The Australian book market is becoming increasingly dominated by overseas corporations. Of the traditional large publishing firms, only Angus and Robertson remains Australian owned. Jacaaranda, Cheshire, Lansdowne, Sun Books and Rigbys have all succumbed to foreign ownership. Many previously Australian owned distribution companies and library suppliers are now also foreign owned. This reflects a world-wide situation in which publishing is becoming centralised in fewer hands. The practice of the traditional publishing firm of investing for the future by assisting writers is being lost. It is now the small presses which, by necessity, are taking on this role. Of course, overseas publishing firms in Australia, such as Oxford University Press, Penguin Books and George Allen and Unwin, publish many worthwhile Australian books. But as a result of the stranglehold of overseas control many worthwhile Australian books do not even get into Australian shops, which is surely a ludicrous situation. Books that have received funding from the Literature Board sometimes even languish in the warehouses of firms with little or no promotion because of the inefficiency and lack of enthusiasm of these firms. How can Australians buy. or even know about, many valuable Australian books, when many of them reach only a small number of bookshops, let alone newsagencies?

The 1970s saw some attempt to solve the problems facing Australian publishers and writers with the emergence of organisations such as the Australian Independent Publishers Association, Book People of Australia, the Australian Small Magazine Association and the Poets Union. None of these organisations, except the Poets Union, survived the 1970s. This was mainly because they relied on the enthusiasm of hard-pressed individuals who had little, if any, institutional support and whose efforts often had to be channelled into attempts to prevent a further deterioration of the dissemination of books and magazines in Australia.

The latter half of the 1970s and the early 1980s saw savage attacks on support for literature in Australia. They included the recommendation in 1978 of the Industries Assistance Commission that Federal Government support for the Australian publishing industry be severely curtailed, the abolition of the book bounty for an edition of 500 copies (one now has to print 1,000 copies); the attempted imposition of a 2 ½ percent sales tax on books, the savage decline of support for literature from the Australia Council due to erosion of funding for that body and increases in postal rates which are the highest in the world for books. It now, lor example, costs $5.15 for the average Australian book to be sent surface mail from Sydney to Perth. The price for a book mailed anywhere in the United States is around 55 cents! For many people in the book trade it was enough of an effort to try to attempt to stop these attacks.

The problem concerning book distribution in Australia is that too many piecemeal solutions have been attempted. The problem has just not been thought through. This is especially true regarding the Australia Council. The Australia Council arose out of the need for the arts to be fostered and made available to the Australian public. Since its inception numerous innovations have been introduced by the Council. But the Council's work needs to be consolidated, especially regarding the provision of books and magazines to both the Australian and overseas market.

Australia can learn from both the Canadian and Scandinavian experience. The Canadian government has a policy of positive discrimination in favour of Canadian-owned publishers based on the previous year’s turnover, a scheme that underwrites the cost of a Canadian author’s promotion tour at the time of a release of a new book, provisional government projects which include educational project funding (to assist development of new educational books), subsidy to absorb interest rates on loans taken out by publishers, and a guaranteed financing arrangement whereby publishers can obtain funds on 75 per cent of their receivables and 75 per cent of current stock. In Norway the state buys 1,000 copies of every new Norwegian novel published, while 400 bookshops are obliged to keep all new literature in their stocks for three years. These are ideas which could be implemented in Australia. What needs to be done by the Australia Council, and book organisations such as the National Book Council of Australia and the Australian Society of Authors is a concerted attempt to try to find solutions to the problem of book distribution in Australia. The election of a Labor government which has made some promises regarding publishing may make this possible.

Prior to its election to office the Labor party committed itself to assist the local publishing industry. This assistance was to take the form of:

• the establishment of a scheme to provide development aid to Australian-owned and -operated publishers
• an increase in Literature Board funding to 1975/76 levels in real terms
• the continuation of the Public Lending Right Scheme and the introduction of indexation of PLR payments
• in consultation with the book industry, the investigation of the problems of book distribution, including problems of marketing and distribution to ascertain whether government action in this sphere would be appropriate and in particular whether AG PS bookshops could be used to assist small Australian publishers with distribution
• a review of the Industries Assistance Commission recommendations on the book bounty
• in the event of discontinuation of export market development grants, an investigation of other means of assisting export development, particularly for Australian-owned and operated publishing
• opposition to the imposition of any sales tax imposed on books
• a reconsideration of postal rates on books with a view to reintroducing a concessional ‘book rate’
• a review of the operation of the Copyright Act 1980.

The Labor government needs to be kept to this programme. Why shouldn’t government bookshops stock books and magazines funded by the Australia Council? Surely if government, or semi government instrumentalities, deem literature worth funding, they should also believe that they be made available to the Australian public in as many ways as possible. Why can’t the Australian government undertake a vigorous programme to distribute Australian books and magazines overseas? Initiatives which have been undertaken by the Australia Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs could be expanded. Why couldn’t for example, Australian magazines such as Meanjin, Arts and Australia, Art Network and Helix be purchased by Qantas for reading on its flights? Australian films have done much to bring Australia to the attention of an overseas market. Something similar could be done for Australian literature.

As well, legislation could be passed similar to that in Norway, making it necessary for all reasonably-sized Australian bookshops to stock a certain number of copies of all books supported by the Australia Council for two years. This would ensure that all Australians, wherever they live, will have a chance of obtaining copies of books funded by the Council,

Finally, a conference of little magazine editors was held in Adelaide prior to Writers’ Week in 1978. It would seem timely now to hold a similar conference involving not only magazine editors, but people involved in all aspects of the book trade in Australia. It would not be too difficult to co-ordinate a two to three day programme where people in different aspects of the book trade in Australia meet to devise policies to ensure Australian books fully reach both the Australian and overseas market.