Macquarie University study turns to publishers

Macquarie University researchers are surveying Australian trade and educational publishers for the second stage of their three-year research project into the impact of the changing publishing industry on authors, publishers and readers.

The survey, which runs from 13 November to 11 December, is open to current and former members the Australian Publishers Association (APA) and the Small Press Network (SPN). The APA and SPN provided input on the questions, which cover changes to the industry, market research, training, changes to products, workflow planning, promotion, copyright and piracy, relations with authors and barriers to innovation.

Academic Jan Zwar told Books+Publishing she has conducted interviews with CEOs, publishers, and sales and marketing directors from 18 trade and educational publishers, ‘including large and small, Australian-owned and multinational, commercial and experimental’. The interviews informed the design of the survey and are also the basis of a separate report, ‘Disruption and Innovation in the Australian Book Industry: Case Studies of Trade and Education Publishers’. Zwar said she hopes to publish the case studies by mid-January, while the survey results are expected in early to mid 2016.   

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in October 2015 Macquarie University released the key findings from its survey of over 1000 Australian authors of trade and educational titles, and in January 2016 it published a paper on the results of an online forum with 57 Australian authors.

The three-year project, ‘The Australian Book Industry: Authors, Publishers and Readers in a Time of Change’, headed by David Throsby from Macquarie’s Department of Economics and undertaken with academics Jan Zwar, Tom Longden and Paul Crosby, is funded by the Australian Research Council.

Category: Local news