Allen & Unwin's adventures in Indieland

Beautiful shortlist, so full of please
voted by the hot Indies,
For who such greatness, could resist?
Shortlist of the Indies, beautiful list.

The Shortlist for the 2013 Australian Independent Bookseller Awards has been announced, voted on by the independent booksellers of Australia.

And in the Children's category:

The Convent by Maureen McCarthy 

Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan 

Unforgotten by Tohby Riddle

Congratulations, Maureen, Margo and Tohby! 

And also to everyone else on the lovely shortlist.

How doth the little editor,

celebrate this news,

and roll around the office floor

or with her peers enthuse.

How humbly she seems to grin

how neatly spreads her pens

and welcomes all the shortlists in.

then quickly tells her friends.

(With apologies to Lewis Carroll.)

An Onion in London

What manner of sights do you suppose an Onion in London might choose to seek out? Bookshops, of course!

Herewith a photo essay of a selection of bookstores that can be found in the busy streets of London town:







Lovely stores all.

Daunt Books in Marylebone is particularly wonderful with its wooden shelves and staircase, its books categorised by country - and its welcoming warmth when the weather turned wet. Those of you who have been following the fortunes of the humble bookstore around the world may well be aware that James Daunt, the founder of Daunt Books, is taking the helm as managing director at Waterstones. Clearly we Onions are quite the fans of bookstores - and we wish him all the best in his endeavours.

And I was especially enamoured of Persephone Books, who reprint neglected classics by twentieth-century writers, with a focus on women writers. The titles are chosen to appeal to busy women.* And they are elegantly packaged with particular attention to endpapers that match the date and mood of the book. And their design aesthetic is beautifully showcased by the book displays in their gorgeous store.** Despite my bulging suitcase, I may have been tempted into a purchase. Reader, I dare you to walk into Persephone and not be tempted too.


* I wonder if we can find any of those around here?
** Thanks so much to Clare in the London Office for introducing me to the wonderful publishing venture that is Persephone.

Parallel Importation

We wrote and erased many paragraphs trying to come up with a short clear summary of this complex issue: what it is, what it isn't, and what it means to the Australian publishing industry.

And then we realised that the MOST ARTICULATE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY had already done it for us.

The Productivity Commission asked for submissions relating to 'a range of issues in regard to the parallel importation of books'. And boy did they receive them - 269 at last count.

Many A&U authors and illustrators have made clear, cogent, interesting and passionate submissions: Garth Nix, Penni Russon, Christobel Mattingley, Shaun Tan, Garry Disher, Wendy Orr, Libby Gleeson, Steven Herrick, Terry Denton, Barry Jonsberg, Elise Hurst, Nadia Wheatley, Ron Brooks and Anna Ciddor. Not to mention our own PAG.

Allen & Unwin's position is this:

'The certainty provided by the Copyright Act, coupled with the incentive to operate efficiently embedded in the 1991 parallel importation provisions, have led to a situation where benefits are derived for consumers, authors, booksellers, printers and publishers. As well as this Australia derives a cultural benefit from the publication of close to 14 000 Australian authored books every year - books that help Australians understand themselves and their country better.'

You can read our full submission here.

There are also submissions from lots of other publishers and authors, as well as booksellers, printers, librarians, designers, illustrators, typesetters and agents - around 95 per cent of which are against scrapping the copyright protection to allow parallel importation.

Tim Winton's submission is a fascinating history of publishing in Australia. Frank Moorhouse almost had us cheering by the last paragraph. Tom Keneally, Kate Grenville, Nick Earls, Tim Flannery, Sonya Hartnett, Peter Carey - pick your favourite author and see what they have to say on the subject.

A draft report will be released in March, and the Commission is to present its findings to the Australian Government in May 2009. Until then, an entire industry holds its breath.