Some might say that the writing industry is dying. That nowadays people don’t care about books and are too busy with screens of every sorts. But as a French person living in Sydney, enjoying to spend most of my time in libraries digging for new discoveries, it occurs to me that the idea of a dying industry is completely wrong. People keep reading. People keep buying books.
Following that, it seems clear that the Australian writing industry, through its writers and publicists, should be an incredibly busy and effervescent one, with it’s own particularities. And it is. But the real question is; for how long?
In deed, in 2015 the Australian Government requested the Productivity Commission to investigate Australia’s intellectual property rules, including the regulation of the book industry. The Commission’s draft report released in 2016 recommended two major changes to the industry. The first one was to abolish parallel importation rules that ensure the Australian market isn’t flooded with overseas-published editions. Currently bookseller cannot import bulk copies of books published offshore if an Australian publisher has produced an Australian edition within fourteen days of the original publication overseas. The second one was to reduce the period of copyright protection for published works from the current seventy years after an author’s death (or publication, whichever is later) to a mere fifteen or twenty-five years.
It seems rather clear that the damages that could be done to the Australian book industry will be fatal. Fewer books will be published, with less diversity and higher prices. Moreover, on a cultural level, the effect of such a law will be dramatic. In deed, who will choose such a hazardous career as the one of writer if he knows that the fruit of his work won’t permit you to live properly, nor his children. Finally, such protections exist in the UK, USA, or in France. Wouldn’t it be unfair to expose the Australian market unarmed against the foreign industries? A market which is actually mainly built around its home writers will see itself flooded by American or English books.
That is why 24 of the most famous Australian authors, supported by the Australian book industry, decided to write a book, #SaveOzStories. Geraldine Brooks, Isobelle Carmody, Peter FitzSimons, Richard Flahagan, Jackie French, Anna Funder, are amongst the names of those who decided to protect what they love most, Australian literature. In that collection of short texts, they express their opposition to that draft. Some presenting their history and their love of writing in a more intimate way than others, they all denounce that decision. In deed, they present how it’s a lack of respect to their work, and how it will deprive Australia from a whole generation of new talents.
If like me, you consider that a book isn’t only a piece of paper, but a piece of soul, then you’ll realise that the risk is to loose the very soul of Australian culture. Reading is discovering, travelling, feeling, fearing, loving, being moved to tears, or to laughers. No one would like to loose it’s identity, something which is carried in their books by Australian authors, and that made me dream of Australia as a kid. No one could pictures it as good as you do.
This book is free, and you could find it in street book-shares, such as the one Oxford Street, or in some libraries. Australian culture is in danger, and that’s our job (yours more than mine for I’m just a French man in Sydney) to protect it, to keep the dreams going, to permit to some kids from the countryside of France to discover a book that will make him dream of a far away country where he’ll travel ten years later. But more than everything, to keep your identity, something without any price tag and which shouldn’t be regarded in term of “productivity”, but as a gift and a chance. If you think a world without the next Richard Flanagan, Andy Griffiths or Monica McInerney will be a poorer one, then read this collection of impassioned arguments from the most esteemed Australian wordsmiths, and sign the petition to express your support.
What: #SaveOzStories.
Who: 24 of Australia’s most famous authors and the Australian book industry.
Where: In street book-shares and libraries.
To find out more CLICK HERE.