International Rights Sales of Australian- Authored Books (PDF)

Success Story- International Rights Sales of Australian- Authored Books: Main Report October 2021 Paul Crosby, Jan Zwar, Airlie Lawson and Sunny Y. Shin  2 This report was commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Copyright Agency. Success Story - International Rights Sales of Australian-Authored Books: Main Report ISBN 978 1 741384819 Published by Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia Tel: +61 2 9850 9469 Email: [email protected] Further information is available in the case studies that accompany this report: Success Story - International Rights Sales of Australian-Authored Books: Case Studies. ISBN 978 1 741384826.  3 Contents Introduction and Objectives ................................................................................................... 5 What are rights sales of books? ............................................................................................. 7 Key terms relating to ‘rights’ .................................................................................... 8 Literature Review................................................................................................................... 9 International connections: Australian authors, publishers and readers since the colonial period ........................................................................................................................ 9 Australian authors’ historical success in the USA .................................................. 11 The rise of self-publishing ...................................................................................... 12 Structural changes to the Australian book industry in the twenty-first century ..... 13 Authors’ income...................................................................................................... 15 Economics of book publishing................................................................................ 16 Empirical data on rights sales of Australian-authored books ................................. 16 The role of literary awards and prizes in relation to rights sales ............................ 17 Policy interventions and the mechanics of the rights trade..................................... 18 Drawing on diverse scholarship in Australian publishing studies and literary studies 20 The predominance of women in rights sales roles .................................................. 22 Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 23 Choice of research method...................................................................................... 23 Population and sample ............................................................................................ 23 Survey design .......................................................................................................... 25 Questionnaire structure ........................................................................................... 26 Implementation ....................................................................................................... 26 Case studies ............................................................................................................. 27 Key findings ......................................................................................................................... 31 How are rights traded? ............................................................................................ 31 Who trades rights? .................................................................................................. 32 Why trade rights? .................................................................................................... 33 What proportion of Australian-authors books will ‘travel’ to overseas sales territories? ................................................................................................................................. 34 How are rights to Australian-authored books sold by agents and publishers? ....... 34 How are Australian-authored books sold directly by the author?........................... 38 Which types of Australian-authored books are likely to ‘travel’ (achieve rights sales) overseas? ................................................................................................................. 38 Analysis of Rights Deals 2008-2018: Principal results ....................................................... 41 Deals over time ....................................................................................................... 42 Deals over time by respondent type ........................................................................ 43 Deals over time by genre ........................................................................................ 45  4 Deals by genre and respondent type ....................................................................... 46 Deals by language ................................................................................................... 47 Deals by language and genre .................................................................................. 49 Deals by language and respondent type .................................................................. 50 Deals by territory over time .................................................................................... 51 Direct exports and co-editions ................................................................................ 55 Deals and authors .................................................................................................... 55 Size of advance ....................................................................................................... 