustrated and the closure of Fortune Small Business. And this is just round one: 280 layoffs are expected in total.
Book import change can only hurt consumers
What sets Australia’s book retail environment apart is its variety and the range of books on our shelves, but the latest turn of events in the saga of Australian territorial copyright for books is putting that reputation at risk, writes Steve Robinson.
The problem with crime ficiton: dead, brutalised women sell books
Author and book critic Jessica Mann is refusing to review any new crime fiction novels, as the genre becomes too violent and sadistically misogynistic. As one publisher allegedly told her: “Dead, brutalised women sell books, dead men don’t.”
Australia’s J.K. Rowling
39-year-old Armidale mother-of-four Rebecca James is setting the literary world alight with the manuscript for her debut young-adult novel Beautiful Malice sparking an international bidding war.
Arrr! Prepare ye landlubbers for book piracy
With the arrival of the Kindle around the world, the publishing industry is preparing for an onslaught of black-market e-books, as people share them illegally online. Will it be the mp3 wars all over again?
Cookbooks get heavier while their content gets lighter
Every year, cookbooks grow bigger, while the number of actual recipes inside them shrinks. Chefs: please cram the commentary, and make with the cooking, says Hilary Osborne.
The Kindle won’t kill libraries
Aussie Publishers may be worried the predicted surge in e-reader sales will damage the book industry, but news from the States shows libraries needn’t share their concerns, with “digital lending” booming in public libraries.
Book industry has to accept the Kindle: it may be a bumpy ride
Australian publishers may not like it, but e-books are not going away. And with the launch of the Kindle in Australia, the industry’s going to have to adapt.
Kindle not the book’s iPod moment
The release of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader in Australia has impatient early adopters crying “about time”. But don’t get too excited, says Matthia Dempsey: you may not actually be able to read anything on it.
The Beast gets bigger and bookier
Online news site The Daily Beast is bringing its “speedy and smart” news philosophy to the literary world, launching a book-publishing arm that will turn around timely and topical tomes in a fraction of the time it takes regular publishers.
Talking the Town: Talking the Town: bookmaker Bill Waterhouse’s autobiography launch
There was no more fabulous place to be in Sydney yesterday than at Tattersall’s Club for the launch of colourful bookmaker Bill Waterhouse’s autobiography, What are the Odds? The Bill Waterhouse Story.
Conde Nast tightens its (hand-made, designer, anaconda leather) belt
Publisher Conde Nast (GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair) is well known for its culture of extravagance and indulgence — but even Anna Wintour isn’t immune to the media downturn, and the time has come to cut some costs. Can Conde keep the class without chauffeurs and caviar?
On the edge: the newest book-selling trend
Coloured page-edging looks to be the latest gimmick for publishers desperate to catch our eye, writes Andrew Tijs, from blue to black to red (for Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series obviously).
Can Oprah and Dan Brown save the publishing industry?
The recession-racked US publishing industry is hoping sales of Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol and the return of Oprah’s Book Club will be enough to carry them through the pre-Christmas period.
Black Canons: Peter Craven writes back
Meanjin editor Sophie Cunningham took Peter Craven to task for his review of the latest Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature. Here Peter Craven replies.
Readership vs. circulation: the numbers that matter
It’s the perennial question for publishers and advertisers; which is more important: circulation — the number of copies of your publication being sent out into the wilderness — or readership — the number of people actually reading it? Audit Bureau chief Gordon Towell weighs in.
Private Dick hired to sleuth Kennedy memoir leak
Book publisher Hachette has hired a private detective to investigate how The New York Times got a hold of Ted Kennedy’s memoirs — apparently just by going down to the local bookstore — 11 days before it was supposed to hit shelves.
Fashion mags go on a diet
Feel like your favourite magazines have been a little light-on for content lately? The Wrap weighs the September editions of 10 big fashion magazine titles from this year and 2008, and finds almost all have been shedding pounds — sometimes by hundreds of pages.
If Sci-fi is a genre, then so is LiteratureA hornet’s nest in the garden at Lit Land
Simon Hughes defends Peter Craven’s controversial critique of The Macquarie Pen Anthology of Australian Literature.
Publisher: e-readers will kill books
CEO of French publishing group Hachette Livre, Arnaud Nourry, says digital books could kill off the market for print editions, with retailers selling electronic titles at a loss to keep prices so low, hardback books can’t compete.
How Google won the book war
Google now hosts a virtual library of millions of entire books, as well as blurbs and excerpts, angering publishers and authors (who aren’t getting royalties), and Microsoft and Amazon (who didn’t think of it first). How did they get away with it? Scan first, ask questions later.
Fashion in fiction: jacket-less books
This season, the trendiest books will be baring it all with new “in” thing in book design: forgoing the jacket and printing the art straight on to a hard-back cover. Less is more.
