This book brings together the work of major scholars and practitioners of Australian publishing to examine an industry facing new pressures from developments in digital technology, changed consumer buying patterns and the apparent arrival of a global marketplace.
The authors seek to map the complicated terrain of contemporary publishing by combining elements of sociology, contemporary theory, textual analysis, and reception theory with a pragmatic understanding of industrial dynamics, including copyright restrictions, supply-chain inefficiencies and the manner in which publishing houses actually earn their profits.
While the authors demonstrate that “the book” is far from dead, as has often been claimed in mass-media reports on the industry, and express scepticism towards claims that digital delivery provides an easy salvation, they nonetheless highlight the need to think beyond the boundaries of the traditional model that has characterised the last hundred years of publishing.
Contributors
- Sophie Allan
- Kevin Brophy
- Tim Coronel
- Mark Davis
- Peter Donoughue
- Beth Driscoll
- Phillip Edmonds
- Amy Espeseth
- Caroline Hamilton
- Ivor Indyk
- Aaron Mannion
- Sybil Nolan
- Matthew Ricketson
- Emmett Stinson
Emmett Stinson is a Lecturer in Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne. He was a co-founder and former President of the Small Press Network. He was also a co-founder and Fiction Editor of Wet Ink: The Magazine of New Writing (2005-2012). His collection of short fiction, Known Unknowns (Affirm Press, 2010), was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award as part of the Queensland Literary Awards. With Richard Pennell and Pam Pryde, he co-authored Banning Islamic Books in Australia (Melbourne University Press, 2011).