56 Size of advance by respondent type ........................................................................ 57 Size of advance by genre ........................................................................................ 58 Size of advance by gender ...................................................................................... 59 Rights Sales Experiences Survey: Principal results ............................................................. 61 Staffing arrangements ............................................................................................. 61 Developing rights sales ........................................................................................... 62 Perceptions of success and future prospects ........................................................... 64 Strengthening capacity ............................................................................................ 66 Digital transformation ............................................................................................. 68 Placing the findings in context ............................................................................................. 71 How did Australia’s success in international rights sales develop? ....................... 71 Key advocates for Australian books overseas ........................................................ 75 Debate about strategies for overseas sales .............................................................. 76 Significance of awards ............................................................................................ 76 Diversity of books and authors ............................................................................... 77 Impact of COVID-19 on international rights sales of Australian-authored books . 79 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 81 Industry capacity building....................................................................................... 81 Funding organisations ............................................................................................. 82 Government............................................................................................................. 83 Benchmarking ......................................................................................................... 83 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. 84 References ............................................................................................................................ 85 Appendix .............................................................................................................................. 89  5 Introduction and Objectives Over many years Australian book publishers, literary agents and authors have reported rights sales success in major English language territories such as the USA, UK and Canada and translation markets including Germany, France, China and Taiwan to the industry’s Books+Publishing’s ‘Think Australian’ e-newsletter and to the Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program run by the Australia Council for the Arts. Anecdotally, the international success of Australian-authored books has been acknowledged and celebrated within the industry. Despite the important commercial and cultural contribution of these rights sales and other forms of export, there has been and remains a lack of unified research that examines the patterns of growth and nature of rights sales in a systematic way. Previous research by Macquarie University found that approximately 50 percent of Australian authors have sold the rights to their work via an agent or publisher for publication in a territory other than Australia (Throsby, Zwar, & Longden, 2015a, p. 2). In practice, the most common overseas market for Australian-authored books is New Zealand, because the Australia New Zealand (ANZ) territory is a standard market in the international book publishing industry, but the economic and cultural reach of Australian-authored books extends much further. This international reach includes well- known Australian authors who achieve international bestseller status (for example, a listing in the New York Times bestseller list) and win international awards and recognition through to thousands of perhaps lesser known authors whose international success is reached via trade and cultural exchanges resulting in rights sales and non- traditional channels to international markets. This project brings together Australian literary agents, publishers, authors, funding bodies and other key industry entities including professional associations to answer the following research questions: • Has there been an increase in the success of international rights sales of Australian-authored books during the time-frame of the study (2008-2018), and if so, what factors have contributed to successfully securing those deals in overseas markets? • What patterns in demand for different types of Australian books can be identified in overseas sales territories? • How have models of how rights sales are secured changed over time? • What has been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international rights sales successes and opportunities? • How can Australian literary agents, publishers, authors and funding organisations build on the current success of international rights sales to sustain international interest and increase international publication opportunities in the future? Although this research investigates a potentially under-recognised aspect of the increasing international success of the Australian book industry and its authors, it draws on previous studies which examine the success of Australian books overseas dating back from the colonial period.1 Contemporary industry reports from sources such as 1 See, for example, Webby (2009, pp. 34-51), Bode (2014) and Carter & Osborne (2018).  