‘It will be dire for readers': the disappearing voices of Australia's independent publishers
The world of Australian publishing got smaller last week – and the industry fears it is bad news for lovers of literary fiction, and for those who want to write it.
Fresh concerns for the health of the Australian novel have arisen after one of the world's behemoth publishers bought Text Publishing Company after more than three decades of independence.
Text's publisher would not disclose how much the acquisition by Penguin Random House was worth to its owners, Michael Heyward and his wife Penny Hueston, and Maureen and Tony Wheeler. But industry insiders were in almost unanimous agreement the sale was a sign of the rocky times book publishers are facing.
'Independent publishing is in a position where it is struggling to financially continue,' Sophie Cunningham, the chair of the Australian Society of Authors, warned.
'A whole lot of small businesses face going under or having no choice but to merge.'
Forced to compete in an ever-increasingly crowded entertainment and leisure market, the book sector is also facing soaring production costs due to inflation and a low supply of paper.
According to Nielsen BookScan, the Australian book market was down 3% in value and 1.2% in volume in 2024 compared to the year before.
Cookbooks, self-help books and novels by American authors now dominate the bestselling lists in Australia, and the only Australian author to make it into the top 10 in 2024 was Liane Moriarty.
Creators of Australian literary fiction – the intellectual high end of pleasure reading – have witnessed the merging of three independents into larger companies in almost as many months. The 'big five' – Penguin Random House, Hachette, Allen & Unwin, Harper Collins and Pan Macmillan – now own more than 70% of the Australian book publishing industry.
There are concerns about how this market concentration may affect the rich diversity of voices found within Australian literature.
'It's deeply concerning,' said Cunningham. 'The constriction of the industry has reached the point that it's become harder and harder for new Australian writers to get published or sell books.'
Independent publishing houses such as Text have long punched above their weight in Australian literary fiction, especially when it comes to collecting prestigious literary prizes such as the Miles Franklin and the Stella.
'The landscape is changing rapidly … effectively, what this announcement means for us is one less publisher we can submit to,' said Fiona Inglis, managing director of Sydney's Curtis Brown literary agency.
'Contraction of the market is never good for writers, and in the long run it will be dire for Australian readers,' said Melbourne agent Jacinta di Mase.
'Independent publishers have always been able to take risks and successfully publish books that the multi-national companies could not – or will not – publish.'
It is this risk-taking approach on the part of independent publishers, di Mase said, that has created an incredibly diverse, responsive, radical and innovative publishing ecosystem that reaches the broadest possible readership.
Announcing the acquisition last Wednesday, Heyward said Text had secured a charter of independence with Penguin Random House.
'While PRH is now the owner of the business, we will continue to do what we've always done … we will run our own show,' he told the Guardian.
But the literary agents the Guardian spoke to expressed some scepticism over how ironcast that charter might prove to be.
'I'm old enough to remember when McPhee Gribble was bought by Penguin,' said veteran agent Lyn Tranter, owner of Australian Literary Management.
Text's media release of Wednesday bore a disturbing resemblance to the one she recalled reading in 1983.
'It will remain the same, nothing will change, we will continue to publish their cutting-edge titles,' said Tranter. 'And five years later – zip. No more McPhee Gribble.'
Benython Oldfield, the Sydney-based director of Zeitgeist Agency, told the Guardian: 'For all the hope that [Text] will remain independent, they now have global overlords who will be asking daily questions about sales and sales projections.'
'That is a tough place to be after running your own show.'
But one of the people who forged Text publishing into existence in 1990 is far more optimistic.
Crikey publisher Eric Beecher dismissed concerns that Text would be beholden to offshore shareholders with little interest in developing and preserving diverse Australian literary voices.
'You have to be financially viable to survive, and whatever creative aspirations you have – or aspirations to be independent or to support the culture of the country in which you operate – if you can't make it financially viable, then you don't exist,' he said.
'It's an inevitable outcome but a good one, because it ensures the survival of the Text imprint.'
Almost as sanguine is publishing stalwart Richard Walsh, a former director of Text media and now a commissioning editor for Allen & Unwin.
'It's good for Michael [Heyward]. It's good for Text authors, but is it good for the ecosystem?
'Clearly it narrows the field, but then who's not to know that something new might arise somewhere else?
'Publishing is like a rainforest. Trees fall down, and when they do, they open up sunlight. New trees grow in the space the old tree occupied … it's a very natural process.'
Walsh's fecund rainforest analogy becomes a scorched earth scenario when speaking to Monash University academic Ben Eltham, one of the organisers of the Save Our Arts campaign, formed earlier this month to pressure policy changes to protect Australian arts and culture in the lead-up to the federal election.
Two of the three takeovers the Australian publishing sector has witnessed in recent months – the other being Simon & Schuster's acquisition of Melbourne independent publisher Affirm, reflect a trend already evident in the Australian music industry, he said.
With multinational takeovers and mergers over the past decades, Australia's six major record labels have condensed into three. The result? The appearance of an Australian act on the Australian top 40 charts is an exception rather than a rule.
'Publishing isn't a great money maker – like a lot of other cultural businesses, they're not that great surviving in the ruthless private sector,' Eltham said.
'[Publishing] belongs under a nonprofit model with some appropriate government support. A little bit of grant funding here and there is just not going to cut it, the government needs to intervene in the cultural economy in a meaningful way.'
Eltham accuses dominant booksellers such as Amazon and Big W of predatory pricing, driving the wholesale price of books down to the point where publishers and writers barely break even on most titles, necessitating the mergers and acquisitions the sector is now witnessing.
A spokesperson from Amazon said its focus was 'on offering customers competitive prices, vast selection, fast delivery, and the most convenient shopping experience possible'.
A Big W spokesperson said the company was making books affordable and accessible to as many Australian families as possible.
'The families that shop with us have come to trust us for having everything from new releases to classics all year round,' the statement said.
'We work closely with our publishing partners to ensure our range delivers the variety and value our customers have come to expect.'
In Europe, many countries have fixed pricing laws that prevent dominant players from discounting first editions of any book published.
In anti-price fixing Australia, where even cultural product is not immune to anticompetitive regulation, there are no such protections.
Cunningham agrees.
'The absolute globalisation of this industry, the squeezing of all costs out of it, it becomes almost impossible for people to make money – writers, publishers, editors. These companies put downward pressure on the entire market.
'I don't think this is something the Australian government is interested in fixing. I suppose you would call it protectionism which has become a dirty word here. But the implications are that we will lose Australian culture in the process.'
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