Despite its rhetoric of innovation and experimentation, the indie-style imprint Strange Light is brought to us by a company that is already dominating the country’s literary space.
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Don’t be fooled by the ‘indie’ rhetoric surrounding the new imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, a multinational corporation. Only time will tell if it will do much for the diversification of Can-Lit.
Despite dire predictions, bookstores are doing well: they are curators of taste and community hubs. But their challenges are many – from the arrival of Amazon Down Under to a ‘post-truth’ climate that devalues knowledge.
What will an eBook be 20 years from now? What will a book be?
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Reports of the decline of the eBook are premature. The publishing industry is changing rapidly and data that appears robust tells us less than it once did.
They’re still often more expensive overseas than in Australia.
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The copyright wars are set to continue, with the government releasing a Productivity Commission report arguing for a relaxation of intellectual property laws.
If the government decides to remove regional trade protections on the book industry, it should compensate Australian authors. But given how unlikely new funding would be, the best option – for everyone – is to leave well enough alone.
Bookstagrammers captures the aesthetic beauty of book covers and jackets.
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The uniquely Australian literary voice is worth protecting, but parallel importation restrictions are not the way to do it. Rather, we should lift those restrictions – and subsidise Australian booksellers directly.
A new study examines the responses of Australian authors, publishers and readers to global changes in the contemporary publishing environment.
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A study into the responses of Australian authors, publishers and readers to global changes in the contemporary publishing environment suggests authors are being innovative, but financial rewards can be elusive.
Recently on The Conversation, I described a remarkable moment of language experimentation highlighted by recent Australian poetry prizes. Panning out to a wider view of contemporary Australian poetry…
Australia has not yet signed the Marrakesh Treaty and time is running out.
China's Nanjing Blind School. EPA/Jerry Lu
Nicolas Suzor, Queensland University of Technology and Suzannah Wood, Queensland University of Technology
An estimated 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired. Some 90% of those live in developing nations, where less than 1% of the world’s books are available in a form they can read. In developed…
The Tibetan Book of Proportions, produced in Nepal during the 18th century.
The Public Domain Review
Staring at a blank page is daunting. Where to make the first mark? As designers have known for centuries, one way is to start with a grid. A grid is a structure of lines used by designers to help organise…
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
kieri d l h
Do you remember how people used to walk about with ghetto blasters, so you could hardly escape the high-volume throb of some visceral drumbeat? Being alive now is like having your head permanently wedged…
Highbrow or trash? No one ever needs to know.
Annie Mole
E-readers have been a regular sight on public transport for years now but until recently, little has been known about the impact they are having on the publishing industry and readers alike. For the first…
Reading, in particular printed books, aids in the development of concentration and the ability to focus.
Flickr/Denise Krebs
There is an old saying that anxiety is the enemy of concentration. One of the best pieces of sports journalism I ever read was by Gene Tunney, world heavyweight champion of the 1920s, writing about how…
Our digital era has seen the emergence of many reading technologies but students still prefer the printed book.
Flickr/Declan Flemming
The cultural transformation brought about by digital convergence and networked communication has been dizzying, and, for many, disorienting. None of the old certainties – political, corporate, economic…