6 Books+Publishing and anecdotal discussion by rights sellers at Australian publishing houses and literary agents suggested that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic Australian books were experiencing significant success overseas, perhaps on a broader international scale than ever before given the digital transformation of the global book publishing industry and the subsequent ease in connecting with international markets. The first objective is to establish a systematic overview of contemporary developments. Further, it appears that unlike previous historical waves of overseas success of Australian books and authors, this time there is an additional underlying factor. The Australian book industry has developed a new scale and level of onshore capability to sell the rights to books by Australian authors overseas,2 and have those books find direct readerships in other territories in both English and other languages. Therefore, this project also considers the ways in which the Australian industry’s rights sales capabilities have developed over recent decades, although this preliminary work does not constitute a full scholarly examination. A final key objective of this research is to consider how the Australian book industry can build on its success in a sustained way and increase future opportunities for rights sellers—publishers and agents—to secure new markets and readerships for Australian authors. Like many other industries, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on the Australian and international publishing industry. Although Nielsen BookScan reported that Australian book sales were up 7.8 percent in 2020 (Books+Publishing, 2021), anecdotal evidence in written submissions to and public hearings by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts inquiry in 2020 suggested that established authors were most likely to benefit from these sales. Debut and emerging authors were more likely to be disadvantaged through the difficulties of publicising and marketing new titles during a pandemic. All authors were negatively impacted to some extent by the loss of income from speaking engagements and traditional avenues of promotion such as Australia’s many and celebrated writers’ festivals (Wood, 2020), as discussed further on. This study recommends ways that, as the industry recovers over the coming years, the publishing ecosystem of authors, agents and publishers can be well-placed to build on the international achievements outlined in this report and to pursue further opportunities for rights sales, co-editions and direct export, through strengthened and continued industry collaborations and appropriate policy settings. 2 Technically, rights are normally licensed but the phrase ‘selling rights’ is the industry shorthand and will be used in this report.  7 What are rights sales of books? While the success of individual Australian books and authors overseas is often reported and celebrated in the domestic news media, the ‘mechanics’ of rights sales are less well known outside the industry. In book publishing, the term ‘export’ refers to both the export of books in all formats (print, ebook and audiobook) and the licensing of rights to third-party international publishers. Direct export of books involves shipping physical copies from a printer or a publisher’s warehouse to other territories, alongside the sales of ebooks and audiobooks from websites including the global sites of Amazon, Book Depository and Apple, as well as local retailers such as Booktopia. Titles available on export are normally the Australian edition, so will have the original Australia cover, publisher’s logo and Australian spelling. While Australian titles can be sold via export in all territories, as most Australian books are published in English, the edition available for sale would likely be in English (this English language edition would be the one available to a German resident, for example). Another example of a licence is co-edition: a book that is designed for release in two or more territories by two or more publishers who collaborate so that the product will serve the needs of all markets. Heavily illustrated titles (such as picture books, cookbooks and reference titles) contain a large number of colour photographs or illustrations adding to printing and production costs. To achieve economy of scale, the originating Australian publisher will enter into agreements with third-party international publishers and coordinate the printing of physical copies. While the Australian publisher might have been considering a print run of 20,000 copies, the addition of another 50,000 copies for an American edition, 10,000 for a Polish, 15,000 for a British edition, can bring that print run to 95,000 copies allowing all publishers to achieve economy of scale. The third-party publishers are able to make changes to their specific print runs including to the logo, text (to translate it, for example) or cover. Authors normally receive a royalty payment as a share of net receipts in this model. The other conduit to reaching international markets—selling rights—is through a license to a third-party publisher. The Australian literary agent, publisher or author will license an international publisher the right to edit, market, translate (if the acquiring publisher is in a market other than English), print and sell copies of that original title (in agreed formats). The process of securing these rights sales and licenses consists of many parts, but more crucially, it requires the rights seller (whether that is the literary agent, publisher or author themselves) to pitch a particular title to acquiring editors in all markets throughout the world. Australian rights sellers might work direct in some markets, such as