Nielsen offers one-off sales reports for ASA members seeking JobKeeper as book market experiences ‘sharp decline’

Nielsen Book will provide free one-off sales reports for Australian Society of Authors (ASA) members seeking evidence of reduced revenue in order to apply for JobKeeper payments.

The arrangement is a response to the difficulties some authors are experiencing in showing a 30% reduction in turnover, as required by JobKeeper, because of the timing of royalty payments.

The ASA said in a statement to members, ‘We are anticipating that your next royalty payment will be impacted by disruption to supply channels and bookshop closures, but this data will arrive too late to support an application for JobKeeper, given that the scheme expires on 27 September 2020 (at this stage).’

The statement said Nielsen had ‘generously agreed’ to provide ‘where applicable, a year to date comparison 2019 vs 2020, with a closer look at the weeks following Covid-19 lockdown, where needed’. However, the organisation added that it could not guarantee ‘that the ATO will accept sales data as a basis for granting JobKeeper payments’.

‘We have made this suggestion to Government but are waiting to hear back; this will be at the discretion of the ATO.’

In the same statement the ASA said the Australian book market had recorded a decline, year to date. ‘The one exception to the decline was the week ending 28th March 2020, when Australian shoppers rushed to stock up ahead of the Australian Government’s further restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first time in nine weeks that the market had recorded growth. The weeks since have been in sharp decline.’

Therefore the ASA suggested members not ‘rush to obtain sales data, but allow another week or so to pass in order to gain the most realistic impression of sales during this restrictive time’.

Category: Local news