the United States, Canada and the UK, or work with a network of co- agents. Co-agents (also known as sub-agents) are literary agents that represent publishing houses or other literary agencies and work in a specific market on behalf of the rights holder; they may also have their own authors. An Australian publisher or literary agent is likely to have a network of up to 30 co-agents who represent them in territories such as Germany, Russia, China, Brazil, Lithuania. The Australian publisher or literary agent works in tandem with their co-agents. No matter how well the Australian publisher or literary agent knows a particular international market, the co- agent—being ‘on the ground’—is the one with the specialised knowledge of the trends in that market, and the specific acquisition editor to approach. An important aspect is, of course, language. A co-agent is able to pitch an Australian work in the relevant language.  8 All of these paths to international markets (licensing rights, co-editions and direct export) hinge entirely on licensing of intellectual property. Key terms relating to ‘rights’ Publishing, like the film, television and music industries, is a copyright industry. Unless they’ve assigned it elsewhere, copyright will rest the author. When an author enters into a publishing agreement, they will grant certain rights to the publisher. Along with commercial considerations—including advance and royalties—a publishing agreement will specify which rights are granted to that publisher. These include what format the publisher can publish in (for example, print, ebook, audiobook), the language of publication and the territories in which a work might be sold. Usually, this agreement will include a subsidiary rights clause which delineates those additional rights which the publisher may license to a third party. This might include serial rights (the right to publish an extract from a book in a magazine or newspaper), large print and audio rights, dramatisation or stage rights. It can also include English language rights (the rights to license rights to a third-party publisher, usually in North America or the United Kingdom in the English language) and translation rights (the right to license rights to a third-party publisher who will have the additional right to translate the text from English to the language of their market). These English language rights and translation rights are often collectively known as ‘international’ rights or ‘foreign’ rights. These international rights might be retained by the author or their agent who will then approach the international markets themselves. In this instance, the grant of territory to a local Australian publisher is limited to Australia and New Zealand, and dependencies.3 In a rights contract, it is important to look at both the language and territory. When English language rights are sold it is common for the distribution area to be limited. This may mean it is limited to one country—Canada, for example—or to multiple countries, as is the case when a British publisher is granted Commonwealth rights. In this case, these additional countries will be listed in what is known as ‘The Schedule’. For translation rights, the territory can be defined by country (a grant of rights to an Italian publisher for the Italian language in the territory of Italy, for example). Or, depending on the deal negotiated, that territory can be widened geographically while still restricted by language (for instance, a grant of rights to a Spanish publisher in the territories of Spain and Latin America; or the territories of Spain, and North America where Spanish is widely spoken. Or the territory could be expanded to ‘World’ for that language. If Italian and Spanish rights were granted with a territory of ‘World’, there is the potential for an Australian based reader to buy an edition of the Spanish language work from Sydney. 3 For a discussion about industry initiatives to improve the quality of template contracts between authors and agents, and authors and publishers, see the case study interview with Olivia Lanchester, CEO, Australian Society of Authors and Juliet Rogers.  9 Literature Review International connections: Australian authors, publishers and readers since the colonial period Since colonial times Australians have been keenly interested in reading books from overseas countries (initially the UK), and Australian writers have sought to have their work published overseas. Webby (2009) observes that: Books, along with much else, had been written in Australia from 1788, with officers of the marines Watkin Tench and David Collins competing to see who would be first to get his account of the early settlement to London for publication. While there remained demand in Britain for non-fictional and, later, fictional works about the Australian colonies, London publishers had little interest in collections of Australian poetry… One of the ironies of 19th century Australian literature was that the more obviously Australian a work was, the better chance it had of finding an overseas publisher. So most fiction and non-fiction was published overseas, most poetry and drama in Australia, at the author’s expense. …In order to become a bestselling novelist or successful dramatist, it was necessary to move to London, as a number of Australian-born authors did later in the century. (p. 45) Australian book history scholars have documented and debated key developments in the Australian book industry, including the early dominance of British book publishers in the Australian market which continued alongside Australian-owned pulp fiction (popular genre fiction) publishing in the period between 1945 to 1969 (Bode, 2014, pp. 62-70). Bode argues that in effect, popular mass market books or “pulp fiction” publishing,4 while extremely significant in terms of sales numbers, operated separately and in parallel to the more mainstream book publishing industry. pulp fiction publishers… actually dominated the local industry from the end of the Second World War until the 1970s, and… arguably provided the lion’s share of fiction available in Australia throughout these decades. …publishing trends suggest that more Australian readers continued to seek popular American (as well as Australian) genres, characters and themes. (2014, p. 102) In addition to the long history of genre fiction authorship and publishing in Australia, another key development in Australian publishing history was the growth in “middlebrow” publishing (that is, a much-disputed middle ground between literary publishing and genre fiction) and associated developments from the late 1950s which strengthened the Australian book industry and Australia’s literary culture. In the decade from the 1950s, local publishing of Australian books expanded, gradually at first, and then rapidly as local branches of British firms developed Australian lists. … By the mid-1970s Australian literature was defined through a set of relatively autonomous institutional sites in 4 Bode (2014, p. 64) notes that “From 1945-1969, most Australian novels were published by… pulp fiction publishers. As Toni Johnson-Woods notes, pulp fiction ‘correctly refers to all-fiction magazines…printed on wood-pulp paper. However, over time, the term “pulp” has become shorthand for cheap fiction’, especially mass-produced, formula-driven paperback novels.” The author goes on to give examples of westerns, war novels, crime fiction and romance as the predominant pulp fiction genres during this period (Bode, 2014, p. 65).  10 universities, publishing, criticism, bookselling and professional associations. The presence of contemporary [Australian non-pulp fiction] books expanded dramatically. (Carter, 2009, p. 360) Middlebrow publishing is both a serious area of scholarly inquiry and a potentially sensitive one because it involves judgments about taste, social status and literary qualities.5 Beth Driscoll (2014) examined the popularity of contemporary feminised models of middlebrow reading and mounts a defence of middlebrow reading preferences, for example she considers book clubs in the context of “over five centuries of degradation of women’s shared reading” (p. 81). Driscoll concludes that whereas middlebrow studies have focused on national reading cultures: While nationalism can still be a component of middlebrow institutions, there is a growing level of international engagement. The new literary middlebrow increasingly promotes a global cosmopolitanism. (p. 198) Another significant development in the Australian industry occurred during the 1970s and 1980s with the emergence of independent Australian publishing houses, and offices of multinational publishing houses further developing their local list. Perhaps unlike many authors of the 1950s and 1960s (such as Patrick White), Australian authors such as Peter Carey, David Malouf, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Tim Winton and many were published primarily by Australian publishers. This distinction plays a large role in how authors are paid their royalties (a ‘home’ royalty paid by Australian publishers on sales made in Australia and New Zealand; rather than an ‘export’ royalty paid by British publishers on sales made in Australia and New Zealand). There was new and renewed marketing support for these from their local publishers and sales success. The idea of an Australian-based culture of books and writing appealed successfully to policy makers (the Australia Council for the Arts was founded in 1967 and was an important source of literary funding during the 1970s and onwards), and to Australian book buyers and readers. These books by new Australian literary authors both succeeded commercially in the local market while members of the new ‘literary infrastructure’ identified by David Carter including academics and critics engaged with the authors’ writing and ideas. During this period, genre fiction remained popular too, although there was a steep decline in pulp publishing in the 1970s and 1980s compared to its previous peak popularity. Bode (2014) notes that American-style westerns, war novels and romances were published in large numbers and achieved strong sales in Australia. Pulp fiction publishing presents a notable counterpoint to descriptions of Australian reading habits that emphasise the desire for books depicting and celebrating Australia… many Australian readers chose American stories (or at least, given the cheapness of these titles, selected their reading material based on price rather than national sentiment). (p. 75) The growth in the number and sales of Australian-authored literary fiction in the 1970s and 80s eventually prompted a new debate in academic circles. Over time, the increasing presence of local offices of multinational publishers led to discussion about the publication prospects for literary fiction written by Australian authors living here. Mark Davis argued that given the commercial imperatives of multinational publishers in Australia, small independent presses would become increasingly responsible for literary 5 For a light-hearted discussion of the sensitivities, see Carter (2020) and the associated reader comments.  11 publishing. One consequence was that small publishers would have fewer resources to support authors financially and to invest in marketing and promotion for their books (Davis, 2008). However other scholars, including Bode, argued that: by the 1980s, multinational conglomerates already published 40 per cent of all non-pulp Australian novels. …The growth in local literary publishers in the 1960s and 1970s occurred despite the prevalence of local pulp fiction and continued as multinational publishers entered the Australian novel field. The ongoing growth in ‘independent Australian publishers’ in the 1990s and 2000s, including a substantial number of literary presses, suggests that the globalisation of publishing is occurring in the context of—and potentially motivating a parallel shift towards—local, regional and national identifications and communities. (2014, p. 103) Australian authors’ historical success in the USA In parallel with the development of the Australian book industry from the colonial era, many Australian authors aspired to have their work published overseas, particularly in the UK and the US. This usually involved achieving publication deals with overseas publishers without the systematic intervention or support of Australian publishers or literary agents. David Carter and Roger Osborne give a fascinating account of the success of Australian authors in the US from the 1840s to 1940s, including genre fiction bestselling authors and literary figures such as Patrick White. They demonstrated how, since the 1800s, Australian books have been successful in US markets: they have at times been on bestseller lists and reviewed in prestigious outlets. Carter and Osborne (2018) conclude that: Across the century or so covered by this book Australian novels were a consistent presence in the American marketplace even while their numbers in any particular year or publishing season were never large. Most of the novelists who would become defining, canonical figures in the articulation of an Australian literary tradition over the course of the twentieth century were published in the United States, their standing as serious authors and in certain cases as major contributors to English fiction acknowledged by American publishers, reviewers and critics… Many Australian authors also participated in and profited from the burgeoning markets on both sides of the Atlantic for light fiction or genre fiction, sometimes with careers as good-selling novelists over several decades, their books reviewed widely and favourably in the weekly book pages. Less predictably, our research has revealed a dense undergrowth of writers with more modest reputations or less obvious claims on Australian literature who were published and found different kinds of success in America. (p. 341) However, each wave of individual commercial or critical success did not provide a platform for future efforts to sell the works of Australian authors in the US. Rather, between each period of Australian success in the US awareness of Australian books and writing lapsed and the next Australian authors pursuing publication were in effect starting out with no base or support structure to build upon. Carter and Osborne (2018, p. 343) argue that the end of the Traditional Market Agreement in the late 1970s (under which the UK and US book publishers had divided international English language markets between them and Australia had been a colonial market for UK publishers) provided ‘the axis of direct negotiations between Australian authors, publishers and agents and the American book trade’ resulting in a short-lived ‘mini-boom’ in American  12 editions of Australian novels in the 1980s. Carter and Osborne’s study ends prior to the developments in the Australian industry outlined in this report. The rise of self-publishing Self-publishing dates back to the colonial era in Australia. The dominance of British book publishers in the Australian market from the 1860s to 1950s is well-known, however Australian authors also published novels in serial form in Australian newspapers and their weekly supplements and magazines (and to a lesser extent, in British newspapers). American newspapers and magazines were also important outlets for Australian authors during the 19th and 20th centuries (Carter and Osborne, 2018). Bode (2019, p. 10) argues that in the 19th century the nationality of Australian authors was promoted as an important feature to readers of Australian newspapers, suggesting that newspapers understood this was an important source of appeal. Interestingly, these stories were included as part of a diverse range of international range of popular and literary stories (including from the US, France, Germany, British Commonwealth countries, other European countries, Japan and Russia). For Australian authors, publication of serial fiction could often be a step to publication in print book form. a novel serialized in an Australian periodical between 1860 and 1889 had a three in ten chance of becoming a book, but only one in four chance again of that occurring via a local publisher. (Bode, 2012, p. 104) While British publishers were responsible for publishing the majority of Australian- authored novels, Bode (2012) finds that Australian-based companies that carried out book publication as a ‘sideline’ were active from the 1860s to the end of this century. these predominantly Melbourne- and Sydney based enterprises were also booksellers, printers, bookbinders, stationers, paper merchants, news agents, distributors, libraries, periodical publishers, and, in most cases, a combination of these. Rather than an activity in direct competition with major British companies, local book publishing was probably more akin to what today would call self-publication: that is, publication entirely or partly funded by the author. (pp. 106-107) In many cases it was accepted practice that the authors would contribute a payment for the print costs, and these books could be considered the earliest examples of self- publishing in Australia (Bode, 2012). British publishers dominated the Australian market for books even more strongly from the 1890s. Although self-publishing is not a new development in Australia or in the history of book publishing, the nature and extent of self-publishing was transformed with the development of digital technologies from the 1990s. Digital publishing enabled the cost-effective production of print books with high production values, and digital communications enable authors to find potential readerships for their work on an international scale. Bode (2014, p. 98) estimates that self-published and partially author- subsidised novels comprised “22 per cent in the 1990s and 25 per cent in the 2000s” of Australian novels published domestically and that these figures may be under- representative. Bode (2014, pp. 100-101) also suggests that these self-publishers operated largely separate from mainstream publishers and retail outlets (unlike in the colonial period).  13 This separation between traditional publishing and self-publishing changed with the entry of major technology platforms into the self-publishing business, led by Amazon6 which is both a major international English-language self-publishing platform and retailer of traditionally published print and ebooks. Driscoll et al. (2018) in a study of genre fiction find that: The category of self-publishing starts to gain traction between 2010-11 and 2015-16 (increases of 230% for crime, 290% for fantasy, and 1000% for romance), suggesting the degree to which digital technologies inspire expansion. (p. 209) A 2015 survey of Australian authors found that over a quarter of authors had self- published a print book or an ebook at some point, and nearly one-fifth had self- published a book in the previous year. Genre fiction authors were particularly active, with nearly one-third having self-published in the previous year (Throsby, Zwar, & Longden, 2015b). The survey did not ask about authors’ satisfaction with the outcome and there may have been a level of experimentation as part of this activity. However, the entry of platforms such as Amazon and Apple have enabled self-published authors to promote their work directly to readers in ways which have fundamentally transformed the market for books. In particular, Australian romance authors have found international readers through these platforms. A title available via Kindle Unlimited, for example, is available to all English speakers throughout the world. The status of Indie publishing varies, for example, it is now well-established in some popular fiction genres such as romance but less so in literary fiction publishing (arguably with the exception of poetry).7 Traditional publishers have acknowledged monitoring self-publishing platforms to identify authors and their works which gain momentum as potential acquisitions for their lists. New self-publishing or Indie publishing has also paved the way for other models. Sophie Masson, a successful traditionally published author, formed a small children’s publisher with colleagues as an experiment and has since published 25 books through Christmas Press. Masson (2019, pp. 68-69) examines the opportunities for crowdfunding as an option for small publishers and finds it should not be a primary business model but can be viable for specific book projects. Structural changes to the Australian book industry in the twenty-first century Digital transformation has potentially provided opportunities for Australian genre publishers of all sizes. Kim Wilkins, Beth Driscoll, Lisa Fletcher, and David Carter (authors of a major study on Australian contemporary genre fiction)8 argue that ‘Genre fiction plays a central role as a driver of change in the post-digital publishing industry’ and that change has been driven by “small, innovative Australian genre publishers as well as multinational publishers”. Accounts of a starkly divided industry are beginning to lose some of their explanatory power, as digital technologies increase the capacity and reach of medium, small and self publishers. Digital technology reduces the costs involved in both print and ebook 6 For an overview of developments see Matulionyte et al. (2017). 7 Many self-published authors use the term “Indie publishing” to refer to self-publishing and that is the definition of Indie publishing in this report. In studies of book publishers Indie publishing can refer to independent publishing, but the term is not used in that context here. 8 ‘Genre Worlds: Australian Popular Fiction in the 21st Century (2016-2019)’, funded by the Australian Research Council.  14 production and enables new infrastructure for distribution such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct. These are affordances that all sectors of publishing capitalise on, but which have been particularly transformative for small players. (Driscoll et al., 2018, p. 204) David Carter and Millicent Weber (2019) survey Australian fiction publishing from 2013 to 2017. They find that three multinational publishers—HarperCollins (including during this period romances published by Harlequin), Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan—are responsible for approximately 30% of fiction published in 2013-2017, followed by Allen and Unwin and then a number of smaller multinational and medium independent publishers followed by a “long tail” of small publishers. Carter and Weber (2019) observe similarities with fiction publishing in the UK and US but also key differences in Australia: multinationals dominate, but that there is one Australian independent in the top four, two in the top six, and five altogether in the top ten. This suggests firstly, that being medium sized is more sustainable in Australia’s medium-sized market than in the larger overseas markets, but also secondly, that what counts as medium-sized in Australia is comparatively small. (p. 350) Carter and Weber (2019) observe patterns of fiction publishing as follows: local independents are comparatively far more visible in literary and crime fiction publishing than in romance, thriller/adventure and fantasy. Medium-sized firms are substantially represented, but the multinationals dominate in both literary and genre fiction, With the exception of crime, where publishing patterns more closely resemble those of mainstream fiction despite the genre’s taste for seriality, the medium-sized publishers are much less engaged with genre fiction. For romance in particular, but also fantasy and science fiction, this is due in part to the typical pattern of larger print-runs and relatively rapid production of successive titles rather than the title-by-title strategies common elsewhere. However, the balance is beginning to shift with the multiplication of specialist and niche lists among small to medium-sized publishers. Again, the advantages of size are evident: large publishers can act small where it matters, for example in cultivating a literary list, and big where that matters, say in sustaining a romance list. Medium-sized publishers can play across the various sectors, maintaining a literary list while also investing in selected genres or a few genre titles, especially when these are closest to mainstream or literary fiction (as with Text’s crime list). A small publisher, by contrast, has little option but to keep it small, to specialise or invest in literary prestige. (pp. 351-352) Traditional book publishers of all sizes are dealing with constraints imposed by international digital platforms such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google and others. Recent scholarly analysis of the contemporary Australian publishing industry has focussed less on implied models of iterative growth and progression than on the radically different nature of the industry. Discussion has included the nature of post- digital publishing and the opportunities for Australian authors and publishers of a range of genres.9 Mark Davis (2020) has examined the “reorganisation of cultural industries around digital platform logics” by organisations including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, arguing that that the platforms “don’t somehow ‘replace’ the human, but intersect with human factors in a hybrid post-digital environment where digital and human practices intermingle”. Claire Squires (2017) interviewed UK 9 See, for example, Stinson (2016a), Davis (2017) and Weber & Dane (2020).  15 commissioning editors to investigate whether their decision-making processes had changed as a result of access to big data, and found that editors strongly emphasised the role of personal judgement and experience, albeit nuanced to the requirements and operations of their publishing company and marketing opportunities. Squires concluded with a call to: simultaneously recognise the faults inherent in human gatekeeping (including its repeated exclusion of particular demographics), but also reinsert a critical understanding of where data-driven, algorithmic culture might be taking publishing, and which aspects of traditional [commissioning] practice we might want to retain along the way. (p. 36) Authors’ income Another relevant area of scholarly work examines the income of Australian authors. A 2015 national survey of Australian authors found that the average income of Australian authors from their creative practice was $12,900 in the previous year. The majority of authors supplemented their income from other sources including other paid work, their partner’s income, and/or grants and prizes. Even when these additional income sources were taken into account, nearly two-thirds of trade authors earned less than the average income for this period despite authors having higher levels of formal education than the general population, and a broad willingness to engage in innovation and marketing outreach to increase the opportunities for their books to find readers. The survey also found that nearly one-fifth of authors earned over $101,000 (including all sources of income) with genre fiction and education authors the only ones to report earnings of over $200,000 from their creative practice alone (Throsby, Zwar, & Longden, 2015c). A recent investigation by Brigid Magner and Tracey O’Shaughnessy (2020) examined the earnings of midlist authors: that is the ‘middle of the list’. It does not mean that the writing is not as ‘good’ as a bestseller, only that it does not sell as well. It’s a space that is full of a wide range of different titles. Midlist titles are those that sit in the middle of the range of advances and sales on a publisher’s list. (pp. 10-11) Magner and O’Shaughnessy (2020) found that earnings for midlist authors in 2005- 2018 (a period roughly overlapping with the timeframe of this study) have decreased. The Australian book industry has not recovered from the collapse of the REDGroup Retail in 2011, with the retail discounting on recommended retail prices highly prevalent (leading to higher sales volumes but lower average selling prices). The authors also find that, “one of the most significant consequences of bestseller culture is the widening of the income gap between bestselling authors and others” (Magner & O’Shaughnessy, 2020, p. 21). Simone Murray (2019) observes that: industry-wide belt-tightening in the face of digital uncertainties has seen advances to authors (upfront payments offset against future income) substantially reduced for all except star, front-list performers … Such financial realities have contributed to a marked polarization of author-ship into authorial celebrities at one end who may be marketed as virtual brand-names, and the mass of other authors, formerly denoted ‘midlist’, who struggle to maintain publisher support and must fight among themselves for editorial and marketing attention. (pp. 48-49)